A Different Product?: Expansion and Geography of International Meat Trade in the First Globalization and the Great Depression

It is well known that the expansion of international trade was one of the key elements of the first globalization. Many studies have pointed out that both supply and demand factors in order to explain this process. However, the weight that these factors could have had in the expansion of trade in different products could have been very varied. In general, a perspective that places more emphasis on the characteristics and peculiarities of each product is missing to understand how the international market for them was formed in the first globalization and the reasons for the growth of their trade. In this context, our work deal with the evolution of meat global trade from its formation during the XIX century until the World War Two. Global market trade has two highly interesting features. On the one hand, the technical difficulties involved in transport and on the other hand the almost monosopnist nature of Great Britain.