The 2010s have been a dramatic period for most primary commodity markets. Producers suffered heavily as prices fell in response to new supply facilities going into production, juxtaposed against disappointing demand evolution from China in particular, marking the end of the most powerful 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...

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...