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Bibliography
Primary sources
Brandes, Jan, Max de Bruijn, and Remco Raben. The World of Jan Brandes, 1743-1808. Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum; Zwolle: Waanders, 2004.
Dapper, Olfert. Umbständliche Und Eigentliche Beschreibung Von Africa, Und Denen Darzu Gehörigen König. Beschreibung Von Afrika; Naukeurige Beschrijvinge Der Afrikaensche Gewesten. German. In Amsterdam: Bey Jacob von Meurs, 1969.
---. Beschreibung Von Afrika/ Durch O. Dapper. New York: Johnson Reprint Corp., 1967.
Valentijn, François. Oud En Nieuw Oost-Indiën : Vervattende Een Naaukeurige En Uitvoerige Verhandelinge Van Nederlands Mogentheyd in Die Gewesten, Benevens Eene Wydluftige Beschryvinge Der Moluccos, Amboina, Banda, Timor En Solor, Java, En Alle De Eylanden Onder Dezelve Landbestieringen Behoorende : Het Nederlands Comptoir Op Suratte, En De Levens Der Groote Mogols : Als Ook Een Keurlyke Verhandeling Van 't Wezentlykste Dat Men Behoort Te Weten Van Choromandel, Pegu, Arracan, Bengale, Mocha, Persien, Malacca, Sumatra, Ceylon, Malabar, Celebes of Macassar, China, Japan, Tayouan of Formosa, Tonkin, Cambodia, Siam, Borneo, Bali, Kaap Der Goede Hoop En Van Mauritius : Te Zamen Dus Behelzende Niet Alleen Eene Zeer Nette Beschryving Van Alles, Wat Nederlands Oost-Indien Betreft, Maar Ook 't Voornaamste Dat Eenigzins Tot Eenige Andere Europeërs, in Die Gewesten, Betrekking Heeft. Franeker: Van Wijnen, 2002.
This book, written by François Valentijn, discusses the different countries that the Dutch East India Company traded with in the Far East. Valentijn spent sixteen years in the East Indies as a minister, and he lived in tropical locales such as Java and Ambon. This book contains more than a thousand illustrations, including the most up-to-date maps of the eighteenth century. [Tami Latta]
https://archive.org/details/gri_33125008243392
---. Oud En Niew Oost-Indien, Vervattende Een Naaukeurige En Uitvoerige Verhandelinge Van Nederlands Mogentheyd in Die Gewesten, Benevens Eene Wydluftige Beschryvinge Der Moluccos, Amboina, Banda, Timor En Salon, Java En Alle De Eylanden Onder Dezelve Landbestieringen Behoorende; Het Nederlands Comptoir Op Suratte, En De Levens Der Groote Mogols; Als Ook Een Keurlyke Verhandeling Van't Wezenlykste, Dat Men Behoort Te Weten Van Choromandel, Pegu, Arracan, Bengale, Mocha, Persien, Malacca, Sumatra, Ceylon, Malabar, Celebes of Macassar, China, Japan, Tayouan of Formosa, Tonkin, Cambodia, Siam, Borneo, Bali, Kaap Der Goede Hoop En Van Mauritius. Dordrecht: Joannes van Braam, 1726.
Secondary sources
Akveld, Leo and Els M. Jacobs, eds. The Colourful World of the VOC. Bussum, Netherland Thoth Publishers, 2002.
