Academic literature on the topic 'History europe england general'

AbstractGlobal history has centred for a long time on the comparative economic successes and failures of different parts of the world, most often European versus Asian regions. There is general agreement that the balance changed definitively in the latter part of the eighteenth century, when in continental Europe and England a transformation began that revolutionized the power relations of the world and brought an end to the dominance of agrarian civilization. However, there is still widespread debate over why Europe and England industrialized first, rather than Asia. This article will propose an explanation that will shed new light on Europe’s and England’s triumph, by showing that the ‘water system’ factor is a crucial piece missing in existing historical accounts of the Industrial Revolution. It is argued that this great transformation was not only about modernizing elites, investment capital, technological innovation, and unequal trade relations, but that a balanced, inclusive explanation also needs to consider similarities and differences in how countries and regions related to their particular water systems, and in how they could exploit them for transport and the production of power for machines.

Apart from numerous survey courses such as the Histories of Medicine, of Technology, of Art, and the Literature of the European Tradition—all of which span several centuries including the Middle Ages, and are offered by various departments of the Faculty of Arts, there is a fairly strong contingent of special topics courses in medieval studies at the University of Alberta. For example, Martin Tweedale of the Department of Philosophy offers an undergraduate course on early medieval philosophy. There are currently three medievalists in the Department of History and Classics. Andrew Gow regularly teaches courses on late medieval and early modern Europe. John Kitchen is a specialist in medieval religion, medieval intellectual history, the history of Christian holy women and medieval Latin literature. Kitchen currently teaches an undergraduate course on early medieval Europe. Thirdly, J.L. Langdon, a specialist in British Medieval history, teaches a course on the formation of England in which he covers the political, social, economic and religious developments of England from the fifth to the twelfth century.

In the article, in the form of a brief overview, the Chinese influence on European art, in particular on English art, in the 19th century is described. The history of the emergence of Chinese art in Britain is summarized, the main stages of collecting and their prominent representatives are described. The article describes such areas of art as porcelain, engravings, painting, architecture, shows a description of their influence on European art, gives the reasons for the appearance of Chinese art in Europe. This article corrects the current picture of the development of collecting, based mainly on English-language material. The relevance of the study lies in the fact that the relationship of the studied cultures, the influence of Chinese culture on English is considered in the prism of social and political factors. The novelty of this study lies in the fact that the influence of Chinese art on the art of Europe depended on their position in the respective hierarchies: the higher the status of art in China, the less influence it had in Europe; and the higher the status of art in Europe, the less susceptible it was to Chinese influence.

AbstractEngland recovered slowly after the Black Death, but countries which debased more saw rising prices and earlier population growth and economic recovery. We examine debasement in England, France, Flanders, and Scotland, emphasising the importance of nominal prices and governments’ role in determining and enforcing monetary policy. Money, as well as demography, strongly influenced the behaviour of prices in later medieval Europe, and price changes had profound economic effects. Population levels depend on mortality and fertility. It is not clear that mortality in England was more severe than elsewhere, but the English economic recession could have affected fertility and nuptiality.

AbstractPrivate contracts of many different kinds were at the heart of the rural economy in medieval and early modern Europe. This article considers some of the key issues involved in the study of those contracts, and of the institutions that facilitated their registration and enforcement. Drawing on examples from medieval England as well as the articles in this special issue of the journal, it is argued that complex and effective ‘public-order’ structures for contract registration and enforcement – principally various kinds of law court – were ubiquitous in European villages and small towns in this era.

Recent research has established beyond question that, in the study of medicine at least, Anglo-Saxon England was far from being ‘a backwater in which superstition flourished until the mainstream of more rational and advanced Salernitan practices flowed into the country in late medieval times’. On the contrary, Anglo-Saxon medicine was at least at the same level as that of contemporary European schools. In ninth-century England the medical works inherited by ‘post-classical Latin medical literature (which included translations and epitomes of Greek and Byzantine medical authorities)’ were not only well known, but served as the basis for original reworking and compilation, as the example of theLæcebocshows. More important, it was in pre-Conquest England that, for the first time in Europe, medical treatises were either compiled in or translated into a vernacular language rather than being composed in Latin or Greek. Ancient medicine made substantial use of drugs obtained from plants; and therefore, since the sources of Anglo-Saxon medical lore were in Latin (or in Greek: but invariably known through the medium of Latin), it is not surprising that most medicinal herbs used in the preparation of Old English prescriptions were not indigenous to England or even to continental Germany. And since such medicinal herbs were not indigenous to northern Europe, it is evident that, in using them, speakers of vernacular languages were obliged to create a vocabulary appropriate to denote them.

The article examines the trade and economic relations of the Azerbaijani state of the Safavids with some states of Western Europe - Portugal, Venice and England in the second half of the 16th century. The author of the article paid special attention to the economic interests of these Western European states, which have established trade relations with the Safavid state for the sake of establishing direct trade relations with the countries of the East.

In an account of the early history of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) for a 1946 BBC broadcast, president of the ISCM Edward Dent recounted the ‘two main reasons’ why London was proposed as the society’s initial headquarters at that first meeting in 1922 in Salzburg. Firstly, he maintained, ‘it stood apart from all the quarrels and jealousies of the Continent’, and secondly, and most importantly for the purposes of this article, he outlined a triangulated relationship: ‘[London] was regarded as a link between Europe and America.’ ‘American music’, he continued, ‘really needed that link in those days; and the general feeling of the European musicians was that they would provide the music and England the money to pay for it.’ But then (again using ‘the Continent’ and ‘Europe’ interchangeably) he signalled a profound shift: ‘Today the situation has changed. It is Europe now which needs the link with America, for America has become a great music-producing country, while it will take the Continent some little time to recover its creative energy.’262 Tantalizing though Dent’s references to ‘links’ may be, obtaining clarity on what these transatlantic connections were and how they operated has proved elusive. The telling of an international and transnational history by way of searches of nationally bounded archival collections has raised certain methodological challenges.263 Rising to meet them, however, has uncovered some interesting threads which in turn offer an alternative dimension to a story that is often told from a Eurocentric perspective; one, as already noted by the editors of this round table, which places the Austro-Germanic modernist tradition at its centre.264 Moreover, Dent’s framework of a transatlantic musical internationalism that triangulated England, Europe and America as three distinct entities with a set of different and fluid musical relationships and roles has obvious resonances today as Britain, the USA and Europe are once again struggling to rearticulate their positions in respect of each other in a rapidly shifting world order.

In his historical defense of the doctrines of the Church of England, published in 1826, Robert Southey assumed that “the question concerning the celibacy of the clergy had been set at rest throughout Protestant Europe.” The conclusion that Anglicanism necessarily entailed the rejection of celibacy was, in early-nineteenth-century England, decidedly premature, and the ambiguity over celibacy in the Church of England is starkly and exceptionally exposed in the life and work of John Henry Newman. Recent assessments of Newman's peculiar standing in Victorian society have often emphasized the sexual—or rather, the seemingly sexless—dimension of his image, as if to concur with Sydney Smith's celebrated witticism: “Don't you know, as the French say, there are three sexes—men, women, and clergymen?” The nature of specifically clerical celibacy, however, and its influence on the young Newman, have tended to be overlooked in favor of a general psychosexual understanding of his own unwillingness to marry. As an antidote to such readings, this essay will explore the distinctively Anglican and firmly intellectual tradition behind Newman's decision, and will thereby argue that his celibacy was not as “perverse”—a word which, in Victorian England, connoted conversion to Catholicism as well as sexual peculiarity—as it has sometimes been made to seem.

