This collection of essays sheds new light on many aspects of Asia's integration with the international economy. H.I.H. Crown Prince Naruhito discusses the problems of controlling water in the interest of urban development. He first examines the problems encountered on the River Thames in relationship to the growth of London in the eighteenth century, and then relates his findings to Japan where similar problems arose with respect to the expansion of Edo (Tokyo). Other chapters looking at the eighteenth century examine the development of plant collecting in Asia and the wider world in the interest of the economy and leisure, Japan's connections with the outside world by way of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), and the Dutch acquisition of the knowledge of the Japanese language at their base at Dejima Island, Nagasaki. India features next with a chapter showing how India was crucial in initiating the industrial revolution in Britain, by stimulating British manufacturers to copy the fine textiles made by hand loom weavers there. This is followed by a chapter showing how in the late nineteenth century India was the central pivot in the entire international economic system, based on its trading surplus with China. Other discussions trace the role of Scotland as a centre of heavy industry and shipbuilding, with Scottish companies dominating the shipping lanes of Asia. A further chapter shows how British connections with Asia, in this case Shanghai, brought problems of debt and non payment, and outlines the steps taken to try to control the situation. Elsewhere problems arose in Bangkok over the quality of rice being supplied to European merchants in the 1920s, leading to a decline in sales. Finally there is a discussion of Japanese commercial policy towards Africa in the inter-war period. This book will be of interest and use to students, researchers, and general readers interested in Asia's role in world economic development.
The Christian churches have frequently pioneered educational advances - from the seventh century down to the nineteenth. Schools, universities and colleges of education stand as tangible evidence of these efforts. Do all these ventures belong merely to educational history - relics of the days when Christianity was influential enough to play a leading part in education? Or has Christianity still a distinctive contribution to make to educational thought and practice? The educationalists who contributed to the Hibbert Lectures of 1965 are convinced that it has. They examine the nature of this contribution and show how it is to be made a time when education seems to be mainly influenced by secular rather than religious assumptions and aims. The six lectures fall into two main parts. Christianity in the schools is the theme of the first three; Christianity in higher education that of the last three.
