From silver to cocaine: Latin American commodity chains and the building of the world economy, 1500-2000

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction. Commodity Chains in Theory and in Latin American History -- 1 The Spanish-American Silver Peso: Export Commodity and Global Money of the Ancien Regime, 1550-1800 -- 2 Indigo Commodity Chains in the Spanish and British Empires, 1560-1860 -- 3 Mexican Cochineal and the European Demand for American Dyes, 1550-1850 -- 4 Colonial Tobacco: Key Commodity of the Spanish Empire, 1500-1800 -- 5 The Latin American Coffee Commodity Chain: Brazil and Costa Rica -- 6 Trade Regimes and the International Sugar Market, 1850-1980: Protectionism, Subsidies, and Regulation -- 7 The Local and the Global: Internal and External Factors in the Development of Bahia's Cacao Sector -- 8 Banana Boats and Baby Food: The Banana in U.S. History -- 9 The Fertilizer Commodity Chains: Guano and Nitrate, 1840-1930 -- 10 Brazil in the International Rubber Trade, 1870-1930 -- 11 Reports of Its Demise Are Not Exaggerated: The Life and Times of Yucatecan Henequen -- 12 Cocaine in Chains: The Rise and Demise of a Global Commodity, 1860-1950 -- Conclusion Commodity Chains and Globalization in Historical Perspective -- Contributors -- Index

Examining the commodity chains that have connected producers in Latin America with consumers around the world for 500 years, this work follows a specific commodity from its inception, through its development and transport, to its final destination in the hands of consumers