Quotulatiousness

October 23, 2021

French Guerrilla War & German Retaliation during the Franco-Prussian War 1870

Filed under: France, Germany, History, Military — Tags: , , , , — Nicholas @ 04:00

Real Time History
Published 21 Oct 2021

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The French increasing reliance on franc-tireurs, guerrilla style fighters, is causing brutal German retaliation and a spiral of violence in the fall phase of the Franco-Prussian War.

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» LITERATURE
Arand, Tobias: 1870/71. Die Geschichte des Deutsch-Französischen Krieges erzählt in Einzelschicksalen. Hamburg 2018

Keegan, John: Die Kultur des Krieges. Berlin 1995

Neitzel, Sönke/Hohrath, Daniel (Hrsg.): Kriegsgreuel. Die Entgrenzung der Gewalt in kriegerischen Konflikten vom Mittelalter bis ins 20. Jahrhundert. Paderborn, München 2008

Roth, François: La Guerre de 1870. Paris 1990

» SOURCES
Busch, Moritz: Graf Bismarck und seine Leute während des Krieges mit Frankreich. Bd. I. Berlin 1878

Chuquet, Arthur: La Guerre 1870-71. Paris 1895

Engels, Friedrich: Der Deutsch-Französische Krieg. Sechzig Artikel aus der “Pall Mall Gazette”. Berlin (Ost) 1957

Fontane, Theodor: Kriegsgefangen. Erlebtes 1870. Briefe 1870/71. Berlin (Ost) 1984

Kriegsgeschichtliche Abteilung des Großen Generalstabs (Hrsg.): Der deutsch-französische Krieg 1870-71. II.1 Berlin 1878

Kürschner, Joseph (Hrsg.): Der große Krieg 1870–71 in Zeitberichten. Leipzig o. J. (1895)

Meisner, Heinrich Otto (Hrsg.): Kaiser Friedrich III. Das Kriegstagebuch von 1870/71. Berlin, Leipzig 1926

Roux, Georges: La Guerre de 1870. Paris 1966

Sarrepont, Major H. de (i.e. Eugène Hennebert): Histoire de la défense de Paris en 1870-1871. Paris 1872

Zeitz, Karl: Kriegserinnerungen eines Feldzugsfreiwilligen aus den Jahren 1870 und 1871. Altenburg 1905

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Presented by: Jesse Alexander
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The English Statute of Monopolies gets far more credit than it actually deserves

Filed under: Britain, History, Technology — Tags: , , , , , , , — Nicholas @ 03:00

The Statute of Monopolies (1624) is often said to have been critical in helping to start England on the road to the Industrial Revolution, but in the latest Age of Invention newsletter Anton Howes argues it is far more complicated than it seems:

Letters Patent Issued by Queen Victoria, 1839. On 15 June 1839 Captain William Hobson was officially appointed by Queen Victoria to be Lieutenant Governor General of New Zealand. Hobson (1792 – 1842) was thus the first Governor of New Zealand.
Constitutional Records group of Archives NZ via Wikimedia Commons.

One of the most frequently mentioned landmarks in the history of intellectual property is the Statute of Monopolies, passed by the English parliament in 1624. I’ve often seen it lauded as the beginning of the system of patents for invention, or the first patent law. I remember giving a talk a few years ago where I downplayed the role of formal institutions in encouraging the Industrial Revolution, prompting an outraged economist in the audience to point to the law as a sort of gotcha — “here’s a better explanation: with patents you incentivise invention, and the Brits had just invented patents”.

Which is all to illustrate that the Statute of Monopolies is often fundamentally misunderstood. So what, exactly, did it actually do? It’s a tale of opportunism, corruption, and court intrigue, with some actual innovation inbetween. The whole saga ended Francis Bacon’s political career, led to a major constitutional crisis, and set the scene for how inventors were to behave and act for well over a century. In this first part, I’ll give the context you’ll need to really appreciate what was going on, and I’ll publish the rest in the weeks to come.

First off, the Statute of Monopolies was certainly not the first patent law. Venice’s senate had enacted a law on monopolies for invention as early as 1474. But even then, we shouldn’t be looking for statutes at all. The history of patents does not begin in 1474, but much earlier, with plenty of monopolies over new inventions having already been granted by the ruling grand council of Venice, and by the authorities of other Italian cities like Florence. The key thing to recognise about early patents is that they were not a creation of parliaments or their statutes, but of those in charge. They were the creation of sovereigns, a creature of kings and queens (or in the case of republics like Venice, of governing councils).

As regular readers of this newsletter might remember, patent monopolies for invention had already had long history in England, well before 1624. Patents in general were a very ordinary tool of English monarchs, used to communicate their will. By issuing letters patent, monarchs essentially issued public orders, open for everyone to see. (Think “patently”, as in clearly or obvious, which comes from the same root.) Monarchs used letters patent to grant titles and lands, appoint or remove people as officials, extend royal protections to foreign immigrants, incorporate cities, guilds, even theatre troupes — in general, just to rule.

And, eventually, English monarchs copied the Venetians by issuing letters patent to grant temporary monopolies to particular people, to encourage them to make discoveries, publish books, or introduce new industries or inventions to the realm. It’s only over the passage of centuries that we’ve come to refer to patents for invention — a mere subset of letters patent, and really even a mere subset of patent monopolies for all sorts of other creative work — as simply patents. Intellectual property was thus a ruler-granted privilege, created in the same way that a town gains the official status of a city, or a commoner becomes a knight. English monarchs began granting monopolies for discovering new territories and trade routes from 1496, for printing certain books from 1512, and for introducing new industries or inventions from 1552 (with one weird isolated exception from as early as 1449).

Flower class corvettes – Guide 124

Filed under: Britain, Cancon, History, Military, WW2 — Tags: , , , , , — Nicholas @ 02:00

Drachinifel
Published 25 May 2019

The Flower class, ASW corvettes of the Royal Navy, are today’s subject.

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QotD: Patum Peperium, the Gentleman’s Relish

Filed under: Britain, Food, History, Quotations — Tags: , — Nicholas @ 01:00

… a word of warning, Gentleman’s Relish is an acquired taste. One look at the sludgy paste is enough to deter many. And then there is its pungent smell. Brave men have been known to blanch at it. Yet, once these initial reservations are overcome, you will discover a delicate paste that rivals Marmite in its deliciousness.

Opinions differ as to how and when you should eat Gentleman’s Relish. According to the Ritz, breakfast is the time to enjoy its piquant flavour, preferably on thinly sliced, brown toast. I prefer to eat it for tea, on white toast with a little mustard and cress. Mrs Beeton suggests that anchovy paste is usually spread on toast as “an excellent bonne bouche which enables gentlemen at wine-parties to enjoy their port with redoubled gusto”.

It was originally created in 1828 by John Osborn, an English provision merchant in Paris. Like any good marketing man, he created a grandiose name from a fictitious fudge of Latin and Greek implying pepper paste, to tempt his fashion-conscious customers into buying it. It only became known as Gentleman’s Relish once his son brought the business to London. According to Elsenham, its current manufacturer, it is still made according to the original recipe. It imports the finest Spanish anchovy fillets, which have been packed in barrels of salt and left to mature for 18 months. Once suitably fruity, they are rinsed in brine and gently cooked before being cooled and blended with butter and rusk. A secret blend of spices and herbs is then added.

Sybil Kapoor, “Spreading the word”, The Guardian, 2001-02-18.

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