Trade World

The award-winning and Sunday Times-bestselling author of Material World tells the story of how one of humanity's greatest innovations took over the world.

INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

The story of trade is the story of humanity. From the copper in Mesopotamian ploughs to the silicon atoms that make up the chips inside your smartphone, intricate global trading networks have evolved over millennia to fulfil the distinctly human desire to buy and sell.

Today, the volume of trade that straddles the planet is unprecedented. Yet from an era of globalization and the untrammelled flow of goods and money, fractures in the global order are emerging as we face a new world of restrictions, intervention, and, possibly, war. When almost everything we thought we knew about trade is wrong, understanding this fundamental shift in the dominant economic consensus is more important than ever.

With a compelling blend of economic history and first-hand accounts, Ed Conway takes us on a journey that ranges from international policy and treaties to the fields and factories where people make, ship—and sometimes smuggle—the products we buy on a daily basis. Follow Conway as he traces the extraordinary story of trade through three commonplace products—bread, clothing, and cars—and uncovers the hidden, shifting story of the Trade World that lies beneath the surface of everything we see around us.