Symposium, "Returns from the Americas (1750-1850)."
52 International Congress of Americanists Seville, 17-21 July 2006
This Symposium intends to be an open and plural academic forum for scholars of diverse fields to engage in the fruitful interchange of ideas. In this meeting, we will discuss the multiple ways that returns from the Americas have affected European society and economy from the second half of the eighteenth century until World War I. In the last section of this announcement, "Questions for Debate: First Round of Ideas," we have included a series of questions to serve as central themes for discussion around which the symposium will be organized, but the evaluating committee will consider any proposal it deems relevant even if it does not specifically address one of the initially indicated questions.
The Symposium is the second of its kind. It follows up on a previous meeting, Returns from the Americas in the Nineteenth Century: Men, Money, Culture, and Politics, which took place in Barcelona on 18 June 2004, sponsored by the Jaume Vicens Vives Historical Institute of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the Department of History and Economic Institutions at the Universitat de Barcelona. This second meeting differs from the first in so far as this symposium goes beyond the Spanish context to address Europe as a whole. To this end, we encourage participants to emphasize the comparative value of their work.
We are convinced that an important number of scholars, from diverse historiographical traditions, from Europe as well as the Americas, are currently undertaking case studies (on sectorial, regional, and national levels) that address some of the roposed questions. In the field of economic history, two debates present within this rich vein of research will figure heavily within the symposium: the ongoing controversy over the pioneering work of Eric Williams, and that of his followers and critics; and the debate concerning the costs and benefits of empire.
We are interested in case studies that concern relationships of colonial dependence, but we are also interested in continuities and discontinuities during the transition from the colonial to the postcolonial contexts. Particularly attractive are studies analyzing the "returns from the Americas" in which formal colonial relationships were absent. This latter category would include studies of the benefits reaped by enterprises investing in the Americas from diverse states of Europe. To be sure, we hope to generate debate concerning different aspects of the Symposium's central themes by pursing innovative lines of research emerging in recent years, and taking into account works in progress in addition to finished projects that have not generated the interest they deserve. It is our intention to bring together (and indeed take inventory of) research being undertaken in the field. Open discussion will enable us to gauge the possibilities of future collaboration, and eventually the establishment of a continuing research agenda.
In order to help to define a set of shared research objectives, we have articulated a series of preliminary topics for debate. These open-ended questions cover two major categories: the impact of American capital on European economies; and the demographics of return emigration.
Questions for Debate: Initial Series of Proposals
1. The Economic Impact of American Capital.
1.1 Is returning capital relevant to analyzing economic modernization in the places to which it returns? In the Spanish case (which is best known to the organizers), this is a polemical and open debate in which much research is still needed, but a number of valuable contributions exist on various levels (i.e. sectorial, local, regional).
1.2 Is there a relationship between investment patterns in returning destinations and the volume of capital transferred from the Americas?
1.3 Can we quantify amounts of returning capital? What are the problems inherent in analyzing such data?
1.4 How do we quantify other financial flows -- of definitive return capitals -- that do not involve investment in equity or debt?
1.5 Are there differences between types of returning capital from one country to the next? From one region to another?
1.6 Methods of managing investment in American immovable property by residents in Europe.
2. The Demography of Emigration
2.1 What were the determining factors taken into account by migrants who decided to return to their country of origin? How did return emigrants differ from those who stayed in the Americas?
2.2 What were the characteristics of return emigrants? Did they return alone or as families? At what age did they return?
2.3 Did return immigrants constitute a movement of human capital?
2.4 Is it possible to quantify return immigration? At what level? Local, regional, state, European?
Closing Date for the Acceptance of Proposals: 31 October 2005
Date for the Selection of Proposals: 15 November 2005
Closing Date to Register for the Conference (with discount): 31December2005
Closing Date for Paper Submission: 31 May 2006
The papers should be of at least 30,000 characters and be no more than 45,000 characters (including spaces).
More information 52 ICA: http://www.52ica.com/
Coordinators
Martín Rodrigo y Alharilla
Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Departamento de Humanidades
Calle de Ramon Trias Fargas, 25
08005 Barcelona
Tel: 93 542 2657
Fax: 93 542 16 20
Email: martín.Rodrigo@upf.edu
Luis Castañeda Peirón
Universitat de Barcelona
Departamento de Historia Económica
Calle Diagonal 690
08034 Barcelona
Tel: 93 403 7231
Email: lluis_Castaneda@ub.edu