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

"Developing country politicians in a financially globalized world suffer a similar fate. Hoping to lift their countries to development's pinnacle, they toil against the .erce force of globalization. The repeatedly roll the policy boulder up the mountain. Hoping to please mercurial markets,...

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...