Coffee and Capitalism: How a Bean Fueled Global Exploitation and Industrial Power

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The history of commodities can provide insights into how capitalism works. Coffee serves as an interesting case. Although coffee most likely began in Ethiopia, it traveled through the Arab world before it arrived in Europe in the 16th century, and coffee initially became a luxury product in port cities, notably Venice and Naples.

In the 17th century, Dutch traders and sea thieves were involved in smuggling coffee plants from Yemen to Dutch colonies in Asia and the Americas, due to a rising consumer demand in Europe. This ushered in the scale of coffee production that has informed capitalist global commodity chains.

The Americas became the largest producers of coffee beans in the world, with Brazil being the leading nation with coffee cultivation. This changed labor systems and market conditions globally. Plantation coffee became labor intensive, bordering on labor relations very much like slavery.

At the same time, coffee served as an industrial stimulant and consumer product at a key time for industrializing Europe. It served the industrial workforce in Europe, transporting uses from plantations to factories from great distances like Manchester.

Coffee provides a way to understand the processes of global capitalism through a complex of linked networks of production, consumption and exploitation of commodities, all while concealing social and economic relations in the process of commodity production.