The World That Trade Created Summary

‘The World That Trade Created’ by Kenneth Pomerantz and Steven Topik is an informational text about the history and life associated with chocolate, coffee, tea, and sugar. The authors begin with the history of each commodity, then eventually reach its modern day use. As the utilization of chocolate, coffee, tea, and sugar spreads across the Earth, the demand for these products grows. To open, Pomerantz and Topik begin with chocolate; a stimulant, intoxicant, hallucinogen, and aphrodisiac. Evidently, chocolate has very different uses than what we see in today’s modern world. In fact, its early uses were in the medical field, as it was used as a cure for anxiety, fevers, and coughs. Chocolate was introduced to the Americas by its first civilization:

Due to its rareness, the cacao bean was even used for money by the Aztecs! The use of cacao beans as money is a sneak peek into the future, where trading is rare and monetization is everywhere. Spanish America took advantage of the growing demand for chocolate, and soon it was Spanish America’s principal export, leaving the area. The influence of chocolate spread mainly through a select few countries in the beginning. Namely, it was planted in Central America and Venezuela, then relocated to the Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil and Africa. Soon chocolate could be identified around the world. Thus, the authors of ‘The World That Trade Created’ adequately describe the expansion of the cacao bean, and therefore, chocolate. Equally important, tea is the next product on the list. Tea experiences a very slow start compared to chocolate. It was never adopted into the New World, and avoided Western control for years. Luckily, tea was associated with China’s elite, and gained prestige that made it more interesting. As a consequence of growing desire, the Chinese government tried to organize a monopoly on tea. By the 18th century, cheap sugar was

By 1900, the West controlled tea. To conclude, tea started as an unpopular import and ended up as one of the most favored drinks of the West. On the other hand, coffee has a very distinct path to popularity, much different from the story of tea. It all started with French businessman Jean de la Roque. He made a yearlong voyage to purchase coffee from Yemen, the only place where coffee was grown. Coffee Arabica is an Arabian monopoly. One of the key factors of its growth was that Muslims drank coffee because it was one of very few approved secular public places. The Arabians kept their monopoly for a very long time because all French coffee was purchased in Alexandria, then transferred to Marseilles. The Ottoman coffee went from Yemen to Betelfaguay, then Jeddah, Suez, Alexandria, and finally to Constantinople. However, de la Roque’s voyage was profitable, therefore breaking the Arab coffee monopoly. On top of that, cafe society was born, a leisure social class represented by cafes. In spite of this, coffee soon came to represent the industrial revolution in the United States. It was used to stay awake after working long hours in the