Baskes on Topik, Marichal and Frank, eds., _From Silver to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the World Economy, 1500-2000_

[eh.net-review at eh.net]

Published by EH.NET (January 2007)

Steven Topik, Carlos Marichal and Zephyr Frank, editors, _From Silver 
to Cocaine: Latin American Commodity Chains and the Building of the 
World Economy, 1500-2000_. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006. v 
+ 378 pp. $24 (paperback), ISBN: 0-8223-3766-5.

Reviewed for EH.NET by Jeremy Baskes, Department of History, Ohio 
Wesleyan University.


The field of Latin American history has been slow and reluctant to 
abandon the dependency paradigm (and its world systems sister). 
Conceived largely by Latin American scholars who used the region as 
the prime example to illustrate the alleged underdevelopment of the 
periphery caused by international trade, dependency theory came to be 
the nearly universal model influencing textbooks as well as 
monographs on regional trade.

For some time, scholars of Latin America have grown dubious of the 
claims of dependency theory. The model seemed too rigid, too dogmatic 
and too flimsily based on statistical data, which when actually 
compiled did not necessarily corroborate the paradigm's dismal 
predictions. Despite the discrediting of dependency theory, Latin 
American scholars did not find a suitable alternative, rejecting the 
triumphant claims of neoliberalism as equally unrealistic.

The essays in this excellent collection seek to illustrate the value 
of examining Latin America's international trade through the lens of 
"commodity chains," the trajectory through which commodities passed 
from producers to consumers. While this method cannot possibly 
"answer" as many questions as dependency theory purported to address, 
the authors leave little doubt that a commodity chain approach can 
prove rewarding.

As the authors demonstrate, the examination of commodity chains 
serves to rupture historians' tendency to focus exclusively on the 
national level. Too often, Latin American historians have focused on 
the supply side of the region's exports, and have consequently been 
ignorant of the broader forces affecting the industries. The essays 
in this book demonstrate clearly the value of examining the entire 
commodity chain.

_From Silver to Cocaine_ contains twelve essays penned by fifteen 
authors, each of them highly respected scholars. Each essay focuses 
on a single (or complementary) commodity and attempts to follow its 
path from producer to consumer. Four of the pieces examine colonial 
products. Carlos Marichal writes on both silver and Mexican 
cochineal; David McCreery compares Salvadoran and Bengali indigo and 
Laura Nater explores Caribbean tobacco. The remaining essays discuss 
Latin American commodities that, for the most part, took off in the 
second half of the nineteenth century. Steven Topik and Mario Samper 
contrast the Brazilian and Costa Rican coffee industries; Horacio 
Crespo examines the world market for sugar; Mary Ann Mahony 
investigates Bahian cacao; Marcelo Bucheli and Ian Read focus on 
Central American bananas and especially the United Fruit Company; 
Rory Miller and Robert Greenhill compare and contrast Peruvian guano 
and Chilean nitrates, both used as fertilizers; Zephyr Frank and Aldo 
Musacchio consider the Brazilian rubber boom; Allen Wells looks at 
the demise of the Yucatecan henequen industry; and, finally, Paul 
Gootenberg explores coca and cocaine.

It would be impossible to summarize adequately these rich and 
detailed chapters. One issue emphasized by a number of the authors is 
the social transformations undergone by commodities as they move from 
producer to consumer. Coffee became the preferred beverage of French 
revolutionaries who thought little about the enslaved workers who 
produced it. Cochineal was employed to dye the clothing of kings and 
popes, yet was produced by poor indigenous peasants in southern 
Mexico. Tobacco and coca were considered spiritual products by their 
Caribbean and Andean producers but consumed by Americans and 
Europeans for their medicinal or intoxicant value.

A central issue examined by most of the essays was the "agency" of 
producing countries. Dependency theory suggests that decisions of 
significance are made in the "metropolis" and that the "peripheral" 
producing countries have little control over their destiny. These 
essays clearly extinguish this notion demonstrating that "Latin 
American producers were much more than simple marionettes set to 
dance by overseas commands and demands. They were not simply passive 
victims" (p. 3). While wealthy capitalists and multinational 
companies undoubtedly wielded significant influence, producers and 
governments in Latin America exercised considerable market and other 
power. The massive expansion of Bahian cacao naturally responded to 
growing international demand, but was also influenced by government 
policies and the gradual conclusion among planters that it was their 
most advantageous commodity. The coffee industry of Costa Rica and 
Brazil followed very different paths due to distinct domestic 
conditions. Costa Rica opted to produce high quality coffee while 
Brazil took advantage of ample territory and an interventionist state 
to become by far the world's largest producer.

More generally, the essays convincingly show the greater 
understanding that arises through an examination of the entire 
commodity chain. The boom and bust of the rubber trade in Brazil is 
much more comprehensible and much less tragic when one takes into 
consideration the evolution of the automobile industry. Considerable 
light is shed on the Salvadoran indigo industry by examining its 
major competitor, Bengal, India. While substitute products might have 
contributed to henequen's decline, corruption and mismanagement in 
Mexico sealed its demise.

An additional matter addressed in the essays is the distribution of 
profits between core and periphery. Dependency theory predicted that 
profits from international trade invariably accrued in the more 
developed countries. While none of the essays goes so far as to 
suggest that the opposite was the case, for the most part they reject 
dependency's predatory claim, arguing that reasonable profits 
accumulated and development occurred in Latin America. The 
arrangements of production and the networks of distribution were 
rational solutions given the different endowments of the various 
actors. According to Miller and Greenhill, for example, the nitrate 
and guano industries came to be organized in the most efficient 
manner conceivable, benefiting from the technological, financial, and 
informational advantages enjoyed by the multinational companies 
engaged in the trade. Despite multinational control over marketing, 
the authors conclude that each government extracted reasonable rents 
and that no alternative organization of the trade "would have 
provided significantly better rewards for Peru and Chile" (p. 261).

The death of dependency theory in Latin America is long overdue. It 
answered lots of questions, but the answers were most often facile. 
The essays in this excellent collection illustrate the potential 
rewards of reexamining old topics and offer a compelling way to help 
shape this new research. Unlike so many edited collections that lack 
cohesion or seem poorly conceived, the essays in _From Silver to 
Cocaine_ are remarkably well integrated and address similar questions 
and themes. As such, the reader is well rewarded from comparison of 
the differing commodity chains.


Jeremy Baskes is Professor of Latin American History at Ohio Wesleyan 
University. He is the author of _Indians Merchants and Markets: A 
Reinterpretation of the Repartimiento and Spanish-Indian Economic 
Relations in Colonial Oaxaca, 1750-1821_ (Stanford University Press). 
His current research examines the ways that merchants in the Spanish 
empire organized their transatlantic commerce to mitigate risk.

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