Global Commodities: Trade, Exploration and Cultural Exchange Focuses on 15 commodities with intertwined histories: chocolate, coffee, cotton, fur, oil, opium, porcelain, silver and gold, spices, sugar, tea, timber, tobacco, wheat, and wine and spirits. Commodities are documented by a range of primary materials: maps, photographs, objects, and rare books. Facilitates research through the themes of exploration and discovery, imperialism and monopoly, trade wars, economic geography, slavery, mass production, luxury, and the evolution of global branding.