Causal Pattern Analysis of Networked Economic Sovereignty

Introduction

The legal concept of sovereignty does not capture foreign trade relations, networks, or economic clout. This shortcoming has resulted from a historical reduction of its meaning since the 1600s.

Project Overview

This project will analyze legal concepts of sovereignty that developed before that time, within six networked cities of commerce:

• Bruges
• Southampton
• Rouen
• Lübeck
• Toulouse
• Florence

In the period of 1400-1620, cities were interconnected through trade routes, correspondence, and diplomacy. Legal concepts of sovereignty were crafted bottom-up and were more encompassing than the present-day legal concept of sovereignty, especially regarding economic relations.

Methodology

In the proposed project, agent-based and network methods will be used to track down these changes. The dynamism of conceptual change at the level of individual cities will be related to commercial, political, and social developments, which will be assessed with agent-based modeling.

Impact of Developments

These developments influenced:

1. Institutional set-ups
2. Constitutional approaches
3. The organization of trade
4. Policies of access toward foreigners

At the level of networks between cities, dynamics impacting sovereignty concepts related to foreign relations yielded features different from developments within cities.

Analysis Techniques

Network analysis will make it possible to detect:

• The dispersal and weight of sovereignty concepts
• Whether some concepts underpinned a transnational field of sovereignty

Conclusion

Causal patterns underlying change will be the outcome of this research into the cities and their networks. These patterns will be used to create an updated legal concept of economic sovereignty.