ABSTRACT
Access to natural resources has always been the bedrock of economic life; no society, however advanced, can survive without it. Yet, natural resources are spread unevenly across the globe and they are rarely found in the same place where they are consumed. Throughout human history, the need for natural resources has therefore been a basic driver of trade. The spread of industrialization during the nineteenth century magnified the demand for natural resources. This development picked up pace with the second industrial revolution from the 1870s onwards, as new technologies created demand for new resources. In addition, the fast-growing urban societies that grew up around new factories craved enormous amounts of foodstuffs to survive. This insatiable demand could only be met by moving huge volumes of basic materials from where they were found or grown to where they were needed to fuel industrial production and to feed the workers manning the machines. As a result, natural resources from all over the world were physically transformed into global value chains.
