"Farmers feed cities, but starting in the nineteenth century they painted them too. Flax from Canada and the northern United States produced fibre for textiles and linseed oil for paint - critical commodities in a century when wars were fought over fibre and when increased urbanization demanded...

General editor's foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- The making of indigo : cultivation and manufacture -- From manufactory to market : logistics and commerce -- The indigo trade : local and global demand -- The making of the world market : indigo commodity chains -- The political...

General editor's foreword -- Acknowledgements -- Introduction -- The making of indigo : cultivation and manufacture -- From manufactory to market : logistics and commerce -- The indigo trade : local and global demand -- The making of the world market : indigo commodity chains -- The political...

A comparison of the development of the synthetic dye industry in Great Britain, Germany, and the US. This constitutes an important chapter in business, economic, and technological history because synthetic dyes - invented in 1857 - represent the first time that a scientific discovery quickly...