ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on actors, structures, and processes enabling the spread of soy as a commodity outside Asia from the late 1800s until after the First World War. It argues that the commodification of soybeans in Europe was enabled by three interdependent driving forces. First, chemical developments around 1900 triggered a demand for fat for use in food production and industry in various European countries. Japan's imperial ambitions in China added a second component to the soybean story outside Asia as the Japanese enabled, facilitated, and in the end controlled most elements of the soybean trade. Eventually, rapid lines of communication and transportation and the first wave of globalization became the third driving force for encounters with soy beyond Asia.
