'A Global Unified Price': On the Making of Global Grain Prices and Its Effects

• In Event: The Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and Global Grain Markets

Abstract

This paper considers the impact of the Russian empire's integration into the global market, and the effects of that integration on its domestic trade. Following the complaints, theories, and movements of different participants and observers of the grain trade and export, it looks at how each party interpreted and tried to make sense of falling wheat prices. What was the meaning of a "global unified price," and how did such a price emerge in the first place? Did falling wheat prices represent a crisis, and if so, who was it a crisis for?

Author

• Tova Benjamin, Davidson College