GDRI EurasiaTrajeco

This International Research Network in Comparative Economic History aims to undertake the first large-scale investigation on a set of economic institutions that have been crucial to the achievement of economic development in Asia, Europe and the Middle East: business partnerships, share-holding companies, maritime insurance, the bill of exchange, sophisticated accounting methods, among others. The main purpose is to conduct a systematic comparison of the trajectory of peculiar economic institutions and business practices in three different environments. It will draw on the analysis of an unpublished set of private documents, local gazettes, stone inscriptions, prescriptive narratives and legal archives relating to economic development and merchants’ memoirs and genealogies over a period from the 16^th century to the 20^th.

This project was approved by the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France, for four years starting from 2013 and will be directed by Professor François Gipouloux.

This research programme will mobilise disciplines often kept distinct (history, economy, business history, anthropology, legal studies, historical geography and religious studies) and introduce a comparative dimension. Ten institutions are involved in this project. For the duration of the programme (2013 to 2016), an annual international conference will be held. The first was held in Paris in November 2013, in which more than 30 scholars from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, France, Israel, the Netherlands and Britain participated.

GDRI project blog

http://gdri.hypotheses.org

Administrative Organisation

China-Korea-Japan Research Unit (CNRS, EHESS)

Coordinator

François Gipouloux (CNRS)

Scientific secretary

Chi-Han Ai (EHESS)

Sponsors

• Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS)
• Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme (FMSH)
• Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS)
• Hautes Etudes Sorbonne Arts et Métiers (PRES heSam)