Le Vietnam Une Histoire De Transferts Culturels

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Le Vietnam Une Histoire De Transferts Culturels Le Vietnam Une histoire de transferts culturels Hoai Huong Aubert-Nguyen et Michel Espagne (dir.) DOI : 10.4000/books.demopolis.461 Éditeur : Demopolis Année d'édition : 2015 Date de mise en ligne : 30 juin 2016 Collection : Quaero ISBN électronique : 9782354571146 http://books.openedition.org Édition imprimée ISBN : 9782354570774 Nombre de pages : 324 Référence électronique AUBERT-NGUYEN, Hoai Huong (dir.) ; ESPAGNE, Michel (dir.). Le Vietnam : Une histoire de transferts culturels. Nouvelle édition [en ligne]. Paris : Demopolis, 2015 (généré le 10 décembre 2020). Disponible sur Internet : <http://books.openedition.org/demopolis/461>. ISBN : 9782354571146. DOI : https:// doi.org/10.4000/books.demopolis.461. © Demopolis, 2015 Conditions d’utilisation : http://www.openedition.org/6540 Sous la direction de Hoai Huong Aubert-Nguyen et Michel Espagne & Michel Espagne Hoai Huong Aubert-Nguyen LE VIETNAM UNE HISTOIRE DE TRANSFERTS CULTURELS Loin de se résumer à un champ de bataille ou à un espace colonial dont l’émancipa- tion a déclenché tous les mouvements de libération ultérieurs, le Vietnam a été l’un CULTURELS des lieux les plus frappants de rencontres entre les peuples et les cultures dans l’his- toire humaine, un creuset de civilisations par rapport auquel les melting pots les IETNAM TRANSFERTS V plus souvent invoqués se résument à des E DE équations beaucoup plus simples. Il y a L certainement un moment vietnamien de l’histoire globale, les transferts culturels HISTOIRE CULTURELS qui ont formé le pays donnant un écho NE universel aux cataclysmes qui se sont U abattus sur lui. L’histoire ancienne du TRANSFERTS pays est déjà une histoire d’imbrications DE entre les cultures, chinoise et indienne. Ce livre a été conçu par Hoai Huong L’histoire moderne l’est davantage en- Aubert-Nguyen, enseignante de lettres et HISTOIRE core. De la littérature aux beaux-arts en écrivain, et par Michel Espagne, histo- NE passant par les phénomènes religieux, le rien des transferts culturels. Il rassemble . U système éducatif ou la constitution des vingt et un auteurs issus de disciplines savoirs, le temps est venu d’observer le très différentes : spécialistes du Vietnam, IETNAM dense réseau d’interactions qui consti- historiens de l’art, de la littérature, des V E L tuent le Vietnam et le relient au monde. sciences, archivistes. SODIS : 7235500 ISBN : 978-2-35457-077-4 29,50 € -:HSMDPE=Z\U\\Y: www.demopolis.fr Le Vietnam Une histoire de transferts culturels « Quaero » Collection dirigée par Jean-Christophe Tamisier Barbara Cassin et Danièle Wozny (dir.), Les intraduisibles du patrimoine en Afrique subshaharienne. Hosham Dawod (dir.), La constante « Tribu », variations arabo-musulmanes. Christian Ehrenfreund et Jean-Philippe Schreiber (dir.), Les marranismes. De la religiosité cachée à la société ouverte. Alexandre Fontaine, Aux heures suisses de l’école républicaine. Christian Ghasarian, Rapa. Île du bout du monde, île dans le monde. Charles-édouard Niveleau (dir.), Vers une philosophie scientifique. Le programme de Brentano. Pascale Rabault-Feuerhahn (dir.), Théories intercontinentales. Voyages du comparatisme postcolonial. Michèle-H. Salamagne et Patrick Thominet (dir.), Accompagner. Trente ans de soins palliatifs en France. Cet ouvrage a été publié avec le soutien du laboratoire d’excellence TransferS (programme Investissements d’avenir ANR-10-IDEX-0001-02 PSL* et ANR-10-LABX-0099). © Illustration de couverture : Valérie Linder © Éditions Demopolis, 2 015 4, rue Scipion 75005 Paris www.demopolis.fr ISBN : 978-2-35457-077-4 Sous la direction de Hoai Huong Aubert-Nguyen et Michel Espagne Le Vietnam Une histoire