international trade — Bunk History

The first British gravestone in the American colonies, a slab of black limestone with an engraving of a knight.

America’s Oldest Surviving Tombstone Probably Came From Belgium

How researchers analyzed limestone to determine the age and origins of the grave maker, which marked the final resting place of a prominent Jamestown colonist.

by Sarah Kuta via Smithsonian on September 25, 2024

Factory cloth samples.

Chinese Production, American Consumption

The convergence of economy and politics in the Sino-US relationship via Jonathan Chatwin’s “The Southern Tour” and Elizabeth O’Brien Ingleson’s “Made in China.”

by Kate Merkel-Hess via Los Angeles Review of Books on July 28, 2024

A top hat with poppies and the words "Merchants of Addiction", and pictures of wealthy American opium smugglers.

The Blue-Blood Families That Made Fortunes in the Opium Trade

Long before the Sacklers appeared on the scene, families like the Astors and the Delanos cemented their upper-crust status through the global trade in opium.

by Amitav Ghosh via The Nation on January 23, 2024

Whole Wheat Shell Pasta on Grey, by artist Rachel Doom, 2019.

Wielding Wheat

A new history makes a case for the world-ordering power of wheat.

by Daniel Immerwahr via New York Review of Books on July 1, 2022

The Doomed Voyage of Pepsi’s Soviet Navy

A three-decade dream of communist markets ended in the scrapyard.

by Paul Musgrave via Foreign Policy on November 27, 2021

Detail of Anti-Slavery Picnic at Weymouth Landing, Massachusetts (c1845) by Susan Torrey Merritt. Courtesy the Art Institute of Chicago

New England Kept Slavery, But Not Its Profits, At a Distance

Entangled with, yet critical of, colonial oppression and the evils of slavery, the true history of Boston can now be told.

by Mark A. Peterson via Aeon on May 3, 2021

Zones of Doubt

What we can learn about trade policy from a misbegotten 19th century effort to quantify the chemical properties of wool.

by David Singerman on October 2, 2018

Donald Trump holding up a bill he signed.

Ceding Power to the Executive is Backfiring on Free-Trade Advocates

Liberal Democrats sidestepped Congress to bring free trade to the U.S. Now, Trump is able to do the same thing to destroy it.

by Jennifer Delton via Made By History on June 7, 2018

'Trade Wars Are Good'?

Three past conflicts tell a very different story.

by Marc-William Palen via The Conversation on March 5, 2018

James Madison Would Like a Few Words on Trade Wars

The fourth president tried all kinds of sanctions to open markets, but still ended up in the War of 1812.

by Noah Feldman via Bloomberg on March 5, 2018

The port of Canton

China and the American Revolution

Explaining the global impact of British-Chinese relations during the colonial period.

by Simon Hill via Journal of the American Revolution on December 7, 2017

Lithograph of a sea otter on a beach, by J. Webber, as illustration for James Cook's Voyages.

Viewpoints on the China Trade

Even within itself, the China trade was a complex, multisided, many-splendored thing.

by John Demos via Commonplace on January 1, 2005

A group of indigenous Pacific Islanders forced to work on a sugar plantation, with a white overseer in the background.

How ‘Blackbirders’ Forced Tens of Thousands of Pacific Islanders Into Slavery After the Civil War

The decline of Southern industries paved the way for plantations in Fiji and Australia, where victims of “blackbirding” endured horrific working conditions.

by Shoshi Parks via Smithsonian on December 5, 2024

The Second Abolition

Robin Blackburn’s sweeping history of slavery and freedom in the 19th century.

by Manisha Sinha via The Nation on November 19, 2024

An artistic collage juxtiposing a transatlantic slave ship with a tenement in Harlem.

How the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Continues to Impact Modern Life

A new Smithsonian book reckons with the enduring legacies of slavery and capitalism.

by Jennifer L. Morgan via Smithsonian on November 7, 2024

Shipping container labeled "China Shipping," overlaid on political cartoon showing a tariff slowing supply of medicine to a drip.