The article considers the verbal ways of realization of the concept of EUROPE in Hryhorii Skovoroda’s language model of the world. Various lexical samples of the examined concept were discovered in the works of the outstanding Ukrainian philosopher: e.g. Europe, European, European; numerous names of European countries, cities, their inhabitants; names to denote other geographical phenomena of Europe. Most of these lexical units are found in the author’s philosophical dialogues. During the discussion, their participants show the awareness of realities of Europe at that time, peculiarities of its state system, local customs; history, geography, natural sciences. These fragments of knowledge constitute Hryhorii Skovoroda’s conceptual view of the world and more broadly – educated Ukrainians of the XVIII century. Such marked words instantiate the structural components of the concept of EUROPE: its notional, imaginary, valuative, symbolic, national-cultural and ideal components. Often these lexical units form integral part of comparisons – such as the large group of nouns in the locative case: e.g. in Europe, in England, in Hungary, in Norway, in France, in Rome, in Venice, in Paris, in Florence. Using mentioned words, on the one hand, Ukrainians demonstrate their knowledge about Europe, and on the other hand, compare life “here” and “there” (the paradigm is still relevant nowadays).

My doctoral thesis examines the intellectual and political relationship between England and the general councils of the Church from the Council of Pisa until the Council of Trent. It illuminates the hitherto unexplored features of the revolution that was the end of universal papal authority. With the transfer of spiritual authority to Henry VIII, the heads of England’s Protestant regimes inherited the papacy’s distrust of the general council, which had the potential to interfere with the course of the reformation in England. At the same time, the thesis examines the changing nature of public commitment to universal decision-making in the Church in the face of resistance by hierarchs (papal or royal). It finds a widespread support for the general council over the period, but also a plurality of views about how conciliar government could be reconciled with monarchical rule in the Church. In the fifteenth century, conciliarism had to contend with the suspicions of those who wished to shore up the Church hierarchy against Wycliffite attacks. In the sixteenth century, there was still competition between the establishment’s defence of an hierarchical Church, directed by the monarchy, and theories which stressed the importance of conciliar government. These arguments took different shapes when used by popular rebels in favour of traditional religion grounded on conciliar consent, or by Protestants in favour of synodal government by the godly. But they were both outcomes of enduring instabilities in the ideology of Church government, which had their roots in the fifteenth century.

This dissertation explores the role of Absolutist states in the transition from feudalism to capitalism in Western Europe. Three general questions are addressed: (1) what are the determinants of variations in the autonomy of rulers? (2) what are the consequences of variations in autonomy for states policies? and (3) what are the effects of various state policies on economic development? A new theoretical framework, based on a synthesis of the neoclassical economic literature on principal-agent relations and current organizational theory in sociology, is developed to answer these three questions. Case studies of Absolutism in England, France, Sweden, and Spain are used to illustrate the explanatory power of the theory.

England in the late-Elizabethan and early-Stuart period saw a surge of pastoral writings intended to provide lay-readers with information and advice about sacraments. Using sixty-four such texts from the period 1590-1630, this thesis analyses the conceptions of sacraments offered by cleric-authors to their audience. As a group these works had two structural features in common. First they were concerned to outline the ‘qualities’ of a ‘worthy’ receiver of the Lord’s Supper, foremost amongst which were knowledge, faith, newness of life and repentance. Second they tended to divide the concept of worthiness into three temporal chunks comprising the times before, during, and after the Supper. Using these rubrics as guidelines the thesis compares and contrasts the content of the corpus. In opposition to stereotypes of puritans neglecting sacraments, it is found that sacraments were presented by Reformed English clerics as highly efficacious entities, which truly communicated something to the believer. The importance of faith to the Reformed conception of sacraments is affirmed, with the caveat that the dominance of this concept did not prohibit clerics from extolling the sensuous or ceremonial aspects of sacraments. It is further contended that sacraments continued to be seen as spurs to moral amelioration, occasions for charity, and a demonstration of community – and that receiving sacraments did not become a wholly individualised enterprise. Building on this analysis the thesis offers three broader conclusions. Firstly it is shown that sacraments played a key part in the quest to gain assurance of salvation. Secondly it can be seen that in England there was a way of extolling sacraments and their use which is not usually thought about – a species of ‘sacramental piety’ which used mainstream Reformed ideas about sacrament to urge believers to comfort and increased Godliness. Thirdly it is contended that key Reformed theological distinctions were often submerged by the contingencies of pastoral writing.

This dissertation explores the attempts of Africans, both enslaved and free, to create and maintain families in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century New England. It makes sense of a remarkable array of historical actors: men like Thomas Bedunah, who plotted a surprising course for his descendants when he chose a spouse of English descent; women like Cuba Vassall, who let her husband secure her firmly in bondage at the very moment the region’s blacks were being freed en masse; and a pair like Mark and Phoebe, who fed their master porridge laced with “Potter’s Lead” in hopes that his death would enable them to find owners closer to their distant families. Pulling together thousands of fragments of evidence, this dissertation contextualizes the everyday lives and beleaguered intimacies of these Africans and many others, revealing patterns in their living situations, gendered relationships, and kin communities that historians have never before recognized. At the same time, the project advances historical arguments related to a range of issues, from the relationship between family and freedom in early New England to the influence of patriarchy on enslaved kin groups in Anglo-America. The project sets forth methodological arguments as well. Contending that historical method has an important bearing on the ability of scholars to understand and portray slaves as fully human, with complete life spans and complicated contexts, “Endearing Ties” makes a case for the importance of reconstructing the lives and trajectories of enslaved individuals in great depth, despite the archival challenges that such an undertaking inevitably entails.
History

This thesis examines attitudes toward infertility in early modern England and colonial New England from c.1620 to 1720 through infertility’s representation in contemporary medical, religious, and literary sources. This study uses an expanded definition of infertility, namely a 'spectrum of infertility', to capture the tensions that arose during periods of infertility and experiences of reproductive failure such as miscarriages, stillbirths, monstrous births, and false conceptions. A spectrum, more than a modern definition, more accurately represents the range of bodily conditions experienced by early modern women and men that indicated reproductive disorder in the body; by extension, the language of infertility expressed fears about disorder in times of social, religious, and political crisis in early modern society. The two societies' relationship was often described through reproductive language and the language of infertility appears in both societies when order - within the body, within marriages, or within and between communities - was threatened. This thesis contributes to a growing body of scholarship on infertility in early modern society by analysing its presence in communications within and between early modern England and colonial New England. It argues that understanding the English origins of the colonists' attitudes toward infertility is fundamental both to understanding the close connection between the two societies and to providing context for the colonists' perceptions about their encounters with new lands, bodies, environments, and reasons for emigration. As a result, this thesis seeks to break new ground in providing an overview of social, medical, and cultural reactions in both England and New England, demonstrating that similar language and tropes were used in both regions to communicate concerns about infertility. Exploring the interplay between the many sources addressing this health issue more accurately represents the complexity of early modern attitudes toward infertility, and the intimacy of the relationship between the fledgling New England colonies and their metaphorical Mother England.

This thesis explores the impact of Rome upon Anglo-Saxon politics, religion, and culture in the ninth century. From the Gregorian mission onwards, Rome helped shape the ecclesiastical and devotional contexts of Anglo-Saxon Christianity and occupied a central place in the imaginations of early English writers. Yet the extent to which these links continued into and throughout the ninth century remains obscure, with scholarship about religion and culture often treating the period as a hiatus. In political narratives, the ninth century is treated as a crucial period, and Roman involvement is most visible in this sphere. By redressing the imbalance between religion and politics, this thesis achieves a thorough appreciation of the part played by Rome in these various fields of experience, as well as showing how Anglo-Saxon writers located themselves and their pasts in relation to the city. It does so over the course of five thematic chapters, which progress from an analysis of the most fundamental issues to more imaginative ones. Chapter one examines contact and communication between England and Rome, arguing that the two areas were closely and constantly connected across the century. The second and third chapters explore the impact of Rome on religion and kingship respectively, finding that while Roman influence on the church was most pronounced in the first half of the century, in political terms the city played a significant and changing role throughout the period. Chapters four and five consider the position of Rome in Anglo-Saxon historical thought and geographical understanding, examining how writers continued to define their position in a wider Christian world with reference to the city and its past. This thesis argues that, in the ninth century, Rome continued to play an important role in English life, while also influencing Anglo-Saxon thought and experience in new and dynamic ways.

