Introduction

Food has been crossing continents for centuries. The ‘silk road’ linking China with Europe provided a transit route for spices. The Columbian exchange introduced tobacco, tomatoes, potatoes, corn and turkeys to Europe; and transported cotton, grains, livestock, sugar and slaves to the New World. Coffee originated in Ethiopia before being introduced to the Arabian peninsula and thence to Europe (for consumption) and South America, South-East Asia and Africa (again) for propagation. British industrialization during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries depended on working classes in the homeland being furnished with cheap grains, starches, sweeteners and meats produced in the colonies, or in areas where British capital financed an expansion of the agricultural frontier.