de transferts culturels Le présent volume rassemble les contributions présentées à l’occasion d’un colloque qui s’est tenu à l’École normale supérieure et à la Bibliothèque nationale de France du 4 au 6 juin 2014. Cette rencontre s’inscrivait dans le cadre de l’année France- Vietnam organisée par l’Institut français. Il convient de remercier ici l’ENS, le labex TransferS, l’IDEX PSL et la BnF qui ont accueilli cette manifestation, ainsi que l’UVSQ dont plusieurs membres ont activement participé à sa préparation. Merci à Valérie Linder pour l’illustration de couverture.  Les auteurs Nadine André-Pallois (INALCO) Julie Assier (université de Cergy-Pontoise) Hoai Huong Aubert-Nguyen (université de Versailles-St-Quentin) Pierre Brocheux (université Paris-Diderot) Cam Thi DOAN (INALCO) Michel Espagne (CNRS/ENS) Joëlle Garcia (BnF, département des Arts du spectacle/BULAC) Denis Gazquez (BnF, département Philosophie, Histoire, Sciences de l’homme) Jérome Gidoin (université Paris-Descartes) Andrew Hardy (EFEO) Tuân HOANG VAN (université de Versailles-St-Quentin) Olivier Loiseaux (BnF, département des Cartes et Plans) Pierre-Yves Manguin (EFEO) Laurence Monnais (université de Montréal) Giang Huong NGUYEN (BnF, département Littérature et Art) Phuong Ngoc NGUYEN (université Aix-Marseille) Thuy Phuong NGUYEN (université Paris-Descartes) Veronica Ntoumos (Paris IV Sorbonne/Université libre de Bruxelles/ aspirante FNRS) Philippe Papin (EPHE) Alain Ruscio (CID Vietnam) Thanh Vân TON THAT (université Paris-Est-Créteil) 3 Avant-propos Avant-propos l existe des représentations idylliques et oniriques du Vietnam transmises par des romans comme L’Amant de Marguerite Duras ou Ipar des films qui illustrent tantôt une société indochinoise raffinée et menacée de disparition dans Indochine, tantôt la sensualité de la vie quotidienne dans l’Odeur de la papaye verte. Le Vietnam s’identifie alors à une suite de goûts, de senteurs, de paysages, à des végétations incon- nues sous la chaleur écrasante, aux grandioses paysages de la baie d’Ha Long ou du cours du Mékong. Pourtant, le pays s’est aussi et avant tout confondu dans la conscience et l’imaginaire de beaucoup d’Européens, et plus particulièrement de Français, avec l’histoire de deux guerres et de leurs conséquences. La première est associée aux images de Dien Bien Phu ou du bagne de Poulo Condor et de ses cages à tigre, à celle de l’infirmière Geneviève de Galard ou du commissaire politique Georges Boudarel. Elle est souvent représentée à travers le prisme de deux conceptions opposées. L’une met en lumière les combats du Vietminh, dont les partisans apparaissent comme des héros de l’anticolonialisme et de la révolution sociale — cette vision occultant quelquefois des dérives inhumaines, notamment au cours de la révolution agraire. L’autre repose sur la nostalgie d’une époque magnifiée : celle des enseignants français contribuant à la démo- cratisation et à la diversification de la culture en Indochine, celle des gloires et de l’honneur militaires, qui transparaissent dans les films de Pierre Schoendoerffer, où la guerre d’Indochine est perçue in fine comme un combat antitotalitaire — vision qui ne peut s’affranchir d’un soupçon d’indulgence vis-à-vis de la féodalité annamite et du colonialisme. Ces deux conceptions sont évidemment inconciliables. Pour la guerre américaine, on pense à une petite fille brûlée par le napalm qui court sur une route de campagne, au chef de la police de Saigon exécutant un combattant vietcong, à la destruction de Hué et aux 7 Le Vietnam - Une histoire de transferts culturels monstruosités provoquées par l’agent orange, ou plus tard aux derniers officiels américains quittant Saigon par le toit de l’ambassade puis aux boat people errant de Hong-Kong à l’Australie. Du côté des figures