This chapter contrasts with the introduction by focusing on an event that an intersection of different sources (Ottoman, Arabic, English and French sources) document in an exceptional way: the attack of a big caravan on its road from Damascus to Baghdad in 1857. Its aims at plunging readers into the life, business and management of caravans in the mid-nineteenth century – a period that is introduced here as a turning point for life and business in the steppe in the Ottoman realms. Built as an enquiry into the attack and into what the historiography has considered a handicap of overland trade (insecurity) unlike oceanic trade, this chapter illuminates the regional system institutionalised by Bedouin/State/Traders to deal efficiently with insecurity and hazards of caravan trade over long distances.

This chapter analyses foreign trade and trade routes in the Iberian Peninsula between the eleventh and the fifteenth centuries. It overviews the dual circumstances of the Christian kingdoms and of the Muslim al-Andalus over the long term, although it focuses especially on the period between the thirteenth and the fifteenth centuries, and on events taking place in Castile, Aragon and Portugal. The study tries to answer questions like how were the Iberian trade ties forged, how did the Iberian economies integrate with the Mediterranean and north-European markets, and what role did Iberian and foreign traders play in the commercial gamble. For this purpose, the Iberian trade is examined from three different angles. First, from the routes and the goods traded among the Iberian kingdoms as well as outside Iberia. Second, from the role of agents and institutions. This will involve an analysis of the distinction between local and foreign traders, as well as the influence of institutional frameworks on foreign trade. Finally, the chapter clarifies the reasons why Iberia achieved a leading position in European trade during the later middle ages, and why it spearheaded foreign trade at the dawn of the sixteenth century and the so-called “First Global Age”.

Composition, types, mechanism of action, efficacy, effectiveness, health risks, benefits, usage and follow up of progesterone implants

This chapter discusses how innovations are reshaping the two major fundamental strategic options that a shipowner typically might have: asset-play, i.e., a typically short-term focus on “in-out/long-short”, vs. industrial shipping, i.e. more tailored ships employed on longer-term charters, and typically with relatively high financial gearing. Key innovations are reshaping the essence of each of these strategic options, above all, regarding what might now be a commercially modern ship. Customer closeness is increasingly seen as key to all of this.