As Akveld and Jacobs note in The Colourful World of the VOC: National Anniversary Book: 1602-2002, the Dutch initially used Table Bay in the South Africa near the Cape of Good Hope, only as a protected anchorage for their ships sailing to or from Batavia. Voyagers could get fresh supplies such as water, meat and eggs there from tribal groups such as the Khoikhoi and Bushmen. In 1652 Jan van Riebeeck built a fort for the VOC at Table Bay and the Dutch began to gradually explore the interior of southern Africa. At the same time, printed travel accounts began to surface describing the many strange things that could be seen in this region, namely exotic tribal groups clothed in skins of wild beasts, adorned in feathers and gold bracelets and engaging in exotic rituals and customs. The scope of Akveld and Jacobs account of the Dutch presence in South Africa is rather limited. Illustrations include a drawing of the VOC ship Hoop near the Cape of Good Hope, and a drawing of a tall adorned tribal chief known as a kaffir captain. The term kaffir was used by Europeans in South Africa used for black peoples---and it was still used until only a few decades ago. [Elizabeth C. Schmid]
Barbour, Richmond. “The East India Company Journal of Anthony Marlowe, 1607--1608.” Huntington Library Quarterly 71, no. 2 (June, 2008): 255-301. Electronic Source
Barbour presents the first complete transcription of the Hector Journal written by Anthony Marlowe during the first English voyage to India. Marlowe’s work articulates the struggle of the English East India Company to secure a sustainable corporate strategy. The difficulties were in large part due to the perilously long journey that encountered a variety of people en route. Marlowe describes the people of Sierra Leone, South Africa, Madagascar, and Socotra and comments on their value as clients for commercial trade. The text demonstrates how the English arrival to India was not originally motivated by colonial conquest but rather as a shrewd capitalistic venture. [Nathan Popp]
Bleichmar, Daniela, and Peter C. Mancall. “Introduction.” in Collecting Across Cultures: Material Exchanges in the Early Modern Atlantic World.” edited by Daniela Bleichmar and Peter C. Mancall. 1-11. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. Electronic Source
Daniela Bleichmar is an associate Professor of both Art History and History at the University of Southern California. Her research primarily concerns the history of the Spanish empire, early modern Europe, visual and material culture in science, collecting and display, books, and prints. Peter C. Mancall is a Professor of History and Anthropology at USC, and is a historian of early America, the early modern Atlantic world, early modern environmental history, and early Native American Indian history. Together, these scholars edited a collection of fourteen essays which represent new research being done in the cross-cultural history of collecting and display from the dawn of the sixteenth century to the early decades of the nineteenth century. While this introduction by Bleichmar and Mancall does not exclusively concern research about South Africa, it provides a strong beginning for anyone interested in collectors outside Europe, the circulation of commodities across cultures and geographic locations, or the foundations of globalism. In addition, in this introduction, they briefly discuss Benjamin Schmidt’s essay, Collecting Global Icons: The Case of the Exotic Parasol, which is also annotated here. The authors’ foremost concern is elucidating the idea that interest in the acquisition, display, and study of objects was not exclusive to Europeans. Instead, they suggest that collecting “can be best understood through a cross-cultural lens” and “often involved cross-cultural contact,” necessitating the kind of research put forth in this collection of essays (1).1. Daniela Bleichmar and Peter C. Mancall, Collecting Across Cultures: Material Exchanges in the Early Modern Atlantic World (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 4.
Available Reviews: Parsons, Christopher M. “Review of Collecting Across Cultures: Material Exchanges in the Early Modern Atlantic World.” The British Journal for the History of Science 45, no. 1 (2012): 128-129.
[Ashley Mason]
Bryant, Mark. "Boer Gore." History Today 59, no. 2 (February, 2008): 60-61. Electronic Source
Bryant’s brief text discusses the public relations issues raised by political cartoonists during Britain’s conflict with South African Boers. European artists working for continental press agencies used biting comical satire to take the British government to task on Boer War atrocities – that included, but were not limited to, concentration camps with electric fences and weaponry modified to inflict maximum harm. The overarching theme of visual commentaries was the complete disregard for human life in order to acquire natural resources and gain economic advantage. [Nathan Popp]
Carman, Jillian. Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Paintings in South Africa: A Checklist of Paintings in Public Collections. Johannesburg: Johannesburg Art Gallery, 1994.
Conlon, Fraser H. "Good Hope for Craft: Cape Town, South Africa." American Craft 70, no. 2 (April/May, 2010): 66-70. Electronic Source
Conlon’s article features the activity of a cultural empowerment project called “Monkeybiz.” Founded by Barbara Jackson and Shirley Fintz in 2000, the Cape Town based group invites local women to participate in helping revive traditional craft in a contemporary setting. Joan Krupp, current manager of “Monkeybiz,” asserts that South African beadwork art died during apartheid and her grassroots approach is bringing the craft back to life. With a global distribution supporting 450 women, the “Monkeybiz” retail store is lifting starving families out of poverty and making it possible for mothers to send their children to school. Although beadwork was historically a Xhosa and Zulu craft, contemporary artist embrace all the visual influences present within Cape Town – the Dutch settlement turned modern multi-cultural center. [Nathan Popp]
Fransen, Hans and Mary Alexander Cook. The Old Houses of the Cape; a Survey of the Existing Buildings in the Traditional Style of Architecture of the Dutch-Settled Regions of the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Town, Amsterdam: A. A. Balkema, 1965.
