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...

"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...