Global Commodity Chains and Labor Relations

408 Pages·2021·5.464 MB·English

by  Andrea Komlosy

Global Commodity Chains and Labor Relations
Studies in Global Social History

Series Editor
Marcel van der Linden (International Institute of Social History, Amsterdam,
The Netherlands)
Editorial Board
Kate Alexander (University of Johannesburg)
Sven Beckert (Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA)
Dirk Hoerder (University of Arizona, Phoenix, AZ, USA)
Chitra Joshi (Indraprastha College, Delhi University, India)
Amarjit Kaur (University of New England, Armidale, Australia)
Barbara Weinstein (New York University, New York, NY, USA)
volume 42
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/s gsh
Global Commodity Chains

and Labor Relations
Edited by
Andrea Komlosy and Goran Musić
LEIDEN | BOSTON
This volume is published in collaboration with the International Conference of Labour and Social History
(ITH) and arose out of the 52nd International Conference of Labour and Social History (ITH) which took
place in Steyr, Austria on 15– 17 September 2016.
The language of this book was edited by Harriet Trautsch.
Cover illustration: “Loading of a Ship in the Creek of Dubai”, February 2010. © Andrea Komlosy.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Komlosy, Andrea, editor. | Musić, Goran, 1981- editor.
Title: Global commodity chains and labor relations / edited by Andrea Komlosy
and Goran Musić.
Description: Leiden ; Boston Brill, [2021] | Series: Studies in global social history,
1874-6705 ; volume 42 | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Summary: “This edited volume provides a collection of historical and
contemporary commodity chain studies by placing labor at the centre of
analysis. A global historical perspective demonstrates that splitting production
processes to different, hierarchically connected locations are by no means new
phenomena. The book is thus an important and valuable contribution to
commodity chain research, but also to the fields of social-economic and global
labor history”– Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020048766 (print) | LCCN 2020048767 (ebook) |
ISBN 9789004448032 (hardback ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9789004448049 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Labor. | Production control. | Business logistics. | International
business enterprises.
Classification: LCC HD4901 .G545 2021 (print) | LCC HD4901 (ebook) |
DDC 331–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048766
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020048767
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/b rill- typeface.
issn 1874- 6705
isbn 978- 90- 04- 44803- 2 (hardback)
isbn 978- 90- 04- 44804- 9 (e- book)
Copyright 2021 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without prior written permission from the publisher. Requests for re- use and/ or translations must be
addressed to Koninklijke Brill NV via brill.com or copyright.com.
This book is printed on acid- free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
Contents

L ist of Maps, Figures and Tables ix
N otes on Contributors xi
1 C hains of Labor
Connecting Global Labor History and the Commodity Chain Paradigm 1
Andrea Komlosy and Goran Musić
part 1
Theorizing Commodity Chains, Labor Relations and Upgrading
2 C ycles of Global Expansion and Contraction
Global Commodity Chains and Labor Relations in Textiles and Garments
from the 17th to the 21st Century 29
Andrea Komlosy
3 S oy Expansions
China, the USA and Brazil in Comparison 55
Ernst Langthaler
4 W ho’s Upgrading? Class Differentiation and Labor Relations in
Argentinian Agribusiness 81
Christin Bernhold
part 2
Commodity Chains and Proto- industrialization in Early Modern
Central Europe
5 G rain, Flour, Beer, and Liquor
Commodity Chains, Labor Relations and Economic Development in
Habsburg Galicia, 1772– 1918 107
Klemens Kaps
6 Global Commodity Chains and Labor Relations in the Distribution of
Central European Copper in the Eighteenth Century 150
Miroslav Lacko
vi Contents
part 3
Commodity Chains in (Post- )Colonial Settings
7 L abor as a Bottleneck
Entangled Commodity Chains of Sugar in Hawaii and California in the
Late Nineteenth Century 177
Uwe Spiekermann
8 C oolie Labor, Tea Planters, and Transport in Colonial India 202
Santosh Hasnu
9 A nalyzing Structural Change and Labor Relations in Global Commodity
Chains
The Ethiopian Leather Industry 224
Jan Grumiller
part 4
Production Chains in (Post- )Socialist Eastern Europe
10 O utward Processing Production and the Yugoslav Self- Managed Textile
Industry in the 1980s 251
Goran Musić
11 U neven Development in the European Automotive Industry
Labor Fragmentation and Value- Added Production in the Hungarian
Semi-p eriphery 274
Tamás Gerőcs, Tibor T. Meszmann and András Pinkasz
part 5
Trade Union Networks, ngo Campaigns, Workers’ Agency
12 T ransnational Solidarity Networks between Workers and Global
Production Networks 299
Jörg Nowak
13 C orporate Social Responsibility in the Global Cocoa Chocolate Chain
Insights from Sustainability Certification in Ghana’s Cocoa
Communities 316
Franziska Ollendorf
Contents vii
14 O n the (Re)Production of Informal Work in Argentina’s Auto
Industry 338
Stefan Schmalz and Johanna Sittel
part 6
Conclusion
15 G lobal Labor and Labor Studies – Breaking the Chains 361
Karin Fischer
I ndex of Places, Persons, Companies and Institutions 383

