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Trade World

The Ties That Bound Our Past and Could Unravel Our Future, from the bestselling author of MATERIAL WORLD

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Trade World

By: Ed Conway
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Brought to you by Penguin.

The story of trade is the story of humanity. From the copper in Mesopotamian ploughs to the silicon atoms within the chip inside your smartphone, intricate global trading networks have evolved over millennia to fulfil the distinctly human desire to buy and sell. Today, the volume of trade bestriding the planet is unprecedented. Yet, as fractures in the global order emerge – from an era of globalisation and untrammelled flows of goods and money to a new world of restrictions, intervention and, possibly, war – understanding this fundamental shift to the dominant economic consensus is more important than ever.

In TRADE WORLD, bestselling, award-winning author Ed Conway tells this extraordinary story through these three commonplace products – bread, cloth and cars. With a compelling blend of economic history and first-hand access to key figures and institutions, he takes us from policy treaties to ground level to show us the people who make, ship and sometimes smuggle the products we buy on a daily basis.

Discover the hidden, shifting trade world behind everything you see around you.

© Ed Conway 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

International Modern Politics & Government
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Critic reviews

There are good reporters, and smart thinkers, and sharp writers - but Ed Conway is all three at once... A superb guide to the way the world economy sustains and frustrates us, and it's full of telling details and provocative ideas
Ed Conway is our age’s master in the art of explaining, in simple, clear and engaging language, the building blocks on which our whole civilisation rests (Matthew Parris)
Reading Trade World is an exercise in revelation, an education in the secret story behin da countless array of connections and products and companies we take for granted, and above all an urgent call to get serious about reducing our vulnerabilities and optimising our future. Ed is not just a masterful explainer of hard problems, but the master. This is my book of the year, unless he writes another one; and merely the latest proof that Ed Conway is the most important - and best - journalist in Britain right now (Amol Rajan)
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