Freschi, Federico. “Big Business Beautility: The Old Mutual Building, Cape Town, South Africa.” The Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts 20 (1994): 38-57. Electronic Source
Originally a classically trained opera singer, Federico Freschi is currently a lecturer of art history at University of the Witwatersrand’s School of Arts in Johannesburg, South Africa. This article examines the architectural forms and the interior/exterior decorative program of the Old Mutual Building in Cape Town, South Africa (completed in 1940). Freschi argues that the forms of and images seen throughout the whole of the building suggest a structure that is “at once a worthy monument to modern design and the consolidation of an important corporate and public image” (39). Yet, despite the Old Mutual Building's emphasis on modernity and progress, it is Freschi’s observation that the conflation of South African history with contemporary history has had profound implications for the interpretation of the decorative program of the building. While Freschi insists that the exterior sculpted frieze that surrounds the entire building and the painted murals in the Board and Assembly Rooms are propagandistic, his analysis of the imagery concludes that "the decorative program of the Old Mutual Building must be seen to valorize European Colonial values, social ideals, and contemporary aesthetic conventions; while the images are of stylistic and historical interest, their subject matter is outdated and certainly inappropriate to the corporate image of South Africa today" (57). This article includes rich illustrations, including many details of the decorative program and the forms of the building itself. [Amanda Strasik]
Hassan, Salah and Iftikhar Dadi. Unpacking Europe: Towards a Critical Reading. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Museum Boijmans van Beuningen: NAi Publishers, 2001.
Jordan, Stacey C. “Coarse Earthenware at the Dutch Colonial Cape of Good Hope, South Africa: A History of Local Production and Typology of Products.” International Journal of Historical Archaeology 4, no. 2 (June, 2000): 113-143. Electronic Source
Jordan explores early pottery production at the Dutch East India Company (VOC) settlement around Table Bay. The everyday needs of the company’s colony were not satisfied by provisions from the homeland or trade objects, and necessity required them to utilize local earthenware products. Instead of purchasing utilitarian objects from the local people, the Dutch established earthenware potteries operated by European company potters – using native red clay and indigenous methods. Jordan offers typological evidence to demonstrate that vessels manufactured by the VOC reproduced European forms, but were made in an African manner. In this way Jordan believes that compared to the European metals and Asian porcelains being traded, the very insignificance of VOC coarse earthenware becomes significant. [Nathan Popp]
Leggatt, Hugo, and Renée Rust. “An Unusual Rock Painting of A Ship Found in the Attakwaskloof.” The Digging Stick 21, no. 2 (August, 2004): 5-8. Electronic Source
Leggatt and Rust discuss a select number of cave art images in South Africa represent archetypal European ships with three large masts. Focusing on the most recent discovery at Attakwaskloof, they argue that these artworks are clear evidence of interaction with Europeans and question the authorship of these seemingly primitive paintings. The authors theorize that the shape of the ship's hull and flag design is a seventeenth-century Dutch ship that may have been docked at a nearby harbor. Their interpretation is that the painting is by a local artist who was visually describing what they had witnessed in person. Leggatt and Rust hesitate to make a clear distinction of who the paintings creator could be though because the large amount of detail may have been more than an indigenous person without naval experience could be capable of. [Nathan Popp]
Leggatt, Nick. "The Ship Cave Painting: As Seen by a Sailor." The Digging Stick 21, no. 3 (December, 2004): 13-15. Electronic Source
Nick Leggatt responds to Hugo Leggatt and Renée Rust’s earlier publication to argue that the Attakwaskloof rock painting could not possibly be an indigenous artist because one would need to understand a ship’s elaborate rigging in order to represent it with suck clear amount of detail that is seen at Attakwaskloof. The author’s analysis of the mechanics concludes that an Africa artist would not be able to render many of the fine details without hands on experience. Instead Leggatt offers the possibility that the creator was Hieronymus Cruse. Cruse was a Dutch trader who was sent by superiors to the area in 1668 to trade cattle with the locals. The Dutchman's exchange was the first known contact between the Attaquas peoples of Mossel Bay with a European. Leggat asserts that it was Cruse who painted the ship as an introduction and a didactic way to explain where he came from. [Nathan Popp]