Maps, Figures and Tables

Maps
5.1 M ap of Habsburg Galicia in the borders after 1846/ 66 according to Polish and
Ukrainian names of district capital towns (with present day national border
between Poland and Ukraine). Source: Toronto Ukrainian Genealogy Group,
http:// www.torugg.org/ History/ history_ of_ galicia.html 112
6.1 T he most important centers of copper production in the early modern
Habsburg Monarchy (elaborated by M. Lacko) 152
6.2 D ominant routes of copper export from the Habsburg Monarchy during the
eighteenth century (elaborated by M. Lacko) 170
8.1 A ssam during the nineteenth century. (Source: created by the author) 205
Figures
3.1 S oy expansion in Manchuria, 1906– 1942. Source: Langenberg, Die Bedeutung der
Sojabohne in der Weltwirtschaft, p. 20; Stewart, “The Soya Bean and Manchuria,”
pp. 221– 226; Deasy, “The Soya Bean in Manchuria,” pp. 303– 310; Chao, The
Economic Development of Manchuria, p. 44 61
3.2 S oy expansion in the USA, 1924– 2015. Source: usda, National Agricultural
Statistics Service (author’s calculations) 66
3.3 S oybean cropping and mechanization by farm size in Iowa, 1964. Source: U.S.
Bureau of the Census, Census of Agriculture 1964 – Iowa, pp. 74– 87 (author’s
calculations) 67
3.4 S oy expansion in Brazil, 1961– 2014. Source: fao, faostat (author’s
calculations) 70
3.5 S oybean cropping and mechanization by farm size in Brazil, 2006.
Source: ibge, Censo Agropecuário 2006, Tab. 1.2.14, 1.2.23, 1.6.73 (author’s
calculations) 72
9.1 E thiopia’s leather export structure (1993– 2017, usd millions). Source: Adapted
version of Grumiller 2019, based on UN Comtrade (2019) 236
10.1 Y ugoslav textile and garment export (in million US dollars) 258
11.1 G ross Value- Added (gva) in the share of output. Source: Eurostat 281
14.1 D ynamic concept of informality 341
14.2 D evelopment of formal and informal employment in Argentina 1974– 2014:
employment rate (in percent of population) and unregistered employees
(share of employed persons in percent). (Source: eph- indec) 344
14.3 I nformality along the automobile value chain in Argentina (own depiction) 348
x Maps, Figures and tables
Tables
3.1 A gricultural land, labor and capital per household in Manchuria, 1935/ 36 62
5.1 G rain harvests in the lands of the Habsburg Monarchy 1770– 1904/ 13 (in 100
kilogram) 120
5.2 E xports of grain, flour and liquor by railway from Galicia to trans- regional and
international markets, 1869– 1890/ 92 (in metric hundredweights) 137
6.1 T he valuation of purchased ore from the ore miners in the Upper Hungarian
state copper mines in Smolník (Schmöllnitz), valid from 1741 to 1747, and the
Hechengartner’s ore valuation approved in January 1747 (1 mine car “Pahr” = 106
liters = 3 cents = 168 kg; 1 Viennese cent = 100 lb/ pounds = 56.12 kg; 1 fl./
Gulden = 60 kr./ Kreuzer) 156
6.2 T he number of workers in the Upper Hungarian state copper enterprise on 31.
December, 1769 163
6.3 M arketing of Hungarian copper in 1739 under the administration of brothers
Franz Gottlieb von Palm (1691– 1749) and Leopold Karl von Palm (1701– 1776)
by types of semi- finished copper products and marketplaces (1 Viennese
cent = 100 lb/ pounds = 56.12 kg) 167
8.1 N umber of deaths of the imported coolie labor to Cachar by steamer 210
10.1 R egional structure of textile exports in percentages (export to all
regions = 100) 257
11.1 A utomotive industry in Hungary 282