This study examines Reformed identity as an aspect of religious identity formation during the early Reformation period. It contributes towards an understanding of the character of the English Reformation by examining the reception of Swiss theology. The research is principally focussed upon the theological concept of covenant which blossomed in a distinctively bilateral and conditional form in early Reformation Switzerland. Patterns of thought discerned in English theology are related to this Swiss pattern, thereby assisting the process of identifying individual reformers according to continental models and elucidating an important theological development of the period. The concept of covenant had implications for contemporary discourses regarding the doctrines of justification and sanctification. It also made an impact upon sacramental theology in the way that sacraments were viewed as covenant signs. Despite the essential uniformity of the Swiss Reformed concept of covenant, three distinct emphases arose in Swiss Reformed sacramental theology with regard to the efficacy of the sacraments as means of grace. Having identified cases of English reception of the Swiss concept of covenant, their specific influences are determined using patterns of sacramental theology. Chapter one considers the problems involved in discerning different forms of religious identity in this period. Evidence for Reformed identity in England from the 1520s to the 1550s is surveyed from various different angles. The transmission of Swiss ideas through the Low Countries is considered, and alternative explanations for the failure of English Lutheranism are evaluated, particularly Lollardy and humanism. Chapter two demonstrates the essential consistency of the concepts of covenant espoused by leading Swiss reformers. Chapter three examines the concepts of covenant of four English reformers. Chapter four highlights different patterns in Swiss sacramental theology, and chapter five analyses English cases in light of those Swiss models.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the debate over Britain’s application for membership of the European Community. It explains the significant impact which short-term political calculations played in the stances adopted by individual members of the political elite. This political expediency was a major reason for the inadequacies of the debate on membership. Central to the research is a set of individual trajectories displaying the positions adopted by parliamentarians and political parties from 1959-1984 during which time Britain’s very membership of the European Community was at stake. The trajectories include a representative sample of Conservative and Labour MPs compiled using interviews, voting records, speeches and other evidence. While the aim of the thesis is to analyse whether members of the elite held views determined by concerns other than the substantive issue itself, the thesis also advances the argument that many failed to consider the long-term implications of Britain’s membership. The lack of a comprehensive debate of sufficient quality contributed substantially to later problems with Britain’s relationship with Europe. The chronological chapters analyse significant events at particular stages in the evolution of Britain’s relationship with Europe. The 1975 referendum on Common Market membership for example, is a spectacularly significant milestone – not only for Britain and Europe, but also in respect of the positions taken by Britain’s political elite, whose views were often shaped or changed as a consequence of the political machinations surrounding the issue. Analysis of this and other events including general elections and leadership changes, provide a greater understanding of why members of the political elite subordinated the issue of Britain’s future in Europe to short-term, pragmatic, party management or career considerations.

Pri ha-Pardes (Früchte des Obstgartens) ist eine Reihe der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e.V., welche in Verbindung mit dem Zentrum für Jüdische Studien der Universität Potsdam publiziert wird. Pri ha-Pardes möchte kleineren wissenschaftlichen Studien, Forschungen am Rande der großen Disziplinen und exzellenten Masterarbeiten eine Publikationsplattform bieten. Im ersten Band dieser Reihe zeichnet Brigitte Heidenhain die Geschichte der Juden in Wriezen nach, welche 1677 einsetzte und 1940 mit ihrer Vertreibung und Ermordung endete. Zahlreiche, zumeist bislang unbeachtete Quellen des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts aus brandenburgischen und Berliner Archiven lassen die Auswirkungen der preußischen Judenpolitik im Leben des Einzelnen und der Gemeinde lebendig vor uns erstehen. Im 18. Jahrhundert war die Existenz der Wriezener Juden vom Kampf um die Aufenthaltserlaubnis und gegen drohende Verarmung geprägt. Die im 19. Jahrhundert neu gewonnene Niederlassungsfreiheit brachte eine Vergrößerung der jüdischen Gemeinde mit sich und gegen Ende des Jahrhunderts eine leichte Verbesserung der wirtschaftlichen Lage. Über das schnelle und vollständige Ende jüdischen Lebens in Wriezen nach 1938 gibt es kaum schriftliche Informationen. Die wichtigste Quelle ist die Datenbank der Gedächtnisstätte JadwaSchem in Jerusalem. In ihr wird die Erinnerung an 56 namentlich bekannte ermordete Wriezener Juden aufbewahrt. Der Band wird mit der Beschreibung des seit 1730 existierenden jüdischen Friedhofes und der Erfassung der hebräischen Grabinschriften abgeschlossen.
The history of jews in Wriezen begins in 1677, shortly after Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm allowed jews to settle in Brandenburg again through his edict of 1671. However, during the whole of the 18th century Prussian policy toward jews was extremely restrictive . The results of this policy are clearly visible in the life of the jews of Wriezen: they always remained a small congregation since this was the will of the king for small towns. Life was dominated by the struggle for the right of residence. Status as "Schutzjude" (i.e. "Protected Jew") was restricted to few individuals, leading to the separation of families as younger siblings were forced to leave. State regulated economic policy strongly restricted the freedom of trade, the main source of income for the jews, leading to the impoverishment of most jewish families in Wriezen. In the 18th century, there was no organized congregational activity. This only developed in the course of the 19th century. The jews of Wriezen built their first synagogue in 1820, replacing it with a new and larger one in 1886. The emancipation edict of 1812 improved the general situation of individuals and the new freedom of movement led to an influx of jews to Wriezen. But full legal equality with other citizens was not achieved until the German Empire was founded in 1871. In the first half of the 19th century, the economic situation of the jews of Wriezen was still quite modest, only improving toward the end of the century. There were numerous fluctuations in the membership of the jewish community in the last decades of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. But the number of jewish inhabitants of Wriezen remained relatively constant at 100 -120 individuals. There is hardly any written information on the sudden and complete end of jewish life in Wriezen after 1938. At least 59 jewish citizens of Wriezen were deported and murdered between 1940 and 1945. The victims are commemorated in the public database of the Yad-VaShem Memorial in Jerusalem. There has been a jewish cemetery in Wriezen since 1730, in which 131 gravestones still survive today. The oldest dates back to 1773, the last is from 1940.

This paper retraces the early modern beginnings of systematic Old English studies in England and continental Europe. It shows that linguistic study was born out of research interests in the fields of theology, law, and local history to name but a few; and that scholars needed dictionaries as tools to understand this archaic form of English. In the 16th century, John Joscelyn and John Parker created a substantial dictionary of Old English, of which several Northern German copies exist today. This paper explores the production processes of Joscelyn/Parker’s dictionary as well as the Northern German copies, as can be gleaned from the similarities and, more importantly, the differences in layout, entry-count and -content, and marginal markings in the manuscripts.