Merrington, Peter. "Cape Dutch Tongaat: A Case Study in 'Heritage'." Journal of Southern African Studies 32, no. 4 (December, 2006): 683-699. Electronic Source
Merrington analyzes the development of Cape Dutch architecture in Tongaat, the wider culture of early and mid-twentieth century South Africa, and finally as constructed 'heritage.' Merrinton use heritage in a highly specific manner noting connections between Edumnd Burke, Ruskin, and noting the nationalism in many of the late 19th century British revival movements. As he states, "English National Trust, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the vernacular architecture revival. The primary focus was Cape baroque architecture, which defined the national idiom."1 Merrington notes that while the gentry of South Africa were reviving the Cape Dutch style of architecture they were also seeking, and receiving official title of nobility from the British Crow. Marrington's interest in Cape Dutch architecture is ancillary to his more specific interest in how Tongaat is a sugarcane growing township in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa on the Indian Ocean Coast end up with so many Cape Dutch style buildings. Tracking down the answers to these questions Merrington focus on the career of Robert 'Gwelo' Goodman, who developed a plan for Tongaat with using Cape Dutch forms, with strong paternalistic and moralizing goals. The projects started as a response to an Malaria outbreak, but as Merrington summarizes "was expanded and over the next three decades became a pilot scheme for social improvement and town planning as well as race relations."2 Goodman believed that the aesthetics of the Cape Dutch style, referred to as Gwelo Colonialism in Tongaat, could improve soceity, as evident by his motto, "clean up the front street and the rest will look after itself."3 While Goodman did not see his architectural visions completed subsequent architects used similar design principles and Tongaat has to this day many Cape Dutch, Gwelo Colonial, and Cape Georgian style structures.1 Peter Merrington "Cape Dutch Tongaat: A Case Study in 'Heritage'" Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 32, No. 4, Heritage in Southern Africa (Dec., 2006): 683.
2 Merrington: 684.
3 Merrington: 692.
[Tyler E. Ostergaard]
Perryer, Sophie, ed. Personal Affects: Power and Poetics in Contemporary South African Art. New York: Museum for African Art; Cape Town: Spier, 2004.
This catalogue was published in conjunction with an exhibit entitled Personal Affects: Power and Poetics in Contemporary South African Art, shown at the Museum for African Art in New York and the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in New York. Both the text and the exhibition highlight seventeen contemporary artists, all residents of South Africa but of varying cultural and racial heritage. Through a variety of media, these artists address different aspects of post-apartheid South America including identity, memory, the body, and personal history. The well-illustrated catalogue consists of two scholarly essays followed by interviews with each of the artists in addition to short biographies. “The Enigma of the Rainbow Nation: Contemporary South African Art at the Crossroads of History,” written by Okwui Enwezor explores art’s archival role in recalling and processing South Africa’s colonial and apartheid past. This essay is particularly useful for scholars interested in memory and its relationship to contemporary South African art. Alternatively, Liese van der Watt’s contribution, entitled “Towards and ‘Adversarial Aesthetics:’ A Personal Response to Personal Affects,” considers art in a post-identity framework. She writes, “although the exhibition emerges out of democratic South Africa, many of these artworks want to be liberated from that context; they refuse to announce their identity or to be forever locked into the circuits that expect a certain look or a certain conceptual framework of art from South Africa” (49). This essay provides an alternative way of considering identity, allowing for the acceptance of diversity but a simultaneous understanding of our internal contradictions (53). These two essays are followed by relatively substantial interviews with each artist included in the exhibition; Jane Alexander, Wim Botha, Steven Cohen, Churchill Madikida, Mustafa Maluka, Thando Mama, Samson Mudzunga, Jay Pather, Johannes Phokela, Robin Rhode, Claudette Schreuders, Berni Searle, Doreen Southwood, Clive van den Berg, Minnette Vári, Diane Victor, and Sandile Zulu. The general focus of the catalogue as a whole revolves around issues of identity, asking questions useful for future scholars.Review available for consultation: Corr, Elizabeth. Reviewing _Personal Affects: Power and Poetics in Contemporary South African Art_, edited by Sophie Perryer. African Arts 38, no. 4 (Winter 2005): 8.
