Global – and local - commodity circuits

This chapter discusses the growing literature on what are variously called global supply chains, global value chains, global production networks and global commodity circuits, and how they contribute to the social organisation and operation of the global economy and an understanding of globalisation itself. It considers global relationships in the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods and services and how the material infrastructures and relationships that support the circulation of commodities have been made visible in times of crisis. The chapter considers the global-local interconnections of three commodities: flip-flops, tomatoes and fish. It presents original research in the circulation of fish and seafood with a focus on the pivotal figure of the fish merchant at Billingsgate, London’s long-established wholesale fish market. The ordinary transactions and market work which generate and sustain the commodity circuit at Billingsgate reveal it as fragile and contingent too. The work of maintaining the commodity chain is shown to be an ongoing practical accomplishment based on human bonds and human-fish entanglements.