Abstract

A central feature of the industrial era has been the development of global markets for raw materials. Industrialized countries have employed a variety of strategies to ensure their supplies of key mineral and plant resources, resulting in significant economic and environmental effects in host countries, which are typically less developed in economic terms. The industrial ecology and strategic significance of policy-driven changes in global mineral markets are examined, using the starklycontrasting examples of copper and aluminum.

Secure access to an expanding, cheap, and secure supply of raw materials is critical to economic growth and stability under industrial capitalism. Industrial firms and states of industrial societies therefore act strategically as well as economically to assure access. Their strategies may contravene the sovereignty of nations and the environmental and social well-being of communities in areas rich in natural resources. At the same time, their strategies are unlikely to be effective without the acquiescence and cooperation of powerful economic and political agents—including states—in the resources-rich areas.

Access strategies have changed over time and space because of changes in technology, in markets, in transport capacity, and in world political and economic organization. A particularly important feature has been the role of the rising economy in a competitive world system of production and trade. In seeking to challenge the dominance of already well-established national industrial economies, rising economies often devise particularly aggressive access strategies. The consequences for global flows of natural resources are highlighted in this chapter.