Summary of Scott Reynolds Nelson's Oceans of Grain

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

#1 I had written an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2011 predicting that problems with the mortgage market suggested a deeper problem with international trade that could hinder bank lending and lead to a global depression. I knew this because I saw similarities between modern problems with mortgage banking and my obsession: the panic of 1873.

#2 After the French Revolution, which was fueled in part by bread prices, Russian emigré architects designed the Vorontsov Palace, along with Alexander Square, the Odessa Opera House, and the majestic summer dachas of southern Russia’s moneyed estate owners and grain traders.

#3 In the 1860s, as both empires were forced to end slavery and serfdom, a powerful Russia and a weak United States switched positions. The Russian boom went suddenly bust when larger boatloads of cheap American wheat burst across the ocean to European markets in the wake of the American Civil War.

#4 The Agrarian Crisis in Europe led to the rise of several grain-powered great powers, including Russia, which responded by building railroads and cheap farm loans. They began to compete with the Atlantic competitor, the United States, in the 1890s.

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Rafbók: 13 april 2022