vietna- miennes, il y a l’image un peu estompée de l’empereur Bao Dai, celle de Thich Quang Duc s’immolant par le feu, de Ngo Dinh Diem assassiné puis celle de Ho Chi Minh, témoin asiatique du congrès de Tours, et de son général et stratège, enseignant dans le civil l’histoire de France, le général Giap et ses bo doi. Des films comme Apocalypse now, des romans d’émi- grés écrits en anglais pour un public américain comme La nuit nous a surpris de Kien Nguyen ou Entre le ciel et la terre de Ly Hayslip, lui-même adapté dans un film américain, ont façonné une mémoire dominante de cette guerre qui s’est substituée à la mémoire coloniale française, dans laquelle chaque camp, supportant des pertes humaines et symboliques immenses, se définit malgré les antagonismes comme celui de la liberté. Si ces images contradictoires sont souvent liées à la guerre, leur pré- sence obsessionnelle, accordant au fond bien peu de place à la perception proprement vietnamienne de l’histoire du XXe siècle, ont surtout effacé un fait assez simple. Loin de se résumer à un champ de bataille ou à un espace colonial dont l’émancipation a déclenché tous les mouvements de libération ultérieurs, en Afrique notamment, le Vietnam a été l’un des lieux les plus frappants de rencontres entre les peuples et les cultures dans l’histoire humaine, un creuset de civilisations par rapport auquel les melting pots les plus souvent invoqués comme celui des États-Unis se résument à des équations beaucoup plus simples. Il y a certainement un moment vietnamien de l’histoire globale, les transferts culturels qui ont formé le pays donnant un écho universel aux cataclysmes qui se sont abattus sur lui. Le Vietnam a pu être, pour un temps, beaucoup plus qu’un théâtre de guerre, le miroir privilégié d’un basculement du monde. À la vérité, une science des choses vietnamiennes s’est développée en France depuis plus d’un siècle1. Elle s’enracine dans des récits de voyage ou d’expéditions qui ont depuis longtemps cédé la place à des recherches répondant à toutes les exigences de l’érudition historique, depuis les tra- vaux historiques de Lê Thân Khôi jusqu’aux études de Philippe Langlet sur le bouddhisme vietnamien. Nombre d’auteurs de cet ouvrage font partie de la famille des vietnamologues, dont on pourrait dès maintenant reconstruire l’histoire, les terrains de recherche favoris, les habitudes de publication et les questionnements. 1. On pense au récit du docteur Hocquard, Une campagne au Tonkin, réédité par Philippe Papin (1999) et qui décrit le Vietnam des années 1880.
Recommended publications
  • Indians As French Citizens in Colonial Indochina, 1858-1940 Natasha Pairaudeau
    Indians as French Citizens in Colonial Indochina, 1858-1940 by Natasha Pairaudeau A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of London School of Oriental and African Studies Department of History June 2009 ProQuest Number: 10672932 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10672932 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 Abstract This study demonstrates how Indians with French citizenship were able through their stay in Indochina to have some say in shaping their position within the French colonial empire, and how in turn they made then' mark on Indochina itself. Known as ‘renouncers’, they gained their citizenship by renoimcing their personal laws in order to to be judged by the French civil code. Mainly residing in Cochinchina, they served primarily as functionaries in the French colonial administration, and spent the early decades of their stay battling to secure recognition of their electoral and civil rights in the colony. Their presence in Indochina in turn had an important influence on the ways in which the peoples of Indochina experienced and assessed French colonialism.
