ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the second soy cycle, which begins to take root around the turn of the first millennium, under the Song Dynasty (960–1279). Soy now begins to take key and manifold roles outside China, reaching into East and Southeast Asia. The full regime phase, discernible approximately between 1650 and 1790, is marked by “rise of the West”, and by the Dutch and British commercial penetration of East Asia. Under this cycle, soy acquires distinctive functions in trade and production, especially as fertilizer and feed. Also, while soy is still seen as a buffer against famines, it is in this regime phase that it becomes a quintessential ingredient in Asian cuisine. Further, soy enters the West as an “exotic” ingredient. While not yet a major import, it begins to circulate within a global commodity circuit. The second soy cycle enters its rupture phase between the late 18th and mid-19th centuries and collapses with the geopolitical and economic subordination of Qing China to the British East India Company after the Opium Wars.
