Taste, Trade and Technology

Richard Perren is Reader in Economic History at the University of Aberdeen, UK.

• Contents: Preface; Introduction. Part 1 1840 to 1914: New suppliers; Technical advance; Capital and markets. Part 2 1914 to 1945: War and depression; Production and output; Government and business. Part 3 1945 to the Present: Shortages and plenty; Tastes and incomes; Government and questions of welfare. Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

'Here is a specialist at work, with satisfying results, although the book cannot have been easy to write because of its vast compass... This book will become and indispensable reference on the international meat trade because it is the only single volume to paint on such a wide canvass.' Economic History Review ’Taste, Trade and Technology is a major contribution to economic history in general and to agricultural and commercial history in particular. It is a masterful synthesis of interdisciplinary research and could only have been written by someone with a deep and clear understanding of both the history of meat processing and the workings of the international economy... there is something for any historian who want to find out how industrializing and post-industrial nations managed to satisfy demands for meat when domestic supplies were inadequate.’ Agricultural History Review ’... Perren does a remarkable job of pointing out global shifts without losing sight of the national politics and business conerns among the four important overseas sources of meat... Rather than simply describing the rise of a global trade, he provides a detailed picture of the fluctuations in the meat industry offset by war, population shifts, economic and industrial development, and the changing tastes of consumers... Perren has produced an important work, one that, at last, presents a broad and carefully detailed study of a dynamic industry characterized by multiple turns from scarcity to plenty, from necessity to distrust.’ Business History Review