Insert Clever title about Mahogany here

As ever, the first things I look for in a new commodity book is how the commodity is different from the others we have read about and discussed. At this point, it has become rather hard to do. As Kent pointed out, this book hearkens back to Mintz and how a commodity can be removed from not only production but how it effects culture itself. Much like sugar (according to Mintz) prompted the industrial revolution, mahogany, almost by chance, becomes the premiere wood for luxury items. And again, both become completely removed from its source of labor, although in the wood's case, this lack of information might be due to the fact Abolitionists and similar groups never discussed Benzene mahogany hunting in their sugar and cotton sermons.

I also see some similarities with cochineal: two luxury items brought in partly as a way to ease past stocks (deforested England and inferior reds of the east). Both were marks of both class and empire, although in mahogany's cases it was much more about the English empire, and later about American ingenuity (in that the wood was greatly subjected to examination). There are similarities with bananas, in that both commodities created massive deforestation and environmental decay. That said, the book doesn't go into detail with environmental issues, partly since some planters actually took to replanting some of the felted trees. It also holds similarities with The Pill (if I can continue to use the moniker) in that they were both instrumental in defining a nation. Whereas the Pill brought presage to the Mexican government and scientific community, well-processed mahogany became a stable in the fledgling American republic, if for no other reason as a vehicle for neoclassicism.    

The big difference I notice with this commodity is that it is another one that is not farmed like sugar, cochineal and yams. Even bigger is the delicate relationship to the slaves that harvested it. Unlike the emerald miners, these slaves had autonomy to a great degree and, when wedged between a powerful empire and a quasi-legal outpost of that empire's rival, actually had a fair degree of power. As Susan notes, the relationship is much more dynamic than anything we have seen thus far. If anything, I would say this book outlines a sort of "power web," in that no one group is on top and are connected to each other in alternating bonds of dominance and subservience.