Commodity Chains

One of the most interesting elements of From Silver to Cocaine is the variation between different commodities in the power structure involved with them. It is fascinating how the different commodities discussed have wildly different groups making the decisions, from the cacao producers in Brazil to the United Banana Company. Overall, however, I am not sure what the distinguishing feature is separating the essays in this book and their focus on commodity chains from other commodity histories that cover the entire life of the commodity. One thing of note is that the essays focus much more on economics than many of the books we have read, a feature of the commodity chain application that places importance on the intermediate steps between a commodity’s initial production and the purchase of a finished good.

The chapter on cochineal makes for an interesting comparison with last week’s book. Whereas Perfect Red focused on presenting a narrative structure, the chapter in From Silver to Cocaine is more focused on the mechanics of the business. They largely seem to come to the same conclusion, though the essay is much more limited and misses some of the finer details that are presented in Perfect Red. One of the important overall elements in this book was a discussion of largely agricultural product production on an industrial scale – and why some products were produced on a large scale while others were never converted to large-scale plantation production. The most adamant element, however, and one that we’ve somewhat seen from other books either because it covered them or because it lacked such discussion, was a consideration of alternatives. Decisions are never made in a vacuum, and generally they involve alternative choices. Understanding the options that faced decision makers and the information they based their decisions on helps explain things like why Bahia became a major chocolate producer, or why Brazil never developed plantation style and scale rubber production. When commodity histories forget to discuss these alternatives, they turn into narratives of inevitability that make agency vanish and can lead to erroneous conclusions.