From Silver to Cocaine

               From Silver to Cocaine is the type of book I expected to read in a commodities class, although I absolutely welcome the other books as a new perspective (for me, at the very least). The editors put great emphasis on the commodity chain theory, which they define as: “the production of tradable goods from their inception through their elaboration and transport to their final destination in the hands of consumers” (14). In other words, the commodity chain theory illustrates connections between the geographic and social development and the final product. They sought to reevaluate Latin American trade networks, stressing that these countries were not dominated by foreign agents, but in fact had a more involved role in their trade agreements.

While I appreciate their efforts, I occasionally found some of the essays lacking when it came to using the commodity chain theory. However, Paul Gootenburg linked producing companies of coca and cocaine with their consumers in his riveting essay “Cocaine in Chains: The Rise and Demise of a Global Commodity, 1860-1950.” Gootenburg focused on Coca and Cocaine not as a drug, but as an important commodity. He writes that “for historians, the commodity chain can work as both a descriptive and an analytical tool…By focusing on flows rather than objects or sites, a commodity chain approach challenges distinctions between national economies and polities still dear to neoclassical and institutional economists” (322). As his essay progresses, readers are able to see Germany and the United States compete for large quantities of coca from Peru for their own needs (German alkaloid science and the popularity of the US company Coca-Cola) as well as the lesser countries like the Netherlands and Japan. Readers also got to see the competition within exporting countries as well. According to Gootenburg, Bolivia was outpaced by Peru, eventually “dropp[ing] out of oversea sales, and by 1910 was focusing on regional commerce to migrant coqueros in Bolivia…” (330). By the 1950s, however, with the banning of coca/cocaine, the market was driven to illegal trading of the drug, something we still see today.