Food quality and the circulation time of commodities: lessons from the British milk trade 1845–1914

Abstract

The major resurgence of transport geography over the last two decades has provided us with important insights and knowledge on the spatial aspects of transportation under global capitalism. In spite of its substantial progress, however, the sub-disciple has tended to study the movement of goods in abstraction from their physical properties and to conceptualize commodities as fixed and unchanging. Although this assumption is a reasonable one for a great many commodities, it is less so for more perishable goods, especially food. In an attempt to develop this insight further, this article argues that transport geography needs to pay more attention to the relationship between space–time processes and the physical properties of goods in transit. I investigate this relationship through a study of the development and social impacts of the milk trade in Britain c.1845–1914.