Trump Loves The 1890s But He’s Clueless About Them

The tariffs he keeps babbling about didn’t make that decade great. They helped usher in a depression.

by Eric Rauchway via The Bulwark on October 23, 2024

John Sherman

The Other Sherman’s March

How the younger brother of the famous general set out to destroy the scourge of monopoly power.

by Richard R. John via HNN on October 22, 2024

Bill Clinton meeting with the Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, in the White House.

How Qatar Became a Major Middle East Power Broker

The history behind the country's role as a key American ally that also maintains warm relations with Iran and others.

by Allen Fromherz via Made By History on September 30, 2024

A pile of guns and rifle magazines on top of bullets.

More Guns, More Money: How America Turned Weapons Into a Consumer Commodity

How an American arms dealer and a surplus of guns in Europe after World War II popularized gun ownership.

by Andrew C. McKevitt via Literary Hub on September 12, 2024

Photo of United States bill, saying "In God We Trust."

The Deep Religious Roots of American Economics

Any attempt to understand the complexities of American economic thought without considering the significant role of religious beliefs is incomplete.

by Benjamin M. Friedman via The MIT Press Reader on September 5, 2024

Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, Madonna and Child with Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist, ca 1492–95

How Renaissance Art Found Its Way to American Museums

We take for granted the Titians and Botticellis that hang in galleries across the U.S., little aware how and why they were acquired.

by Ashley Couto via JSTOR Daily on August 14, 2024

The White House surrounded by outlines of Iran, Russia, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, China, Syria, and Afghanistan.

How Four U.S. Presidents Unleashed Economic Warfare Across the Globe

U.S. sanctions have surged over the last two decades and are now in effect on almost one-third of all nations. But are they doing more harm than we realize?

by Jeff Stein, Federica Cocco via Washington Post on July 25, 2024

Close-up of barcode being scanned.

Happy 50th Birthday to the UPC Barcode – No One Expected You Would Revolutionize Global Commerce

The scanning of a package of gum in an Ohio grocery store in 1974 marked the beginning of an era.

by Jordan Frith via The Conversation on July 25, 2024

Oil on canvas (1993–94) depicting the third signing of the Louisiana Treaty in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Trade, Ambition, and the Rise of American Empire

High ideals have always gone together with economic self-interest in the history of the United States.

by Samuel Gregg via Law & Liberty on July 17, 2024

Old picture of Union soldiers holding a pot of coffee.

How Coffee Helped the Union Caffeinate Their Way to Victory in the Civil War

The North’s fruitful partnership with Liberian farmers fueled a steady supply of an essential beverage.

by Bronwen Everill via Smithsonian on June 27, 2024

World in a Box: Cardboard Media and the Geographic Imagination

Cardboard boxes hold a world of meaning that spans from Amazon to the Container Corporation of America.

by Shannon Mattern via Places Journal on May 15, 2024

Boiling House at the Sugar Plantation Asunción, Cuba, 1857.

Slavery Was Crucial for the Development of Capitalism

Historian Robin Blackburn has completed a trilogy of books that provide a comprehensive Marxist account of slavery in the New World.

by Robin Blackburn, Owen Dowling via Jacobin on April 10, 2024

Croton aqueduct.

Testing the Waters in Gotham

The three forms of water distribution form a fluid archive of community formation, civic pride, and the many ways New Yorkers can choose the water they drink.

by Liviu Chelcea via Public Seminar on March 20, 2024

San Diego U.S. Customs office.

San Diego’s South Bay Annexation Of 1957

Water insecurity, territorial expansion, and the making of a US-Mexico border city.

by Kevan Q. Malone via The Metropole on February 21, 2024

USS San Jacinto on ocean

The U.S. Only Pretends to Want 'Freedom of the Seas'

Too often, U.S. support for open navigation has devolved into military conflict.

by Grace Easterly via Made By History on February 15, 2024

brought to you by

© Bunk History