Eastham's Commodity Storage Model in a Modern Context

This paper revives the seminal work of Jack Kenneth (J.K.) Eastham, an economist from the Dundee School of Economics, who in the 1930s wrote on the theoretical aspects of storable commodity markets. First, we present Eastham's contribution and show that despite using a graphical analysis, Eastham's model anticipated the modern competitive storage model (e.g., the presence of speculative stockholders acting as arbitrageurs and the shape of the aggregate commodity demand curve). Second, we explore the writings that may have influenced Eastham in the formulation of his model, by considering contributions of Wicksteed, through the influence of the London School of Economics; Keynes; and economists from the United States such as Mordecai Ezekiel and John Williams. Finally, our paper explores possible reasons why Eastham's contribution on storable commodity markets was overlooked in the subsequent literature