Cut out of the trade

Mahogany is a wood that evokes refinement, class and prestige.  In her book Mahogany, Jennifer Anderson describes a world of refinement during the British colonial era that was built on the backs of exploited slaves, cut throat traders and environmental destruction.  The incredible qualities of this tropical wood are well explained by Anderson as insect-resistant, very strong and easily shaped by craftsmen.   One of the most prize virtues of mahogany is its use towards furniture by being able to hold a high polish.  I really liked the how Anderson presented the push-pull dynamics of the Eighteenth century market, answering the North American craze for mahogany furniture.  Demand for fine mahogany furniture really ramped up fast, similar to the rapid increase in Americans appetite for bananas found in Banana Cultures.  

Anderson looks at two grave consequences of the mahogany trade – slavery and environmental destruction.  Anderson skillfully expounds the tragic and horrible use of slaves in the harvesting of the tropical towers.  Like Mintz in Sweetness and Power, Anderson drives the point of exploitation of labor and its complete removal from what these biological giants become in North American colonial homes and businesses.  This of course is a grand example of Marx’s “commodity fetish” – James favorite theme.  I particularly like Candace’s reference to Anderson treatment of this idea - “Marx’s dancing table, mahogany was transubstantiated through human effort into objects” (15).

As the agribusiness such as sugar cleared jungle in Jamaica, the “gold standard” trees of the mahogany trade became extinct on the island, extraction began on the mainland of Central and South America.  Due to the nature of a several centuries maturity rate, the treasured trees were basically wiped out.  This environmental “clear cutting” was seen in renewable commodities such as sugar and banana’s, but the mahogany trade cut itself out of the market.   

This book is well written, mapped, illustrated and sourced.  As a recent publication I feel Anderson depicts a maturity in the field of commodity history.