Global Commodities

Focusing on coca, coffee, gold, soy, sugar, and tea, articles in a special issue of the Austrian Journal Historical Studies 30/3 (2019) Global Commodities aim at tracing emergence commodity chains through expansion contraction frontiers. Frontier shifts imply complex – potentially conflicting interactions shaped by as well shaping socio-natural systems. Thus, contributions reveal their frontiers to be subject negotiations between multiple actors, both human non-human. Each concentrates one or more world region(s) frontier shifts, while taking into account transregional, transnational, transcontinental connections via chains. Thereby, these commodity-focused histories benefit combining global with regional even local perspectives (Joseph, 2019).