Inaugural Workshop
Nantes, 20-22 February 2018
The Inaugural Workshop of the Focus Area "The Social Life of Commercial Trust: Comparative Historical Perspectives from Asia, Africa and Europe, 1600-1950", will take place at the Nantes Institute for Advanced Study.The conveners are Prof. Lakshmi Subramanian (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences) and Prof. Yannick Lemarchand (University of Nantes).
STATUS REPORT ON THE WORKSHOP
The first and inaugural IEARN workshop (February 2018) on The Social Life of commercial trust: Comparative historical perspectives from Asia, Aria and Europe, 1600-1950 set a useful platform to probe new questions and approaches for understanding the salience and workings of trust as a conceptual device and as a practice in commercial transactions in the early modern and modern period. The importance of connected history approaches that emphasize the dense web of linkages between large areas of the world, the role of law stressed by the key note speaker Maria Fusaro was balanced by the relevance of regional approaches to economic experiences. The range of presentations on merchant networks, legal regimes across Asia, Africa and Europe helped revisit the larger question of capitalism in the singular, on the nature of sources and archives and on shared methodologies for studying trans-national business entities through the conceptual lens of trust and reciprocity. The group agreed that the next workshop could take the questions further and add to the existing palette, concerns about law and custom especially in the context of trust breakdown and deficit, focusing on actual concepts and technologies of trust like accounting for example.
It is with this intention that the second of the IEARN workshops is being planned around the theme Technologies of trust: Law, Custom and Procedure in historical and comparative perspective. (see)
ACADEMIC PROGRAMME
Tuesday, 20 February 2018
Simone Weil Amphitheatre, ground floor
18.00-20.00 Welcome Address
> Matthieu FORLODOU, General Scientific Assistant at the IAS-Nantes
Presentation of the IEARN Network
> Lakshmi SUBRAMANIAN, Convener and Associate Fellow of the IAS-Nantes
Introducing the speaker
Public Lecture
> Maria FUSARO, Professor in Early Modern Social and Economy History, University of Exeter, UK
Global History and Maritime History: the Entanglement of Legal and Economic Perspectives
20.30-22.30 Dinner
Wednesday, 21 February 2018
9.00-9.15 Welcome address
> Samuel JUBE, Director of the IAS-Nantes
> Yannick LEMARCHAND
Few Words About Nantes
> Lakshmi SUBRAMANIAN
9.15-10.30 Academic Session I: Merchant Economies and Communities
Chair: Yannick LEMARCHAND
> Pierre GERVAIS
Is it Useful to Conceptualize the Age of Commerce in Europe as a Particular Political Economy?
A Few Starting Points for Further Inquiry
> CISSE Chikouna
Trust in the Jula diaspora in West Africa (17th-20th Centuries)
> Santanu SENGUPTA
Tools of Negotiation: Trust and Reciprocity in the Armenian Mercantile Network
10.30-10.45 Tea/Coffee Break
11.00-12.00 Academic Session II: Empires, Merchant Networks and Legal Regimes
Chair: Scott LEVI
> Farhat HASAN
The Merchant Firms and the Legal Order in Early Modern South Asia:
State, Corporate Groups and Legal Pluralism in Mughal Empire
> Mitch FRAAS
The Importance of Form: Global Record-Keeping in the Early Modern World
12.00-14.00 Lunch
14.00-15.15 Academic Session III: Technologies of Trust in Comparative Perspective
Chair: Maria FUSARO
> Arnaud BARTOLOMEI
The Foundations of Trust Relations among Merchants (France-Europe, 18th-19th Centuries):
The Benefits of a Quantitative Analysis of Private Correspondence
> Cheryl MCWATTERS
Le Journal de Jean-Baptiste Lemasne (1724-1725):
Navigating Cultural and Trading Norms
> Scott LEVI
Indian Merchants in 17th-Century Russia: What Happens When Trust Fails
19.30-22.30 Dinner
Thursday, 22 February 2018
10.00-11.00 Academic Session IV: Managing Financial Risks: Trust as Practice in India and Europe
Chair: Farhat HASAN
> Maria FUSARO
Merchants’ Reputation and Risk Management: An Alternative View on Maritime Trade
> Nadia MATRINGE
Ratio pecuniam parit. Accounting and the Making of Financial Markets in the Early Modern Age
11.00-11.30 Tea/Coffee Break
11.30-12.30 Academic Session V: Credit, Law and Informality in Colonial and Post-Colonial India
Chair: Cheryl MCWATTERS
> Lakshmi SUBRAMANIAN
Languages of Trust: Discourse, Institutions and Practice in India 1750-1850
> Marina MARTIN (indisposed)
Hundi in the Dock:
The South Asian Indigenous Financial System Hundi/Hawala and the Law since the 1850s
> Raman MAHADEVAN
An Appraisal of a Non-European Business Model:
The Case of the South India-Based Chettiars’ Overseas Credit and Trading Network
12.30-14.00 Lunch
14.00-16.00 Rounding-up Session
Chair: Maria FUSARO and Pierre GERVAIS
> Yannick LEMARCHAND
Comments and Questions
Open Discussion
PARTICIPANTS
BARTOLOMEI ARNAUD, Associate Professor, University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis (France)
CISSÉ CHIKOUNA, Associate Professor, University of Cocody-Abidjan (Côte d’Ivoire)
FRAAS MITCH, Curator, University of Pennsylvania, Kislak Center for Special collections (USA)
FUSARO MARIA, Professor in Early Modern Social and Economy History, University of Exeter (UK)
GERVAIS PIERRE, Professor, University Sorbonne-Nouvelle Paris 3 (France)
HASAN FARHAT, Professor of History, University of Delhi (India)
LEMARCHAND YANNICK, Professor Emeritus, University of Nantes (France)
LEVI SCOTT, Associate Professor, Ohio State University (USA)
MAHADEVAN RAMAN, Independent Researcher, Chennai and Bangalore (India)
MARTIN MARINA, Research Fellow, University of Frankfurt (Germany) (indisposed)
MATRINGE NADIA, Associate Researcher, LSE (UK) - ENS Paris (France)
MCWATTERS CHERYL, Professor, University of Ottawa (Canada)
SENGUPTA SANTANU, Assistant Professor, doctoral student, Calcutta University and CSSSC (India)
SUBRAMANIAN LAKSHMI, Professor, CSSSC, Calcutta (India)