    [Show full text]
  • Phan Bội Châu and the Imagining of Modern Vietnam by Matthew a Berry a Dissertation Submitted in Partia
    Confucian Terrorism: Phan Bội Châu and the Imagining of Modern Vietnam By Matthew A Berry A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Wen-hsin Yeh, Chair Professor Peter Zinoman Professor Emeritus Lowell Dittmer Fall 2019 Abstract Confucian Terrorism: Phan Bội Châu and the Imagining of Modern Vietnam by Matthew A Berry Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Wen-hsin Yeh, Chair This study considers the life and writings of Phan Bội Châu (1867-1940), a prominent Vietnamese revolutionary and nationalist. Most research on Phan Bội Châu is over forty years old and is contaminated by historiographical prejudices of the Vietnam War period. I seek to re- engage Phan Bội Châu’s writings, activities, and connections by closely analyzing and comparing his texts, using statistical and geographical systems techniques (GIS), and reconsidering previous juridical and historiographical judgments. My dissertation explores nationalism, modernity, comparative religion, literature, history, and law through the life and work of a single individual. The theoretical scope of this dissertation is intentionally broad for two reasons. First, to improve upon work already done on Phan Bội Châu it is necessary to draw on a wider array of resources and insights. Second, I hope to challenge Vietnam’s status as a historiographical peculiarity by rendering Phan Bội Châu’s case comparable with other regional and global examples. The dissertation contains five chapters. The first is a critical analysis of Democratic Republic of Vietnam and Western research on Phan Bội Châu.
    [Show full text]
  • Eighth Session, Commencing at 2.30 Pm WORLD SILVER & BRONZE
    Eighth Session, Commencing at 2.30 pm WORLD SILVER & BRONZE COINS CHINA 1996* China, Empire, Chihli Province, silver dollar, Pei Yang type, year 34 (1908), 39mm (26.60 g), (KM.Y.73.3). Toned, very fi ne. $150 1992* China, Empire, An-Hwei Province, twenty cents, nd.1897, (KM.43.1, Kann 50). Bright, nearly uncirculated. $500 part 1997* China, Empire, Chingkiang Province, twenty cash, obv. 1993* 'Kuang-hsu Yuan pao', rev. Hu Poo facing dragon, various China, Empire, Cheh-Kiang Province, silver fi ve cents, nd varieties, c.1903, (KM.Y5). Mostly very fi ne - extremely fi ne, (1898), (KM.Y51). Golden tone, extremely fi ne, scarce. one with mint bloom traces. (15) $200 $200 1994* China, Empire, Cheh-Kiang Province obverse mule with Kiang See Province reverse, Kuang Hsu, (1875-1908), copper ten cash, issued 1903-6), (KM.-). Extremely fi ne with mint part bloom, extremely rare. 1998* $250 China, Empire, Chingkiang Province, twenty cash, obv. 'Tai- ch'ing T'ung pi', rev. facing dragon, 'Kuang-hsu Nien-tsao' TAI CHING TI KUO, c.1905, (KM.Y11), also includes Pei Yang and Feng Tien, twenty cash coins. Mostly very fi ne - extremely fi ne, several with mint bloom. (25) $250 1995* China, Empire, Chihli Province, silver dollar, Pei Yang type, year 34 (1908), (26.44 g), long centre spine of tail (KM. Y.73.2). Toned, with surface marks and scratches, nearly very fi ne. $200 241 1999* 2004* China, Empire, Chingkiang, central mint, Tientsin, under China, Empire, Kirin Province, silver dollar, 1906, 38.5mm, Hsuen Tung (1908-1911), issued in 3rd year (1911), silver (26.37 g), (KM.Y183, Kann 537).
    [Show full text]
  • Petits-Blancs and the Politics of Military Allocations Distribution In
    Shades of Whiteness: Petits-­Blancs and the Politics of Military Allocations Distribution in World War I Colonial Cochinchina � Christina­Firpo Abstract During World War I male French citizens in Cochinchina whom the colonial government had drafted to fight in Europe left their families behind in the colony. Through a complicated subsidies process, the government offered financial assistance to families impoverished by the draftee’s departure and the concomitant loss of income. Far from being a monolithic category, the colony’s poor white applicants, also known as petits-blancs , received varying government subsidies, depending on their family configurations. This article argues that the military allocations council’s judgments correlate with the petits-blancs applicants’ relationships to indigenous people and their adherence to traditional gender roles. To guard white prestige, the colonial government effectively penal- ized petits-blancs applicants who deviated from behavior associated with whiteness. In 1917 a mobilized soldier named Pierre L.—a resident of Cochin- china, a French colony in southern Vietnam—received an allocation of 45.0 piastres per month, or 1.5 piastres per day, with which to sup- port his family while he was on duty in Europe.1 Military allocations were part of a colonial program to support families suffering economic hardship after their male heads of household had been drafted to fight in Europe.2 As wives assumed the leadership role of their homes, the families suffered financially. Because Pierre L. was a French citizen, his family was eligible for this program. His wife, T. Thi Hay, appealed to the military allocations council for an increase in her subsidy, which she Christina Firpo is assistant professor of Southeast Asian history at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.
