Summary of Scott Reynolds Nelson's Oceans of Grain

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.

#1 I had written an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2011 predicting that problems with the mortgage market suggested a deeper problem with international trade that could hinder bank lending and lead to a global depression. I knew this because I saw similarities between modern problems with mortgage banking and my obsession: the panic of 1873.

#2 After the French Revolution, which was fueled in part by bread prices, Russian emigré architects designed the Vorontsov Palace, along with Alexander Square, the Odessa Opera House, and the majestic summer dachas of southern Russia’s moneyed estate owners and grain traders.

#3 In the 1860s, as both empires were forced to end slavery and serfdom, a powerful Russia and a weak United States switched positions. The Russian boom went suddenly bust when larger boatloads of cheap American wheat burst across the ocean to European markets in the wake of the American Civil War.

#4 The Agrarian Crisis in Europe led to the rise of several grain-powered great powers, including Russia, which responded by building railroads and cheap farm loans. They began to compete with the Atlantic competitor, the United States, in the 1890s.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Apr 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781669385660

IRB Media

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Insights on Scott Reynolds Nelson's Oceans of Grain

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 8

Insights from Chapter 9

Insights from Chapter 10

Insights from Chapter 11

Insights from Chapter 12

Insights from Chapter 13

Insights from Chapter 14

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

I had written an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education in 2011 predicting that problems with the mortgage market suggested a deeper problem with international trade that could hinder bank lending and lead to a global depression. I knew this because I saw similarities between modern problems with mortgage banking and my obsession: the panic of 1873.

#2

After the French Revolution, which was fueled in part by bread prices, Russian emigré architects designed the Vorontsov Palace, along with Alexander Square, the Odessa Opera House, and the majestic summer dachas of southern Russia’s moneyed estate owners and grain traders.

#3

In the 1860s, as both empires were forced to end slavery and serfdom, a powerful Russia and a weak United States switched positions. The Russian boom went suddenly bust when larger boatloads of cheap American wheat burst across the ocean to European markets in the wake of the American Civil War.

#4

The Agrarian Crisis in Europe led to the rise of several grain-powered great powers, including Russia, which responded by building railroads and cheap farm loans. They began to compete with the Atlantic competitor, the United States, in the 1890s.

#5

The further I dug, the more I was helped along by the brilliant analysis of a Russian grain trader and revolutionary writing under the pseudonym Parvus. He claimed that trade was an active force of its own that shaped the structure of society in ways that were impossible to fully understand.

#6

When I landed in Odessa, Ukraine, I reconfirmed my lack of expertise. I could not communicate with the private cab drivers whose Ukrainian-accented Russian I found difficult to understand. I finally located someone who spoke a little German and a few words of English.

#7

I planned my research itinerary in Kiev, including visiting the city’s ports, grain pathways, and Jewish quarter. I hoped to see the pathways and understand