Perceptive approaches to the morphological characterization of the urban contour: The case of the peri-urban landscape of Madrid Eva J. Rodríguez Romero¹, Carlota Sáenz de Tejada Granados², Rocío Santo-Tomás Muro3 1, 2,3 Departamento de Arquitectura y Diseño. Universidad CEU San Pablo. Escuela Politécnica Superior, Campus de Montepríncipe. 28668 Boadilla del Monte, Madrid. E-mail: rodrom@ceu.es, carlota.saenztejada@ceu.es, rocio.santotomasmuro@beca.ceu.es Keywords: perceptive analysis, proximity landscape, landscape character, urban form, Madrid Conference topics and scale: Tools of analysis in urban morphology A growing city adapts and transforms the pre-existing topography, and with its urban fabric defines an ever-changing contour throughout history; this contour is not a clear line, but rather a fringe, where city and countryside meet and create occupancy systems that are crucial to comprehend the evolution of the urban form. We can consider this fringe as ‘proximity’ landscapes: landscapes that are perceived when the city is either a destination or a point of departure. The vision from afar, or when progressively approaching the city, provides both locals and tourists with certain landscape and architectural aspects that should be studied, preserved and valued for their ability to generate meaningful spaces. In this communication we study the surrounding landscapes of Madrid by means of a Landscape Character Assessment, within the framework of the project ‘Proximity landscapes of the city of Madrid. From the 19thC to the present’ currently in process. Combining graphic analysis of historical cartography at a metropolitan scale with perceptive analysis techniques, special attention is drawn to certain axes and significant lookouts of the city, mapping them and evaluating their visual basins. This characterization leads to distinguishing three main landscape types surrounding Madrid, according to physical, natural and anthropogenic structures: one predominantly natural, one mainly industrial and service-related, and a third one with special historical relevance. References Council of Europe (2000) European Landscape Convention (COE, Florence). Cruz, L., Español, I. (2009) El paisaje. De la percepción a la gestión (Liteam, Madrid). Pinto, V. (coord.) (1995-2001) Madrid. Atlas Histórico de la Ciudad, Vol.1-Vol.2 (Lunwerg Editors and Fundación Caja Madrid, Madrid). Rodríguez, E.J. (2011) ‘Naturaleza y ciudad: el paisaje de Madrid visto por los extranjeros’, in Cabañas, M., López-Yarto, A. & Rincón, W. (ed.), El arte y el viaje (CSIC, Madrid) 321-337. Terán, F. (2006) En torno a Madrid. Génesis espacial de una región urbana (Autonomous Community of Madrid, Madrid). Tudor, C. (2014) An Approach to Landscape Character Assessment (Natural England, Government of the UK).

It is impossible to separate the public police organization from the modern state. King Louis XIV was the founder of the first centrally organized and uniform police force in 1667. A book related to the work of the police was first published in 1705 under the title "Traité de la police". It outlines the three main activities of the police, which are economic regulation, measures of the public order, and general rules of hygiene. The first head of Police and his 44 police commissioners' work was assisted by police inspectors beginning in 1709. The police also appeared on German territory, and the works of Lorenz von Stein, Otto Mayer, and Robert von Mohl are still dominant in Europe nowadays. This study examines books, journals, and legal documents to present the development of the law enforcement and the modern challenges of policing in Hungary. Our country celebrated the establishment of the central police last year. In the 20th century there was a development in modern policing and literature, as well as the emergence of modern police officer training. After World War II, a Soviet law enforcement model was imitated in which there was state security, secrecy, and Soviet police character. Although research of historical and theoretical studies of policing was forbidden, after the Revolution of 1989, the research of law enforcement theory was completed. Globalisation has created new sources of danger (e.g. terrorism, cybercrime), driven by a lack of borders and the expansion of international relations (Farkas, 2016). We can only meet the new challenges with the deepening of international law enforcement cooperation. Keywords: law enforcement, globalisation, data-transmission revolution, security

The paper analyses the global tendency of conceptualizing transnational and regional literature in order to suppress national literatures at first, and then to completely replace them. The analysis is based on History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and disjunctures in the 19th and 20th centuries (Eds. M. Cornis-Pope and J. Neubauer, Vol. I 2004, Vol. II 2006, Vol. III 2007, Vol. IV 2010). The tendency to replace national literatures with the transnational one is depicted within the framework of broader cultural, social, and political circumstances. Based on the ideology of “Western liberalism, global capitalism, and George Soros” – which was stated as the core idea of the History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe by its editors – this tendency leads to a general weakening of traditional identities framework: from personal to national identity. Therefore, the suppression of national literature is simultaneous with the suppression of nationality in general, and with changing the notion of literature as it existed in the age of national states since that notion was correspondent with the personal identity which also undergoes through changes.

Abstract Well simulation and real time operations engineering technologies are becoming an important part of Well Construction design and Drilling Operations follow-up worldwide. Market availability of such tools, for planning, real time support and post job analysis, has evolved in the years and, with this paper, we are presenting a general overview of the features and some of the case history Company had with a specific system. Basic idea of systems like well simulators and real time operation engineering software is to provide an immediate picture of the operations through data characterization in real-time, either through dynamic modelling and/or through data statistical analysis. Data collected on the field can provide real-time operation insights while feeding predictive analytics tools with the goal to improve safety and performance. For such applications, selected wells are configured within the software, in a manual or automatic approach, thus either receiving data from external sources or automatically configured through integrated systems and prepare the software for the subsequent modelling. Dynamic models, embedded into the software, are calibrated to reach an overlap between simulated and measured drilling parameters. Outputs can be of different natures, typically time-based (in mud log and driller-cabin-like layouts fashion), depth-based (such as roadmaps for axial and torsional friction factors), gauge-based (with operating envelops being represented on gauges with different colors to support the operator in understanding if the drilling parameters are within the operating envelop or not), pillar plots, diagrams and so on. These outputs can also be used as input for advanced analyses for both planning and post job phases. The tools can also provide support for advisory on drilling parameters, suggesting potential improvements, and highlight specific KPIs reached during drilling operations, comparing the same with offset well data to evaluate well operations performance. In Company, systematic application of such tools was initiated early 2021 with real time monitoring for North Sea and Africa offshore/subsea operations. Deployment along 2022 spread out across several other operated countries, for onshore, offshore and subsea drilling operations and, with the evolution of the digital drilling software market, the evaluation of new commercial tools was supported using this experience as one of the baselines. These technologies constitute a fundamental step towards drilling automation, as their dynamic approach allows the definition of operating envelopes inside which robotic tools can operate and generate alerts automatically if envelopes are overridden. Anomalous behavior of the drilling parameters can be recognized, controlled and adjusted. Well simulation solutions that have been tested and deployed in our operations come from one of the tools that were evaluated in Company and demonstrate adaptability to a variety of existing platforms. The new upgrades, for data input and results visualization, are prone for user-friendly application, reducing the amount of training required for operative personnel to familiarize with the tools and apply them during drilling operations.

This paper is focused on the use of information provided from meteorological satellites in air transport, its development and current status. The work defines general knowledge in the field of meteorology such as the history of meteorological satellites, the division of orbits and current meteorological satellites in orbits. The work also includes the characteristics of measured quantities and monitoring methods. The practical contribution of this work is the analysis of satellite images in Europe. Finally, the work deals with the future use of meteorological satellites and the development of new satellites.