    [Show full text]
  • 2015 Tran Thi Phuong Hoa | Vietnamese Academy of Social
    2015 - URBAN WOMEN: EDUCATION, HYGIENE, HARVARD-YENCHING FEMININE HYGIENE PRODUCTS AND INSTITUTE WORKING THE EMERGING COMMODITY MARKET IN EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY TONKIN PAPER SERIES Tran Thi Phuong Hoa | Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences Urban Women: education, hygiene, feminine hygiene products and the Emerging Commodity Market in Early Twentieth-Century Tonkin* Tran Thi Phuong Hoa Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences HYI Visiting Scholar 2014-2015 [email protected] *The paper was presented at AAS, Chicago March 2015. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Professor Hue Tam Ho Tai, chair of my panel, for her preliminary review and kind advice. All opinions and errors are my own. This version maintains the format of the conference paper . It would be developed in full article in the future. Abstract. This paper will examine the intersection of feminine identities and consumerism, focusing on the growing use of feminine hygiene products in colonial urban Tonkin. At the beginning of the twentieth century, Tonkinese women experienced changes in their daily life: the market for western products expanded, advertisements targeted at women grew, schools delivered hygiene lessons, household incomes increased, and urban homes provided sanitation facilities and private space for women. When feminine hygiene products such as soap, cosmetics became popular by mid 1930s, manufactured feminine hygiene napkins were hardly accessible to local women. In traditional Vietnamese society, women typically dealt with menstruation through confinement and isolation, which was still observed in the first half of the twentieth century. Drawing on interviews and a few publications, I try to look at the feminine consuming behaviors from the socio-cultural and historical perspectives, which I use as the main approach to present the relationship of women and consumption in colonial Tonkin.
    [Show full text]
  • Chinese Rice Trade and Shipping from the North Vietnamese Port of Hai Phong
    University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Arts - Papers (Archive) Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities 1-1-2007 Chinese rice trade and shipping from the North Vietnamese Port of Hai Phong Julia T. Martinez University of Wollongong, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Martinez, Julia T., Chinese rice trade and shipping from the North Vietnamese Port of Hai Phong 2007, 82-96. https://ro.uow.edu.au/artspapers/707 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Chinese Southern Diaspora Studies, Volume 1, 2007 南方华裔研究杂志, 第一卷, 2007 Chinese Rice Trade and Shipping from the North Vietnamese Port of Hải Phòng ©2007 Julia Martínez Abstract This overview of Chinese trade in northern Vietnam explores the role of the Chinese rice traders there, especially in Hải Phòng, and their connections with Hong Kong and southern China, during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It shows they were never mere colonial middlemen but economic actors with ties to German and English business interests as well as to the French. The article traces what various primary sources can tell us of their community and business history, as well as revealing the intricate business ties of Chinese rice exporters in colonial Hải Phòng with German shipping companies, up until World War One. Introduction Chinese merchants dominated the rice trade from Tonkin (or present northern Vietnam̀) both before and during the French colonial period.
