The dramatic price falls of 2014-2015 marked the end of the most powerful and enduring commodity boom since the Second World War. Now in its third edition, this book acts as a guide to the ins and outs of the primary commodity universe. Updates to this edition reflect on the consequences of both...

"The antecedent to the present work is Marian Radetzki's book A Guide to Primary Commodities in the World Economy, published by Blackwell in 1990, three decades ago. In that book Radetzki presented the gist of what he had learnt over the 30 preceding years of active study and research on...

Introduction -- The historical framework -- The geography of commodity production and trade -- Comparative advantage and the trade policy distortions -- The fossil fuels -- Price formation and price trends in commodities -- Commodity booms -- The commodity exchanges, commodity investments and...