Creating global capitalism: An introduction to commodity trading companies and the first global economy

During the first global economy, commodity trading companies emerged as important organisers of the global trade in commodities. The article has four main aims. In the first part we introduce the existing literature, explain the basics of commodity trading and discuss theoretical concepts and frameworks for understanding the business. In the second part we present the context of the first global economy and discuss why specialised commodity traders started to become important in this period. In the third part we propose a research agenda for using the global value chain framework from institutional economics to provide an appropriate link between the agency of the trading companies and the structural drivers of trade globalisation. In the final part, we introduce the seven articles which make up the special issue.