[Lauren M. Freese]
Phokela, Johannes. I Like my Neighbours. Johannesburg, South Africa: Gallery MOMA, 2009.
This book offers a glimpse of some art works by the artist Johannes Phokela on display from 3 February until 21 March 2009 at the Standard Bank Gallery, Johannesburg with an introduction by Bronwyn Law-Viljoen2 and an essay about this book by Paul O’Kane3 . Phokela reinterpreted the works of Dutch Old Masters during the Dutch Golden Age4 by inserting black figures into white-only scenarios and his strange use of a painted grid to overlay the final image5 , parsing not only the subject matter of his chosen images, but the techniques used to create them. Phokela asserts that the title of the exhibition ‘vaguely refers to social and cultural connections starting from people living side by side, and towards worldwide relations between nations. There’s a saying that goes as following: “Love your neighbour but don’t pull down the fence.”6Online resources consulted:
Kaminju, Caroline. “Neighbours Revisited.” African Colours (4 July 2009) http://www.africancolours.com/african-art-news/87/south%20africa/neighbours_revisited.htm
Koseff, Lara. “The Art of Appropriation.” Classic Feel (30 April 2012) http://www.classicfeel.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=96%3Athe-art-of-appropriation&Itemid=66
Kruger, Braam. “A New Take on Old Masters”. Business Day (South Africa), March 3, 2006: 4.
O'kane, Paul. “Johannes Phokela”. Third Text 12, no. 43 (1998): 103-104.
1 Johannes Phokela (b. 1966) is a black South African artist working in London. He left South Africa in the mid-eighties to further his art studies at St Martin’s College of Art in London. He graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1993 and today shuttles between London and South Africa. He has had numerous exhibitions locally and internationally. Phokela is known for recontextualizing works by Old European Masters like Breugel, Jacob De Ghen and Rubens.
2 Bronwyn Law-Viljoen is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
3 Paul O’Kane is an Irish artist who also wrote “Johannes Phokela”, Third Text 12, no. 43 (1998): 103-104.
4 The Old Master works Phokela reinterpreted in this book included also those of Velásquez, Hogarth, Manet and so forth besides Flemish artists such as Rubens.
5 See for example Customs and Excise (2005), Tender Loving Care (2006) and The Lord Works in Mysterious Ways (2002).
6 Koseff, Lara. “The Art of Appropriation.” Classic Feel (30 April 2012) http://www.classicfeel.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=96%3Athe-art-of-appropriation&Itemid=66
[Sicong Zhu]Searle, Berni. About to Forget. Cape Town: Michael Stevenson, 2005.
