The Apocalypse of Coffee Business History

Pendgrast's "left-handed Coffee, right-handed World" is a good textbook, through which we can not only acquire the knowledge of coffee (beans) growing, making, sipping and coffee business history, but also see human nature and see the world formed by human participation. there is another layer of appearance that it is difficult for us to imagine when we drink coffee. The author's intention can be seen in the title of the book.

First of all, the inspiration comes from the coffee spread map drawn by the author. Regardless of the time point, the geographical distribution, the intensity of the commercial war, and even the final return to balance (coffee fair trade agreement), the coffee spread map is very close to the world history map since modern times. Although the coffee found in Ethiopia crossed the Red Sea and entered the Islamic world a long time ago, it really spans thousands of mountains and waters, covering every corner of the world, and its starting point is Europe, especially the Netherlands in Central Europe and the countries of Western Europe.

Because of the rising status of the United States in the global economy after the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, coupled with Americans'"unreasonable" preference for coffee, the coffee business history of nearly a hundred years is almost a history of endless commercial wars among American coffee imports, manufacturers and growers, as well as coffee giants. The two world wars not only changed the map of world history, but also changed the commercial map of coffee. The reproduction of this process and state in the book is meticulous and brilliant.

While bringing coffee beans to the South American continent, Europeans also sowed coffee seeds to South and Southeast Asian colonies. The famous Java beans and civet dung beans are all relics of this colonial movement. Almost a copy of the American continent, the sowing of coffee has not only changed the planting structure of South and Southeast Asia, but also changed their historical process, making it integrated into the global trade process because of coffee cultivation and primary processing.

In the author's words, it is not so exaggerated that it is the coffee trade that engulfs the world in the process of globalization. The coffee trade, like other important commodity trade, has led to numerous protests, intrigue and violence, leading to the suicides of merchant tycoons, the ouster of the president, and even regime change. This is another inspiration for readers from the history of coffee trade.

The author said that in the 1980s, the dawn of fair trade in coffee finally appeared on the horizon, saying that although human beings are aware of the sorrowful hope of witnessing history, the prospect can be expected.

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