Of Coconuts and Kings: The Political Economy of an Export Crop

Abstract

The Philippines is the world's leading coconut exporter. The benefits of this trade for Filipino producers have been circumscribed by declining terms of trade in the world market and by highly unequal distribution of coconut-sector income at home. A case study of the Philippine coconut trade illustrates the crucial importance of linkages between wealth and power in determining the size and distribution of income in export agriculture. ‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘To talk of many things: of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax — Of cabbages — and — kings — And why the sea is boiling hot — And whether pigs have wings.’ Carroll (1922: 186)