Schmidt, Benjamin. “Collecting Global Icons: The Case of the Exotic Parasol.” in Collecting Across Cultures: Material Exchanges in the Early Modern Atlantic World.” edited by Daniela Bleichmar and Peter C. Mancall. 31-57; 292-296. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011. Electronic Source
Schmidt begins his essay with the puzzling question: Do palm trees grow in New England? Incongruous as this question seems, it apparently was seriously contemplated by early modern Europeans, particularly those who amassed materials of the exotic world---those who “collected across culture.” He uses this point to argue his thesis that exotic icons like the palm tree--and the fanciful parasol in his title--were produced abundantly in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, copied freely, influenced one another and eventually become stereotype over time. His essay traces the origins of collecting in Europe culminating in the final decades of the seventeenth and early eighteenth century with an absolute explosion of exotica on the European market. He points out that exotica were consumed among various media: travel books, maritime atlases to decorative arts, evoking a media transfer that could best be described by the modern day expression “synergism.” As a result, exotic imagery circulated across media and across cultures, and they were transformed by their journey, he argues. Moreover, the very process of collecting across cultures could contribute to geographically indiscriminate shifts in meaning. In his essay Schmidt examines what he calls the “transmedia effect.” This occurs when an abundance of materials, avidly collected and broadly circulated, encourage the liberal recycling, borrowing and subtle replications of images and motifs, which distilled the non-European world into a form that has become associated with the catch-all category: exoticism. This demonstrates, he argues, how European images became, on the one hand, clichéd or stereotyped, and ultimately codified as exotic icons, while on the other hand, they could also shift in meaning as they moved across media and global space. In these ways, he argues, they reveal some of the dynamics of collecting across cultures. A well-research and illuminating essay by a respected scholar. [Elizabeth C. Schmid]Schrire, Carmel and Janette Deacon. “The Indigenous Artefacts from Oudepost I, a Colonial Outpost of the VOC at Saldanha Bay, Cape.” The South African Archaeological Bulletin 44, no. 150 (December, 1989): 105-113. Electronic Source
Schrire and Deacon analyze a collection of artifacts gathered during an excavation of a Dutch outpost in the Western Cape occupied during the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The indigenous artifacts, like small stones, bones and shells, were recovered mixed in with colonial era objects such as clay pips, glass, earthenware, iron, copper, and porcelain. Schrire and Deacon meticulously describe the variety of things found and offer the notion that many of the artifacts are consistent with what has been found in Later Stone Age sites in the general region. The findings are unusual because the distribution of the seemingly two different periods is intermixed. Since the presents of the Dutch objects can be linked to VOC records, this calls the date of believed earlier sites into question. Documented confirmation of the date of this site serves as a valuable precedent by which other locations can be reassessed and perhaps corrected if needed. This will settle ambiguous date attributions at a number of herder assemblages and rock shelters throughout the south-western cape. [Nathan Popp]Smith, Andrew B. "A Dutch Artist at the Cape and in Indonesia at the Turn of the 18th Century." Quarterly Bulletin of the National Library of South Africa 57, no. 1 (October, 2002): 5-8. Electronic Source
Smith describes a collection of drawings in the National Library, Cape Town and notes that new information has come to light that heightens their significance. Originally in a catalog that was divided into geographic categories in 1882, the drawings were examined by Smith, who successfully compared sketches to recognize stylistic and handwriting similarities, indicating they are by the same artist. Smith puts for a few names that the works could be attributed to, but stops short of giving anyone credit. He notes that sophisticated quality of the original sketches indicates that they were made by someone with considerable talent and training. The candid immediacy of the composition is striking and reflects a seemingly honest interpretation of the subjects without ethnocentric bias. This approach makes the images helpful visual documentations of eighteenth century Dutch colonial life. [Nathan Popp]Smith, Andrew B. and Roy H. Pheiffer. The Khoikhoi at the Cape of Good Hope: Seventeenth-Century Drawings in the South African Library. Cape Town: The Library, 1993.
Tadjo, Véronique. David Koloane. Johannesburg, South Africa: David Krut Publishers, 2002.
Wegen, D. H. Kunst Uit De Kaap: Hollandse En Vlaamse Meesterwerken Uit De Michaelis Collectie Te Kaap. Zwolle: Maastricht: Waanders; Bonnefantenmuseum, 2003.
Wood, Marilee. “Making Connections: Relationships between International Trade and Glass Beads from the Shashe-Limpopo Area.” Goodwin Series 8 (December, 2000): 78-90. Electronic Source
Wood scrupulously documents archeologically found South African glass and ceramic beads that attest to the abundant scope of international trade. Cataloging them by style, material and date, Wood explores how these objects can potentially reveal where they were made and how they arrived in their found location. Although immensely popular, beads did not arrive in Africa until the thirteenth century when international trade began to flourish. Surprisingly, there are not many beads from Venice (the major exporter), but there are examples from South Asia, China, and the Near East. Early trade was conducted over land by way of east Africa, but over time maritime routes became the most common. By chronicling bead assemblages, Wood believes that one can garner clues about local activities and can potentially be used to ascertain and fine-tune site chronology. This will link physical evidence with political and economic changes that were taking place elsewhere. [Nathan Popp]