Going Global: the World Wheat Market in the Second Half of the 19th Century

Journal title ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA
Author/s Alfredo Mazzamauro
Publishing Year 2016 Issue 2016/282 Language Italian
Pages 25 P. 65-89 File size 2570 KB
DOI 10.3280/IC2016-282004
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The wheat market constituted one of the most important and dynamic agricultural primary commodity markets of the “first globalization”, in terms of the depth, width and breadth of its exchange flow. The sheer size of this commodity market and the transcontinental character of much of its exchange flows, triggered a host of technological and organizational innovations for producing, transporting, storing, and marketing wheat. It was these latter developments, which enabled the modern wheat market to develop efficient ways of satisfying increasing world demand. What follows, is an attempt to reconstruct the varying historical agencies and trajectories which contributed to the creation of one of the earliest global primary commodity markets of the contemporary era.

Keywords: Wheat; Derivatives; Agricultural Commodities; History of Markets; History of Capitalism; Globalization; Technological Revolution

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Alfredo Mazzamauro, Going global: il mercato mondiale del grano nella seconda metà del diciannovesimo secolo in "ITALIA CONTEMPORANEA" 282/2016, pp 65-89, DOI: 10.3280/IC2016-282004