Preliminary Programme

According to fiscal sources, in early eighteenth-century Madrid, each social class highlights a particular pattern of consumption. Even within the upper class, some purchasing differences can be noted according to income levels. Although many products were of national origin, Madrid due to its colonial history had close ties with America and Asia and therefore, taste were shape by these connections. Therefore, Madrid exhibits the dynamics of consumption of an imperial capital served by products from every corner of the world. In this sense many of those overseas products played a central role as social markers, especially in urban populations were changes in material practice and cultural dynamics seems to have follow a fast path. In this paper we are going to map the purchase of the heterogeneous upper class, from utilitarian items for domestic use to clothing and leisure. (Show less)

At the beginning of the 19th century Russia teetered on the brick of economic disaster, so Mikhail Speranskii was put in to introduce economic reforms. A key point in his program was to levy new taxes upon all Russian estates, including nobility. In February, 11, 1812 the temporary progressive income tax for landowners was imposed as far as payment of state debts should be a responsibility of every Russian social group. Surprisingly, only some historians mentioned this episode of Russian fiscal history; those, who did, argued that nobles did not pay just because they were nobles (Petrov, Shatsillo, Marnei). Archival data show that Russian aristocrats were ready to pay a new tax, so the question is why.
The research is based on a set of new sources, gentry’ tax returns, which are introduced for the first time. According to the law, every nobleman or his steward should send to Noble Deputy Assembly a report of his/her real income (deistvitelnyi dokhod). Real income is the consolidated income which a landowner got from all kinds of his economic activity excluding the paid interests on state and private debts. Despite the fact that it was a voluntary tax, there was a sanction to those who did not send such a report, they must pay a double tax. So now we have the following research strategies. First of all, tax returns of Russian nobles show what their revenues were, and crosschecking with other financial documents will indicate whether nobles and their stewards underreport incomes. Secondly, as far as aristocrats could reduce the taxable base by the amount of interest paid on loans, we compare the size of their debts in tax returns with other available financial documents to establish whether they overstated their debt obligations in order to pay less taxes. Now we have about 2 500 statements of nobles from Moscow and Smolensk provinces. And data show nobles didn’t try to circumvent a new tax system.
At this very preliminary stage we suggest some plausible explanations of aristocrats’ readiness to pay taxes. The first one is that nobles considered the fiscal demands of Russian state equal to their possibilities and fair, especially in front of Napoleonic invasion. The second one is that it was an absolutely new practice for them so they hadn’t learnt yet how to cheat. (Show less)

Social, political and economic reforms since the late 19th century had strong impact on the shift in social status, pattern of wealth accumulation, and consequently led certain changes on which social group took initiative on luxurious life-style in modern Japan. And these shifts and changes partly demonstrated on the shift in ownership of the fine art collection, that is, from the former social elite such as feudal lords or court aristocracy, to the newly emerged business and mercantile elite. With vast amount of wealth, they undoubtedly played the major role for purchasing and reshaping the fine art market during this period that Japanese art dealers named as ‘The age of Great Auction’.
This paper aims to present details of these changes from remained data on documents of selling fine arts through the auction conducted by the art dealers. From data on fine art auction during the late 19th and the early 20th century in Japan, it would be appeared that whether or not the flow of fine art collection from old to new social elite was apparent. In addition, patterns, characteristics, and cultural preference on fine arts will be examined from what sort of art object preferred within the auction market in modern Japan. (Show less)