Abstract In this work, new analytical sandface temperature solutions are developed for linear flow towards an infinite-conductivity hydraulically fractured well producing under specified constant-rate or constant- bottomhole pressure (BHP) production. The solutions apply for slightly compressible, single-phase undersaturated oil reservoirs with irreducible water saturation or liquid-dominated geothermal reservoirs. They include the effects of conduction, convection, the Joule-Thomson expansion of fluids and adiabatic expansion of the total rock and fluid system, and fluid loss fracture damage. They neglect the variation of rock and fluid properties with pressure and temperature so that pressure diffusivity and thermal energy balance equations are decoupled to obtain the analytical linear-flow temperature solutions using Laplace (for constant-rate) and Boltzmann (for constant-BHP) transformations. To validate the analytical solutions, a numerical solution is developed to solve the mass and thermal energy balance equations simultaneously and account for the variation of rock and fluid properties with pressure and temperature. We proposed a correction to fluid viscosity variation as input for the analytic solutions. The numerical and analytical solutions have been compared and verified with a commercial thermal reservoir simulator. Results indicate that the fracture surface temperature is decreasing with a square of time for constant-rate production but is constant for constant BHP production. The temperature responses for both modes of production are controlled by the adiabatic expansion of the rock and fluid properties and the thermal diffusivity of the rock. The effect of thermal conductivity plays a significant role for both production modes as the matrix permeability decreases. The fracture damage has different signatures on temperature transients at early and late times for both modes of production. The approximate analytical solutions show the information content of temperature transient data acquired from an infinitely conductive hydraulically fractured well under matrix linear flow. They are simple and can be used to perform matrix linear flow analysis jointly with pressure and rate transient data to estimate the thermal and mechanical properties of the rock and fluids. The numerical solution can be used for a more general analysis procedure based on automated history matching for constant as well as variable rate and pressure production test sequences.

In 1934, after several years of struggle, the Orthodox community of Maribor was awarded a lot to construct a new sacral object on General Maister Square (then Yugoslavia Square) in Maribor, at the site of the recently removed monument dedicated to vice-admiral Wilhelm Tegetthoff. The square boasts a rich symbolic history, wherein the very names of the square have clearly indicated the identity of the city through time. The new government sought to modify public space in accordance with the new state – these spaces had to be given not only a Slovenian but also a Yugoslav outlook. The first modification was changing the square’s name to Yugoslavia Square, after which a Serbian Orthodox church was built in Serbian national architectural style by the architect Momir Korunović (1883–1969), who designed all three Serbian sacral objects in the province of Dravska Banovina (in Maribor, Ljubljana, and Celje). The Church of St. Lasarus was to be ideologically connected to the monument dedicated to King Aleksandar Karađorđević on Liberty Square, which would provide a clear Yugoslav identity to the city district. However, the construction of said monument was disabled by the beginning of the Second World War, while the church was destroyed by the Nazis in April 1941 and thus erased from local collective memory. Maribor was the northernmost city of Dravska Banovina and indeed the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, yet its public space still failed to reflect a “Yugoslav identity” in the 1930s. Local residents primarily identified as Roman Catholic, while the city was politically predominantly ruled by the Slovenian People’s Party which imposed additional difficulties on the process of selecting the new church’s location. This paper will, accounting for the city’s religious and political climate, present Maribor as a place that obtained one of the biggest and most prominently representative Orthodox sacral objects, despite the fact the Orthodox religion was not dominant in the area. The focus will be on the question of the role and reflection of the unitarian-centralist politics of Belgrade through religion (Orthodox faith) on public space modification, what factors and agents design such space (and memory of such space) and in what way, by analysing commissions and art styles within the context of public spaces of Maister Square and Liberty Square in Maribor.

The subject of this contribution is the European reception of the Berlin Royal Opera House and Orchestra from 1842 to 1849 based on German, French, Italian, English, Spanish, Belgian and Dutch music journals. The institution of regular symphony concerts, a tradition continuing to the present, was initiated in 1842. Giacomo Meyerbeer and Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy were hired as general music directors respectively conductors for the symphony concerts in the same year. The death of the conductor Otto Nicolai on 11th May 1849, two months after the premiere of his opera Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor, coincides with the end of the analysed period, especially since the revolutions of 1848 in Europe represent a turning point in the history of the continent. The lively music activities of these three conductors and composers are carefully studied, as well as the guest performances of foreign virtuosos and singers, and the differences between the Berliner Hofoper and the Königstädtisches Theater.

The paper based on the results of survey, which have been done under EU project titled „Prospects for Farmers’ Support Advisory Services in European AKIS (PRO AKIS)”, carried under FP7 in 27 EU countries. The paper contains the analysis of AKIS systems in three European Countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The discussed subject is the comparison study of the chosen results of survey of agriculture, the history of creation the agricultural advisory system, and the structures of agricultural advisory and systems of knowledge, information and innovation flows. The analysed three Baltic countries, in spite of nearly half century of their links by common history and central command of economy policy, after regaining independence, they chosen individual ways to build the AKIS structures. In these processes they used patterns taken from some Western Europe countries, and reached different results. In Estonia, at the moment the AKIS structure is under discussion, because the linkages between AKIS actors are still weak. In Latvia the question is the influence inside AKIS system of three policies – for agriculture, for education and for science – giving as a result the weak cooperation between AKIS actors. In Lithuania, according experts opinion, the AKIS system is working well, and the linkages and cooperation between AKIS actors are rather good. The general conclusion of discussed subject is, that AKIS system in term of its organisation and structure, is working well only under condition, that the linkages and cooperation between its actors are very strong and integrated.

The Romanian language has gone through countless trials and vicissitudes, from the first Latin words that came to collide with the speech of the natives of Dacia, until the modern era. After, in the first centuries after Christ, it managed to consolidate itself on an area that stretched from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea and from the Balkans to the Wooded Carpathians, becoming a true "lingua franca" of the inhabitants of Europe from East, it had to yield to the newcomers, restricting itself to the hearths where it is spoken today by approximately eighteen million "Daco-Romanians", a few hundred thousand Aromanians, a few thousand Megleno-Romanians and barely a few hundred Istro-Romanians. The interest of the Romanian language in terms of the general study of European languages was imposed early on and is constantly growing. In this sense, the present article aims to present Alexandru Ciorănescu’s approach, to develop and complete an etymological dictionary over five thousand kilometers away from the country, which must be considered a huge effort. The Etymological Dictionary of the Romanian Language is a work and information tool made available to those interested not only in the Romanian language, but also in other languages (Romance, Slavic, etc.) with which it had connections during its history. The edition in Romanian is intended to be a modest tribute to the scholar Alexandru Ciorănescu, a prominent personality of Romanian philology and culture.

The oak processionary moth (Thaumetopoea processionea>) is native to Central and Southern Europe and has been spreading to Northern Europe, including Southern England since 2006. The larvae feed on various oak species (Quercus spp.), contributing to oak decline and causing significant health issues for humans and pets due to their urticating hairs. There is no history of classical biological control for this pest, but several promising natural enemies exist. The most promising natural enemies include the larval parasitoids Carcelia iliaca and Pales processioneae, which are specific to Thaumetopoea spp. and have been dominant in Germany and the Netherlands, with C. iliaca also found in invasive UK populations. The egg parasitoid Ooencyrtus masii is noted in Italy but seems less significant than other polyphagous species, such as Anastatus bifasciatus and Trichogramma spp. Pimpla processioneae and other Pimpla species are frequently found parasitizing pupae, with P. processioneae being the most specific. Other natural enemies such as A. bifasciatus, the larval parasitoid Meteorus versicolor, and various tachinid parasitoids are abundant but too polyphagous for classical biological control programs.

Being able to follow the chain of contagion of COVID-19 is important to help save lives and control the epidemic without sustained costly lockdowns. This is especially relevant in Latin America, where economic contractions have already been the largest in the regions history. Given the high rates of transmission of COVID-19, relying only in manual contact tracing might be infeasible. Acceptability and uptake of contact tracing apps with exposure notifications is key for the implementation the “test, trace and treat” triad. In the first study of its kind in Latin America, we find that for a nationally representative sample of 10 countries, an opt-out regime with automatic installation significantly increases the probability of acceptance of such apps in almost 22 p.p. compared to an opt-in regime with voluntary installation. This triples the size and is of opposite sign of the effect found in Europe and the United States. We see that an opt-out regime is more effective in increasing acceptability in South America compared to Central America and Mexico; for those who claim not to trust the national government; and for those who do not use their smartphones for financial transactions. The severity of the pandemic at the place of residence does not seem to affect the effectiveness of the opt-out regime versus an opt-in one, but feeling personally at risk does increase the willingness to accept contact tracing apps with exposure notifications in general. These results can shed light on the use of default options in public health in the context of a pandemic in Latin America.

