Contested Commoditization

What and who (un)makes a global commodity? By examining the trade in second-hand military clothing in Britain and South Africa between 1870 and 1910, the book offers a sustained historical analysis of the global second-hand clothing trade, revealing commoditization as an ongoing, contested process. Drawing on a broad range of sources and extensive archival research in Britain, South Africa, and India, the study traces the commodity chain from the sites of production in Britain to the sites of consumption in British South Africa. Combining interdisciplinary approaches, it analyses disputes shaping commoditization at multiple stages from a micro-historical perspective. It examines conflicts over military symbolism, contested practices of consumption, racialized debates over health and materiality, and regulatory processes, revealing how the commodity state of second-hand military clothing was produced and repeatedly re-negotiated and redefined through correlating social, economic, and material considerations. By foregrounding micro-historical perspectives on commoditization processes in a global frame, the study contributes to broader debates on globalization, trade, and consumption in imperial contexts and the cultural history of the economic.