## War, Peace, and Wheat

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [War, Peace, and Wheat](https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/06/war-peace-wheat-book-review)

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Jeff Kearns
- Published: June 2, 2022

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### Overview
- Title discussed: Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World.
- Author of the review: JEFF KEARNS is on the staff of Finance & Development.
- Published: June 2022.
- Context noted: The book was published two days before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent prices for the grain soaring to a record and stirred supply fears.
- Article reading metadata as presented: Less than a minute(0 words) Read.

### Central themes and narrative arc
- War and hunger drive the narrative across millennia, tracing wheat’s role from the genesis of Europe’s breadbasket to modern geopolitics.
- Geographic and temporal scope:
  - 12,000 years (genesis of Europe’s breadbasket in what are now Ukraine and Russia).
  - Historical nodes include Athens, Constantinople, Moscow, and the founding of the Black Sea port of Odesa.
  - The story concludes a century ago, in the aftermath of Russia’s revolution.
- Social and economic processes linked to grain trade:
  - Storage and shipment infrastructure tie into political and social change.
  - Trade concentration of labor and capital in cities where food is cheap and ports are deep.
  - Immigration, industrialization, and urbanization follow; cited: doubling the residents of London, Paris, and Amsterdam in 1845–60.

### Key historical arguments and episodes
- The United States’ rise in the 1860s:
  - The Civil War spurred the embrace of wheat exports to gain needed foreign exchange.
  - The Union Army’s need to feed soldiers and horses helped birth modern futures markets on the Chicago Board of Trade.
- Technological and transport changes:
  - Faster travel between ports, explosives used to deepen harbors and carve canals, and railroads shortened routes and lowered costs.
  - These changes undermined Russia’s sway over global grain by giving Europe’s cities cheaper food.
- Geopolitical consequences argued:
  - Nelson contends that inexpensive foreign grain significantly influenced the rise of Germany and Italy, the decline of Austria and Turkey, and Europe’s scramble for empire.

### Financial history and market analysis
- The book is framed as financial history with strong coverage of international commodity markets increasingly bound by wheat.
- The Panic of 1873:
  - Nelson notes on page 1 his obsession with the Panic of 1873.
  - Traces an agrarian crisis turned financial panic and economic slump resulting from falling food prices and outmoded financial tools.
  - Links to European bank failures, a Bank of England interest rate shock, and ripple effects reaching Wall Street.
- Quotation reflecting the market shock: “Oceans of grain had flooded Europe, and the flush times in Odessa and much of central Europe had ended, sending shockwaves around the world,” Nelson writes.

### Style, scope, and author intent
- The book is described as dense with history, politics, and economics yet remaining light and engaging.
- Nelson’s approach pushes readers to think like grain traders and to view history through the journeys of food across oceans, rivers, and ports rather than solely national maps.
- Noted ancillary links: ties to milestones such as the first quarantines, the creation of hamburgers, and commercial investment banking.

*Finance & Development — “War, Peace, and Wheat”, JEFF KEARNS, June 2022.*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/publications/fandd/issues/2022/06/war-peace-wheat-book-review_