Shaping a Commodity and its Value

Shaping a Commodity and its Value

            We have often discussed a commodity’s rise and fall in class and no matter which commodity we were discussing there were similar elements to the narrative. Be in the utilitarian purposes, the development of practices making the product more readily available, the agents of change who held the authority over the supply and demand, or surplus and exchange, one could draw similarities (and also differences) between the commodity chains we were exploring. What I found interesting about Paul Gootenberg’s Andean Cocaine  is that not only do we see all these elements of the commodity change, but we also see the adaptation of the commodity and those supplying and consuming it. Stepping aside from the politics of illicitness, we see when road blocks are put up in the economics of the cocaine trade, the producers and consumers find a way to side step them, despite the risks of doing so, to continue the trade of the product. Thanks to technological and scientific developments, cocaine rocketed into Western culture, slipping through different evolutionary stages of miracle-cure, legitimate (at the time) pharmaceutical to the now, better known, recreational narcotic. With the growing crackdown on cocaine as an illegal substance, circumstances changed the supplier and the consumer, however the commodity itself did not fall precipitously into non-factor in global economy. Rather, the markets just changed and the exclusivity of access to cocaine was surely a factor in increasing its value, as well as the risk behind trying to produce and acquire the product increased its overall worth in basic economic sense. Much like Prohibition hardly led to the cessation of the consumption of alcohol, it rather simply made the value of acquirable alcohol increase exponentially. If there is a demand, and a way to access a surplus, the growth of the commodity will not be stopped, rather the production process and means of consumption will evolve and the product value will increase, and likely that exclusivity of access can at times drive the niche demand for the commodity.

Disclaimer: In no way am I suggesting cocaine should be legal, accessible, produced or consumed. (As an employee of the federal government, I feel as if I need to make that clear.)