Background Lung cancer is the number one cause of cancer death worldwide.(1) It is the fifth most commonly diagnosed cancer in Australia (12,741 cases diagnosed in 2018) and the leading cause of cancer death.(2) The number of years of potential life lost to lung cancer in Australia is estimated to be 58,450, similar to that of colorectal and breast cancer combined.(3) While tobacco control strategies are most effective for disease prevention in the general population, early detection via low dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening in high-risk populations is a viable option for detecting asymptomatic disease in current (13%) and former (24%) Australian smokers.(4) The purpose of this Evidence Check review is to identify and analyse existing and emerging evidence for LDCT lung cancer screening in high-risk individuals to guide future program and policy planning. Evidence Check questions This review aimed to address the following questions: 1. What is the evidence for the effectiveness of lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? 2. What is the evidence of potential harms from lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? 3. What are the main components of recent major lung cancer screening programs or trials? 4. What is the cost-effectiveness of lung cancer screening programs (include studies of cost–utility)? Summary of methods The authors searched the peer-reviewed literature across three databases (MEDLINE, PsycINFO and Embase) for existing systematic reviews and original studies published between 1 January 2009 and 8 August 2019. Fifteen systematic reviews (of which 8 were contemporary) and 64 original publications met the inclusion criteria set across the four questions. Key findings Question 1: What is the evidence for the effectiveness of lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? There is sufficient evidence from systematic reviews and meta-analyses of combined (pooled) data from screening trials (of high-risk individuals) to indicate that LDCT examination is clinically effective in reducing lung cancer mortality. In 2011, the landmark National Lung Cancer Screening Trial (NLST, a large-scale randomised controlled trial [RCT] conducted in the US) reported a 20% (95% CI 6.8% – 26.7%; P=0.004) relative reduction in mortality among long-term heavy smokers over three rounds of annual screening. High-risk eligibility criteria was defined as people aged 55–74 years with a smoking history of ≥30 pack-years (years in which a smoker has consumed 20-plus cigarettes each day) and, for former smokers, ≥30 pack-years and have quit within the past 15 years.(5) All-cause mortality was reduced by 6.7% (95% CI, 1.2% – 13.6%; P=0.02). Initial data from the second landmark RCT, the NEderlands-Leuvens Longkanker Screenings ONderzoek (known as the NELSON trial), have found an even greater reduction of 26% (95% CI, 9% – 41%) in lung cancer mortality, with full trial results yet to be published.(6, 7) Pooled analyses, including several smaller-scale European LDCT screening trials insufficiently powered in their own right, collectively demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in lung cancer mortality (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.73–0.91).(8) Despite the reduction in all-cause mortality found in the NLST, pooled analyses of seven trials found no statistically significant difference in all-cause mortality (RR 0.95, 95% CI 0.90–1.00).(8) However, cancer-specific mortality is currently the most relevant outcome in cancer screening trials. These seven trials demonstrated a significantly greater proportion of early stage cancers in LDCT groups compared with controls (RR 2.08, 95% CI 1.43–3.03). Thus, when considering results across mortality outcomes and early stage cancers diagnosed, LDCT screening is considered to be clinically effective. Question 2: What is the evidence of potential harms from lung cancer screening for higher-risk individuals? The harms of LDCT lung cancer screening include false positive tests and the consequences of unnecessary invasive follow-up procedures for conditions that are eventually diagnosed as benign. While LDCT screening leads to an increased frequency of invasive procedures, it does not result in greater mortality soon after an invasive procedure (in trial settings when compared with the control arm).(8) Overdiagnosis, exposure to radiation, psychological distress and an impact on quality of life are other known harms. Systematic review evidence indicates the benefits of LDCT screening are likely to outweigh the harms. The potential harms are likely to be reduced as refinements are made to LDCT screening protocols through: i) the application of risk predication models (e.g. the PLCOm2012), which enable a more accurate selection of the high-risk population through the use of specific criteria (beyond age and smoking history); ii) the use of nodule management algorithms (e.g. Lung-RADS, PanCan), which assist in the diagnostic evaluation of screen-detected nodules and cancers (e.g. more precise volumetric assessment of nodules); and, iii) more judicious selection of patients for invasive procedures. Recent evidence suggests a positive LDCT result may transiently increase psychological distress but does not have long-term adverse effects on psychological distress or health-related quality of life (HRQoL). With regards to smoking cessation, there is no evidence to suggest screening participation invokes a false sense of assurance in smokers, nor a reduction in motivation to quit. The NELSON and Danish trials found no difference in smoking cessation rates between LDCT screening and control groups. Higher net cessation rates, compared with general population, suggest those who participate in screening trials may already be motivated to quit. Question 3: What are the main components of recent major lung cancer screening programs or trials? There are no systematic reviews that capture the main components of recent major lung cancer screening trials and programs. We extracted evidence from original studies and clinical guidance documents and organised this into key groups to form a concise set of components for potential implementation of a national lung cancer screening program in Australia: 1. Identifying the high-risk population: recruitment, eligibility, selection and referral 2. Educating the public, people at high risk and healthcare providers; this includes creating awareness of lung cancer, the benefits and harms of LDCT screening, and shared decision-making 3. Components necessary for health services to deliver a screening program: a. Planning phase: e.g. human resources to coordinate the program, electronic data systems that integrate medical records information and link to an established national registry b. Implementation phase: e.g. human and technological resources required to conduct LDCT examinations, interpretation of reports and communication of results to participants c. Monitoring and evaluation phase: e.g. monitoring outcomes across patients, radiological reporting, compliance with established standards and a quality assurance program 4. Data reporting and research, e.g. audit and feedback to multidisciplinary teams, reporting outcomes to enhance international research into LDCT screening 5. Incorporation of smoking cessation interventions, e.g. specific programs designed for LDCT screening or referral to existing community or hospital-based services that deliver cessation interventions. Most original studies are single-institution evaluations that contain descriptive data about the processes required to establish and implement a high-risk population-based screening program. Across all studies there is a consistent message as to the challenges and complexities of establishing LDCT screening programs to attract people at high risk who will receive the greatest benefits from participation. With regards to smoking cessation, evidence from one systematic review indicates the optimal strategy for incorporating smoking cessation interventions into a LDCT screening program is unclear. There is widespread agreement that LDCT screening attendance presents a ‘teachable moment’ for cessation advice, especially among those people who receive a positive scan result. Smoking cessation is an area of significant research investment; for instance, eight US-based clinical trials are now underway that aim to address how best to design and deliver cessation programs within large-scale LDCT screening programs.(9) Question 4: What is the cost-effectiveness of lung cancer screening programs (include studies of cost–utility)? Assessing the value or cost-effectiveness of LDCT screening involves a complex interplay of factors including data on effectiveness and costs, and institutional context. A key input is data about the effectiveness of potential and current screening programs with respect to case detection, and the likely outcomes of treating those cases sooner (in the presence of LDCT screening) as opposed to later (in the absence of LDCT screening). Evidence about the cost-effectiveness of LDCT screening programs has been summarised in two systematic reviews. We identified a further 13 studies—five modelling studies, one discrete choice experiment and seven articles—that used a variety of methods to assess cost-effectiveness. Three modelling studies indicated LDCT screening was cost-effective in the settings of the US and Europe. Two studies—one from Australia and one from New Zealand—reported LDCT screening would not be cost-effective using NLST-like protocols. We anticipate that, following the full publication of the NELSON trial, cost-effectiveness studies will likely be updated with new data that reduce uncertainty about factors that influence modelling outcomes, including the findings of indeterminate nodules. Gaps in the evidence There is a large and accessible body of evidence as to the effectiveness (Q1) and harms (Q2) of LDCT screening for lung cancer. Nevertheless, there are significant gaps in the evidence about the program components that are required to implement an effective LDCT screening program (Q3). Questions about LDCT screening acceptability and feasibility were not explicitly included in the scope. However, as the evidence is based primarily on US programs and UK pilot studies, the relevance to the local setting requires careful consideration. The Queensland Lung Cancer Screening Study provides feasibility data about clinical aspects of LDCT screening but little about program design. The International Lung Screening Trial is still in the recruitment phase and findings are not yet available for inclusion in this Evidence Check. The Australian Population Based Screening Framework was developed to “inform decision-makers on the key issues to be considered when assessing potential screening programs in Australia”.(10) As the Framework is specific to population-based, rather than high-risk, screening programs, there is a lack of clarity about transferability of criteria. However, the Framework criteria do stipulate that a screening program must be acceptable to “important subgroups such as target participants who are from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people from disadvantaged groups and people with a disability”.(10) An extensive search of the literature highlighted that there is very little information about the acceptability of LDCT screening to these population groups in Australia. Yet they are part of the high-risk population.(10) There are also considerable gaps in the evidence about the cost-effectiveness of LDCT screening in different settings, including Australia. The evidence base in this area is rapidly evolving and is likely to include new data from the NELSON trial and incorporate data about the costs of targeted- and immuno-therapies as these treatments become more widely available in Australia.

