The International Commodity Business

Civilization has been moving natural resources for commercial purposes for thousands of years. In this course we will study the development of the international commodity trade. The course will look at why humans would move a natural resource from one place to another, addressed through four main areas of inquiry: (1) the innovations which have contributed to global resource trade (commodity extraction, waterborne transport, creation of financial exchanges); (2)  the effects that these commercial imperatives have on developing economies- both positive and negative, with a particular focus on the ‘commodity curse’;  (3)  how the introduction of an imported commodity can fundamentally alter societal behavior; and  (4) the global economics of commodity markets, commodity indexes around the world, and how commercial developments are continually disrupting societies’ demand habits.