The World For Sale

 The World For Sale by Javier Blas & Jack Farchy


Read: April 2021

This book is about rise and rise of commodity traders in the last fifty years. Their extraordinary growth came in spurts due to a succession of geopolitical events:

i) it started with wave of nationalization of oil assets leading to 'seven sisters' of oil companies losing their oligopoly in fixing price of crude oil by 1970s

ii) breakup of communist block by early 90s added to the list of clients of oil traders

iii) coming of World Trade Organization increased the number of many developing countries clamoring to sell their natural resources to rich nations, but had no wherewithal to either find the customers, negotiate, or organize for logistics. Traders stepped in, especially in case where the buyer needed a buffer party while dealing with unsavory characters.

iv) and the biggest of them, rise of insatiable appetite of China

These factors led to rise of super powerful commodity traders like March Rich and his progeny, Glencore, who have enormous resources at their fingertips even to topple regimes, which they have done in pursuit of ‘amoral profits’.

This book is a sometimes terrifying, sometimes exciting tale of buccaneer traders. They fed famine ravaged communist regimes, satisfied enormous appetite of China, financed despots and independence movements alike, helped Putin maintain his grasp on power. In the process many of those traders have became billionaires. Their imprint on our lives is deep even if we don’t see it.

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