Banco de la República is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2023. This is a very significant anniversary and one that provides an opportunity to highlight the contribution the Bank has made to the country’s development. Its track record as guarantor of monetary stability has established it as the one independent state institution that generates the greatest confidence among Colombians due to its transparency, management capabilities, and effective compliance with the central banking and cultural responsibilities entrusted to it by the Constitution and the Law. On a date as important as this, the Board of Directors of Banco de la República (BDBR) pays tribute to the generations of governors and officers whose commitment and dedication have contributed to the growth of this institution.1 Banco de la República’s mandate was confirmed in the National Constitutional Assembly of 1991 where the citizens had the opportunity to elect the seventy people who would have the task of drafting a new constitution. The leaders of the three political movements with the most votes were elected as chairs to the Assembly, and this tripartite presidency reflected the plurality and the need for consensus among the different political groups to move the reform forward. Among the issues considered, the National Constitutional Assembly gave special importance to monetary stability. That is why they decided to include central banking and to provide Banco de la República with the necessary autonomy to use the instruments for which they are responsible without interference from other authorities. The constituent members understood that ensuring price stability is a state duty and that the entity responsible for this task must be enshrined in the Constitution and have the technical capability and institutional autonomy necessary to adopt the decisions they deem appropriate to achieve this fundamental objective in coordination with the general economic policy. In particular, Article 373 established that “the State, through Banco de la República, shall ensure the maintenance of the purchasing power of the currency,” a provision that coincided with the central banking system adopted by countries that have been successful in controlling inflation. In 1999, in Ruling 481, the Constitutional Court stated that “the duty to maintain the purchasing power of the currency applies to not only the monetary, credit, and exchange authority, i.e., the Board of Banco de la República, but also those who have responsibilities in the formulation and implementation of the general economic policy of the country” and that “the basic constitutional purpose of Banco de la República is the protection of a sound currency. However, this authority must take the other economic objectives of state intervention such as full employment into consideration in their decisions since these functions must be coordinated with the general economic policy.” The reforms to Banco de la República agreed upon in the Constitutional Assembly of 1991 and in Act 31/1992 can be summarized in the following aspects: i) the Bank was assigned a specific mandate: to maintain the purchasing power of the currency in coordination with the general economic policy; ii) the BDBR was designatedas the monetary, foreign exchange, and credit authority; iii) the Bank and its Board of Directors were granted a significant degree of independence from the government; iv) the Bank was prohibited from granting credit to the private sector except in the case of the financial sector; v) established that in order to grant credit to the government, the unanimous vote of its Board of Directors was required except in the case of open market transactions; vi) determined that the legislature may, in no case, order credit quotas in favor of the State or individuals; vii) Congress was appointed, on behalf of society, as the main addressee of the Bank’s reporting exercise; and viii) the responsibility for inspection, surveillance, and control over Banco de la República was delegated to the President of the Republic. The members of the National Constitutional Assembly clearly understood that the benefits of low and stable inflation extend to the whole of society and contribute mto the smooth functioning of the economic system. Among the most important of these is that low inflation promotes the efficient use of productive resources by allowing relative prices to better guide the allocation of resources since this promotes economic growth and increases the welfare of the population. Likewise, low inflation reduces uncertainty about the expected return on investment and future asset prices. This increases the confidence of economic agents, facilitates long-term financing, and stimulates investment. Since the low-income population is unable to protect itself from inflation by diversifying its assets, and a high proportion of its income is concentrated in the purchase of food and other basic goods that are generally the most affected by inflationary shocks, low inflation avoids arbitrary redistribution of income and wealth.2 Moreover, low inflation facilitates wage negotiations, creates a good labor climate, and reduces the volatility of employment levels. Finally, low inflation helps to make the tax system more transparent and equitable by avoiding the distortions that inflation introduces into the value of assets and income that make up the tax base. From the monetary authority’s point of view, one of the most relevant benefits of low inflation is the credibility that economic agents acquire in inflation targeting, which turns it into an effective nominal anchor on price levels. Upon receiving its mandate, and using its autonomy, Banco de la República began to announce specific annual inflation targets as of 1992. Although the proposed inflation targets were not met precisely during this first stage, a downward trend in inflation was achieved that took it from 32.4% in 1990 to 16.7% in 1998. At that time, the exchange rate was kept within a band. This limited the effectiveness of monetary policy, which simultaneously sought to meet an inflation target and an exchange rate target. The Asian crisis spread to emerging economies and significantly affected the Colombian economy. The exchange rate came under strong pressure to depreciate as access to foreign financing was cut off under conditions of a high foreign imbalance. This, together with the lack of exchange rate flexibility, prevented a countercyclical monetary policy and led to a 4.2% contraction in GDP that year. In this context of economic slowdown, annual inflation fell to 9.2% at the end of 1999, thus falling below the 15% target set for that year. This episode fully revealed how costly it could be, in terms of economic activity, to have inflation and exchange rate targets simultaneously. Towards the end of 1999, Banco de la República announced the adoption of a new monetary policy regime called the Inflation Targeting Plan. This regime, known internationally as ‘Inflation Targeting,’ has been gaining increasing acceptance in developed countries, having been adopted in 1991 by New Zealand, Canada, and England, among others, and has achieved significant advances in the management of inflation without incurring costs in terms of economic activity. In Latin America, Brazil and Chile also adopted it in 1999. In the case of Colombia, the last remaining requirement to be fulfilled in order to adopt said policy was exchange rate flexibility. This was realized around September 1999, when the BDBR decided to abandon the exchange-rate bands to allow the exchange rate to be freely determined in the market.Consistent with the constitutional mandate, the fundamental objective of this new policy approach was “the achievement of an inflation target that contributes to maintaining output growth around its potential.”3 This potential capacity was understood as the GDP growth that the economy can obtain if it fully utilizes its productive resources. To meet this objective, monetary policy must of necessity play a countercyclical role in the economy. This is because when economic activity is below its potential and there are idle resources, the monetary authority can reduce the interest rate in the absence of inflationary pressure to stimulate the economy and, when output exceeds its potential capacity, raise it. This policy principle, which is immersed in the models for guiding the monetary policy stance, makes the following two objectives fully compatible in the medium term: meeting the inflation target and achieving a level of economic activity that is consistent with its productive capacity. To achieve this purpose, the inflation targeting system uses the money market interest rate (at which the central bank supplies primary liquidity to commercial banks) as the primary policy instrument. This replaced the quantity of money as an intermediate monetary policy target that Banco de la República, like several other central banks, had used for a long time. In the case of Colombia, the objective of the new monetary policy approach implied, in practical terms, that the recovery of the economy after the 1999 contraction should be achieved while complying with the decreasing inflation targets established by the BDBR. The accomplishment of this purpose was