Wheat and Its Role in Civilization

 

Do empires build trade routes or do trade routes build empires? Have the United States and Russia been locked in an economic rivalry since the 1860s? Was World War I triggered by international grain trade and the desire of Russia to control Constantinople?

“Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World,” by Scott Reynolds Nelson, examines these questions and much more. It is a study of grain, its trade routes, and the impact grain trading has had throughout history. Bread is the staff of life. Nelson follows it from prehistory to the present.

Nelson’s theme is simple: food production drives history. Abundance or absence creates or destroys empires, fuels economic and technological growth, and drives world history. Grain is the most important food. Storable and transportable, it can also be used to create more food, especially meat. The two biggest breadbaskets are the Ukrainian and US plains. There were others, but none as productive.

Nelson opens by showing how trading Ukrainian grain predated civilization, following oxcart trails across the Ukrainian steppes. Disease also followed these trails. Grain trading led to cities, which required food. Empires grew to ensure grain flowed. This led to bigger cities. These grew until reset by plague. The cycle then repeated itself. This pattern was followed from ancient Greece to Catherine the Great’s Russia. Russia grew rich exporting its grain to Western Europe starting in the eighteenth century.

Nelson also shows how the growth of the US affected this cycle. It produced a source of grain rivaling and surpassing the production of the Russian plains. America was more productive not just because of its soil, but because its free-market economy encouraged innovation and productivity. Following the Civil War, the US powered past Russia. Despite the longer supply chain, its grain was cheaper.

The results are presented by Nelson. Grain dramatically dropped in price. Port cities exploded in importance. European nations – Britain, France, Germany, and Italy – industrialized, deemphasizing agriculture, using US and Russian grain to feed factory workers. Wars were won feeding troops imported grain. European grain powers, including Austria-Hungary, Russia, and the Ottomans, lost wealth to US competition. Industrialized nations, especially Britain and Germany, became dependent on imported grain. Nelson asserts pressure to protect food lines led to World War I.

“Oceans of Grain” is provocative. Well-researched and readable, Nelson has written a book that will fascinate both professional historians and ordinary readers.

“Oceans of Grain: How American Wheat Remade the World,” by Scott Reynolds Nelson, Basic Books, 2022, 368 pages, $32.00 (Hardcover) $18.99 (ebook)

This review was written by Mark Lardas who writes at Ricochet as Seawriter. Mark Lardas, an engineer, freelance writer, historian, and model-maker, lives in League City, TX. His website is marklardas.com. This review appeared in a different form in American Essence magazine and Epoch Times.

Published in History, Literature
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  1. Bryan G. Stephens Thatcher
    Bryan G. Stephens
    @BryanGStephens

    Sounds fascinating 

    • #1
  2. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    In a 1910 book about the railroad industry, I ran across some interesting and rather contrarian thoughts about the impact of cheap American grain, combined with the drastically-reduced cost of rail and sea transportation, on the well-being of the British poorer classes: Tariffs, Trade, and the British Corn Laws.

    • #2
  3. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    David Foster (View Comment):

    In a 1910 book about the railroad industry, I ran across some interesting and rather contrarian thoughts about the impact of cheap American grain, combined with the drastically-reduced cost of rail and sea transportation, on the well-being of the British poorer classes: Tariffs, Trade, and the British Corn Laws.

    What was the title of the book? It is old enough to be in the public domain. If so, I might be able to find it in Archive.org. There are a lot of texts by Angus Sinclair from around that period, but they all seem to deal with railroading.

    • #3
  4. David Foster Member
    David Foster
    @DavidFoster

    Seawriter (View Comment):

    David Foster (View Comment):

    In a 1910 book about the railroad industry, I ran across some interesting and rather contrarian thoughts about the impact of cheap American grain, combined with the drastically-reduced cost of rail and sea transportation, on the well-being of the British poorer classes: Tariffs, Trade, and the British Corn Laws.

    What was the title of the book? It is old enough to be in the public domain. If so, I might be able to find it in Archive.org. There are a lot of texts by Angus Sinclair from around that period, but they all seem to deal with railroading.

    The book is indeed about the railroad industry, specifically locomotives.  Title is “Development of the Locomotive Engine.”  My copy includes a section written by someone else to cover developments in the field after 1910.

     

    • #4
  5. Tom Davis Member
    Tom Davis
    @TomDavis

    “Nelson also shows how the growth of the US affected this cycle. It produced a source of grain rivaling and surpassing the production of the Russian plains. America was more productive not just because of its soil, but because its free-market economy encouraged innovation and productivity. Following the Civil War, the US powered past Russia. Despite the longer supply chain, its grain was cheaper.”

    What is not mentioned in this paragraph (but may be covered in the book, which I am ordering) is the value of the Mississippi-Missouri River system that provided cheap and reliable transportation from America’s Breadbasket to the Gulf of Mexico and then to the world.  

    • #5
  6. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    David Foster (View Comment):
    The book is indeed about the railroad industry, specifically locomotives.  Title is “Development of the Locomotive Engine.”  My copy includes a section written by someone else to cover developments in the field after 1910.

    Found it on Archive.org and downloaded a copy. Thanks!

    • #6
  7. WillowSpring Member
    WillowSpring
    @WillowSpring

    Thanks for the review – it sounds interesting and luckily, the local library has it as an e-book for loan.

    • #7
  8. Henry Castaigne Member
    Henry Castaigne
    @HenryCastaigne

    I remember how in the history of Rome Podcast the Romans never let go of Egypt once they had it because there were grain fields there. 

    • #8
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