ABSTRACT
The modern era of Global trade began at the end of World War Two as Europe and Asia were rebuilding after the end of the fighting. Logistics was one of the reasons the Allies won the war as they both out-built and out-delivered the Axis Powers. Just as more global resources and commodities were consumed mostly in the West, an increasingly large amount of consumer product manufacturing moved from the West to the East. With the opening of Modern China, a seemingly endless labor force became available for all sorts of production at labor prices that were many times below the minimum wages required in Western economies. Within two decades, all labor-intensive production migrated first to Southeast Asia and then to China. Rapid industrialization has both a human and an environmental price tag. Cheap coal has meant the burning of more and more fossil fuel for electricity.