remarkable. In the first half of the first decade of the 2000s, economic activity recovered significantly and reached a growth rate of 6.8% in 2006. Meanwhile, inflation gradually declined in line with inflation targets. That was how the inflation rate went from 9.2% in 1999 to 4.5% in 2006, thus meeting the inflation target established for that year while GDP reached its potential level. After this balance was achieved in 2006, inflation rebounded to 5.7% in 2007, above the 4.0% target for that year due to the fact that the 7.5% GDP growth exceeded the potential capacity of the economy.4 After proving the effectiveness of the inflation targeting system in its first years of operation, this policy regime continued to consolidate as the BDBR and the technical staff gained experience in its management and state-of-the-art economic models were incorporated to diagnose the present and future state of the economy and to assess the persistence of inflation deviations and expectations with respect to the inflation target. Beginning in 2010, the BDBR established the long-term 3.0% annual inflation target, which remains in effect today. Lower inflation has contributed to making the macroeconomic environment more stable, and this has favored sustained economic growth, financial stability, capital market development, and the functioning of payment systems. As a result, reductions in the inflationary risk premia and lower TES and credit interest rates were achieved. At the same time, the duration of public domestic debt increased significantly going from 2.27 years in December 2002 to 5.86 years in December 2022, and financial deepening, measured as the level of the portfolio as a percentage of GDP, went from around 20% in the mid-1990s to values above 45% in recent years in a healthy context for credit institutions.Having been granted autonomy by the Constitution to fulfill the mandate of preserving the purchasing power of the currency, the tangible achievements made by Banco de la República in managing inflation together with the significant benefits derived from the process of bringing inflation to its long-term target, make the BDBR’s current challenge to return inflation to the 3.0% target even more demanding and pressing. As is well known, starting in 2021, and especially in 2022, inflation in Colombia once again became a serious economic problem with high welfare costs. The inflationary phenomenon has not been exclusive to Colombia and many other developed and emerging countries have seen their inflation rates move away from the targets proposed by their central banks.5 The reasons for this phenomenon have been analyzed in recent Reports to Congress, and this new edition delves deeper into the subject with updated information. The solid institutional and technical base that supports the inflation targeting approach under which the monetary policy strategy operates gives the BDBR the necessary elements to face this difficult challenge with confidence. In this regard, the BDBR reiterated its commitment to the 3.0% inflation target in its November 25 communiqué and expects it to be reached by the end of 2024.6 Monetary policy will continue to focus on meeting this objective while ensuring the sustainability of economic activity, as mandated by the Constitution. Analyst surveys done in March showed a significant increase (from 32.3% in January to 48.5% in March) in the percentage of responses placing inflation expectations two years or more ahead in a range between 3.0% and 4.0%. This is a clear indication of the recovery of credibility in the medium-term inflation target and is consistent with the BDBR’s announcement made in November 2022. The moderation of the upward trend in inflation seen in January, and especially in February, will help to reinforce this revision of inflation expectations and will help to meet the proposed targets. After reaching 5.6% at the end of 2021, inflation maintained an upward trend throughout 2022 due to inflationary pressures from both external sources, associated with the aftermath of the pandemic and the consequences of the war in Ukraine, and domestic sources, resulting from: strengthening of local demand; price indexation processes stimulated by the increase in inflation expectations; the impact on food production caused by the mid-2021 strike; and the pass-through of depreciation to prices. The 10% increase in the minimum wage in 2021 and the 16% increase in 2022, both of which exceeded the actual inflation and the increase in productivity, accentuated the indexation processes by establishing a high nominal adjustment benchmark. Thus, total inflation went to 13.1% by the end of 2022. The annual change in food prices, which went from 17.2% to 27.8% between those two years, was the most influential factor in the surge in the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Another segment that contributed significantly to price increases was regulated products, which saw the annual change go from 7.1% in December 2021 to 11.8% by the end of 2022. The measure of core inflation excluding food and regulated items, in turn, went from 2.5% to 9.5% between the end of 2021 and the end of 2022. The substantial increase in core inflation shows that inflationary pressure has spread to most of the items in the household basket, which is characteristic of inflationary processes with generalized price indexation as is the case in Colombia. Monetary policy began to react early to this inflationary pressure. Thus, starting with its September 2021 session, the BDBR began a progressive change in the monetary policy stance moving away from the historical low of a 1.75% policy rate that had intended to stimulate the recovery of the economy. This adjustment process continued without interruption throughout 2022 and into the beginning of 2023 when the monetary policy rate reached 12.75% last January, thus accumulating an increase of 11 percentage points (pp). The public and the markets have been surprised that inflation continued to rise despite significant interest rate increases. However, as the BDBR has explained in its various communiqués, monetary policy works with a lag. Just as in 2022 economic activity recovered to a level above the pre-pandemic level, driven, along with other factors, by the monetary stimulus granted during the pandemic period and subsequent months, so too the effects of the current restrictive monetary policy will gradually take effect. This will allow us to expect the inflation rate to converge to 3.0% by the end of 2024 as is the BDBR’s purpose.Inflation results for January and February of this year showed declining marginal increases (13 bp and 3 bp respectively) compared to the change seen in December (59 bp). This suggests that a turning point in the inflation trend is approaching. In other Latin American countries such as Chile, Brazil, Perú, and Mexico, inflation has peaked and has begun to decline slowly, albeit with some ups and downs. It is to be expected that a similar process will take place in Colombia in the coming months. The expected decline in inflation in 2023 will be due, along with other factors, to lower cost pressure from abroad as a result of the gradual normalization of supply chains, the overcoming of supply shocks caused by the weather, and road blockades in previous years. This will be reflected in lower adjustments in food prices, as has already been seen in the first two months of the year and, of course, the lagged effect of monetary policy. The process of inflation convergence to the target will be gradual and will extend beyond 2023. This process will be facilitated if devaluation pressure is reversed. To this end, it is essential to continue consolidating fiscal sustainability and avoid messages on different public policy fronts that generate uncertainty and distrust. 1 This Report to Congress includes Box 1, which summarizes the trajectory of Banco de la República over the past 100 years. In addition, under the Bank’s auspices, several books that delve into various aspects of the history of this institution have been published in recent years. See, for example: Historia del Banco de la República 1923-2015; Tres banqueros centrales; Junta Directiva del Banco de la República: grandes episodios en 30 años de historia; Banco de la República: 90 años de la banca central en Colombia. 2 This is why lower inflation has been reflected in a reduction of income inequality as measured by the Gini coefficient that went from 58.7 in 1998 to 51.3 in the year prior to the pandemic. 3 See Gómez Javier, Uribe José Darío, Vargas Hernando (2002). “The Implementation of Inflation Targeting in Colombia”. Borradores de Economía, No. 202, March, available at: https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/5220 4 See López-Enciso Enrique A.; Vargas-Herrera Hernando and Rodríguez-Niño Norberto (2016). “The inflation targeting strategy in Colombia. An historical view.” Borradores de Economía, No. 952. https://repositorio.banrep.gov.co/handle/20.500.12134/6263 5 According to the IMF, the percentage change in consumer prices between 2021 and 2022 went from 3.1% to 7.3% for advanced economies, and from 5.9% to 9.9% for emerging market and developing economies. 6 https://www.banrep.gov.co/es/noticias/junta-directiva-banco-republica-reitera-meta-inflacion-3