    [Show full text]
  • French Influence Overseas: the Rise and Fall of Colonial Indochina Julia Alayne Grenier Burlette Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College
    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Master's Theses Graduate School 2007 French influence overseas: the rise and fall of colonial Indochina Julia Alayne Grenier Burlette Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Burlette, Julia Alayne Grenier, "French influence overseas: the rise and fall of colonial Indochina" (2007). LSU Master's Theses. 1327. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_theses/1327 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Master's Theses by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. FRENCH INFLUENCE OVERSEAS: THE RISE AND FALL OF COLONIAL INDOCHINA A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in The Department of History by Julia Alayne Grenier Burlette B.A., Northwestern State University, 2004 December 2007 Acknowledgments First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Benjamin F. Martin, for his enduring guidance, knowledge, and most of all, patience, while working with me long-distance. Through you, I learned to become a better scholar and writer, and for that, I will always be grateful. I also appreciate the guidance of my other committee members, Dr. David F. Lindenfeld and Dr. Paul E. Hoffman. To my close friends who have endured this journey with me: Kelly Whittaker, Carolyn Day, and Marc “Canada” Patenaude.
    [Show full text]
  • A History of Gender in Colonial and Contemporary Vietnam by Quang
    From Red Lights to Red Flags: A History of Gender in Colonial and Contemporary Vietnam by Quang-Anh Richard Tran A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric and the Designated Emphasis in Women, Gender, and Sexuality in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in Charge: Professor Judith Butler, Co-Chair Professor Peter Zinoman, Co-Chair Professor Michael Lucey Professor Ramona Naddaff Fall 2011 1 Abstract From Red Lights to Red Flags: A History of Gender in Colonial and Contemporary Vietnam By Quang-Anh Richard Tran Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric University of California, Berkeley Professor Judith Butler, Co-Chair Professor Peter Zinoman, Co-Chair This dissertation argues that the public discourse of Vietnam‘s periods of modernity—the late French colonial era (1930-1940) and that of the post-socialist decades (1986-2005)— produced interlocking notions of what I call queer subjects, subjects who oppose or exceed a normative understanding of heterosexual reproduction. The dissertation posits, however, a diachronic rupture in the dominant meaning of queer between these two periods. Whereas the former exhibited a capacious vision of gender and sexuality, one that pushed the imagined frontiers of the human body, the post-socialist decades marked a retreat to a static notion of mythic tradition that pathologized and purged queer bodies through recourse to a late nineteenth- century European discourse of gender-inversion, the notion of a man ―trapped‖ in a women‘s body or vice versa. To demonstrate this change, the first chapter argues that the normative meaning of gender and sexuality in late colonial Vietnam was far more dynamic and expansive than the contemporary scholarship has acknowledged.
    [Show full text]
  • Exchange Rates and Exchange Rate Policies in Vietnam Under French Rule, 1878-1945 *
    Exchange Rates and Exchange Rate Policies in Vietnam Under French Rule, 1878-1945 * Jean-Pascal Bassino ** and Hironobu Nakagawa *** Abstract Although the French franc, a gold standard currency before 1914, and between 1929 and 1936, was the sole legal tender within the framework of the French colonial Empire, Vietnam was an exception. This country, along with the other territories which were part of French Indochina, had a separate national currency, the piastre, established in 1878, which was not pegged to the franc until 1930. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the rationale and effectiveness of exchange rate policies in Vietnam, considered as a representative case of a small open Asian economy in the context of pre-Bretton-Woods exchange rates instability in Asia. As a country deeply integrated in intra-Asian trade, but also receiving manufactured goods, loans and private investments from France and other European countries, Vietnam was concerned about the fluctuations of exchange rates both in the East and the West. Our study relies on the collection of a comprehensive set of nominal exchange rates of the piastre against the main Western and Asian currencies (yearly average series from 1878 to 1945, and monthly average between 1923 and 1940). Stylised facts on long run evolution suggest that the piastre exchange regime based on the silver standard was, surprisingly, an efficient arrangement before 1930. In addition, cointegration tests on bilateral exchange rates indicate that the franc-peg, introduced in 1930, was rather a disappointing policy. Contents Introduction I. Institutional context and methodology II. The rationale of exchange rate policies in Vietnam under French rule III.
