Roberto Garrone

Commodities and Development Roberto Garrone

Historically, commodities have been considered a source of wealth and power with the considerable influence of state intervention during pre-industrial, industrial, and modern societies. From times to times, the states have extracted (i.e., expropriation, taxation, concessions, nationalizations, etc.) some part of the benefits deriving from the ownership and exploitation of commodities and relative markets offering as compensation to their citizens a range of different benefits (public goods, welfare, services, etc.) often aimed at augmenting, with various degrees of success, the national level of development. New and intertwined transnational political and economic linkages between finance, commodities, and geopolitical power have followed the end of the Bipolar order, the surge of the South-South trade, and its impact on the North-South trade patterns. Specifically, the global production and trade patterns may indirectly promote or directly consolidate structural inequality and exclusion (Shaw, Mahrenbach et al. 2019). For more, see the author's blog www.bamboos-consulting.com