• London’s Soap Industry and the Development of Global Ghost Acres in the Nineteenth Century

    Author(s):
    Jim Clifford (see profile)
    Date:
    2019
    Subject(s):
    Environmental conditions, World history, Great Britain, History, England--London
    Item Type:
    Article
    Tag(s):
    Ghost Acres, Soap, Tallow, Ecological limits, ecological imperialism, Environmental history, Digital history, Global history, British history, London
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/7q2w-eb32
    Abstract:
    John Knight and Sons soap company, like other successful soap manufacturers in Greater London, grew during the nineteenth century by combining technological innovation and marketing to sell increasing quantities of a product the British public increasingly saw as a symbol of their advanced civilisation. They did not struggle with the ecological limits of their regional hinterlands to provide the raw materials, as they relied on growing quantities of tallow, rosin and other commodities supplied from overseas ghost acres. John Knight and Sons linked consumers to environmental transformations and large-scale colonial dispossession in Europe, the Americas and Australasia. Millions of sheep and cattle were raised on the abundant grasslands found on the Eurasian steppe, the Pampas, the Great Plains and in Australasia, many of which were killed and processed only for their tallow, skins or hides. Economic and environmental factors created significant instability in the global tallow supply, but the end result was greater quantities of cheaper tallow shipped to market in London. These global ghost acres made the nineteenth century success of John Knight and Sons and other major soap producers in Greater London possible.
    Notes:
    This is a pre-copy-editing, author-produced PDF of an article accepted following peer review for publication in Environment and History. The copy edited publisher version is now available as a fast track article on the Environment and History website and will be published with new page numbers early in 2020: https://doi.org/10.3197/096734019X15463432086982.
    Metadata:
    xml
    Published as:
    Journal article     Show details
    Pub. DOI:
    https://doi.org/10.3197/096734019X15463432086982
    Publisher:
    White Horse Press
    Pub. Date:
    2019-6-16
    Journal:
    Environment and History
    ISSN:
    0967-3407
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    4 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved
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