    [Show full text]
  • Colonial and Indigenous Institutions in the Fiscal Development of French Indochina
    Colonial and indigenous institutions in the fiscal development of French Indochina Montserrat Lopez Jerez Date of deposit 16 12 2019 Document version Author’s accepted manuscript Access rights Copyright © 2019 Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved. This work has been made available online in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. Citation for Lopez Jerez, M. (2019). Colonial and indigenous institutions in the published version fiscal development of French Indochina. In E. Frankema, & A. Booth (Eds.), Fiscal Capacity and the Colonial State in Asia and Africa, 1850-1960 (pp. 110-136). (Cambridge studies in economic history - second series). Cambridge University Press. Link to published https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108665001.004 version Full metadata for this item is available in St Andrews Research Repository at: https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/ Chapter 4 Colonial and Indigenous Institutions in the Fiscal Development of French Indochina Montserrat López Jerez1 The idea of this experiment (Indochina) as a unity of diverse ethnically, historically and geographically countries is either an absurdity or the essence of federalism Touzet (1935, 100) Introduction French Indochina was a paradoxical state for several reasons. First, it was a federal state, in contrast to the metropolitan government itself. Second, within the federal arrangement, Cochinchina was the only colony. The other four regions that constituted Indochina became protectorates, with different levels of intervention, although French rule was mostly indirect.
    [Show full text]
  • Currency Circulating in Vietnam During the Tu Duc
    This is a translation of the article “Monnaies et circulation monetairé au Vietnam dans l’ère Tự Đức (1848-1883) by Francois Thierry Published in Revue Numismatique 1999 (volume # 154). Pgs 267-313. This translation is from pages 274-297. Translator Craig Greenbaum CURRENCY TYPES AND THEIR FACE VALUES DURING THE TỰ ĐỨC ERA The traditional Vietnamese monetary system rests on the joint use of three monetary metals; zinc, brass and silver as money. The Chinese monetary system is monometallic and the authorities only emitted brass (or copper) currency. The Vietnamese law fixes the reciprocal value and the rate of exchange of the various currency types and various metals. The One Sapèque of Zinc (during the Tự Đức era) In the Tự Đức era, the one sapèque of zinc (văn) was the base of the Vietnamese monetary system and represented the currency type indicating the smallest value. Since the reign of Gia Long (1802-1819) it was legal tender in all the empire and was received in transactions in all the provinces. It was the currency of consumption for the Vietnamese population. "The Annamites had a brass currency formerly, it has almost completely disappeared. They have maintained for small money, of discs of zinc with a square hole in the middle...” (Bouillevaux 485). The casting of the zinc currencies seems to have begun in the first year of the reign of Tự Đức (1848). The official type had the standard of the currency of 6 phần (approximately 2,28 Grams)14 instituted under Minh Mạng (1820-1839) and this remained the same during the entire Tự Đức era, in spite of the proposal made in 1869 by Nguyễn Bỉnh to create and cast coins a 5 phần coin.
    [Show full text]
  • Explaining the Flows of Silver in and out of China
    Working Papers No. 173/13 A Trojan Horse in Daoguang China? Explaining the flows of silver in and out of China Alejandra Irigoin © Alejandra Irigoin January 2013 1 Department of Economic History London School of Economics Houghton Street London, WC2A 2AE Tel: +44 (0) 20 7955 7860 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7955 7730 1 A Trojan Horse in Daoguang China? Explaining the flows of silver in and out of China1 Alejandra Irigoin Written on board of US Steamer San Jacinto – anchored in Shanghai in October 1856 - a report to the New York Times on the “Progress of the Rebellion in China” indicated that the US government “was forced to buy the Carolus dollars at an increasing sacrifice in order to pay its high salaried officers, not for what they are bought, for a Carolus dollars count not more than a Mexican or American with the pursers of the US navy”. In Shanghai the coin was at 50% premium above of the Mexican coin or any other silver coin of equal weight in circulation. No reason was given for such wild appreciation other than “the prejudice of the Chinese” in favour of the old Spanish American coin. According to the source “one hundred Carolus could buy in any established commercial house in China 150 American dollar or other silver dollars (and) a hundred pound draft on the bank of England maybe had for 250 or 270 Carolus, and larger or smaller ones in the same ratio” at the time when 450 or more pesos were required elsewhere in Europe or America for a sterling.
    [Show full text]