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Trade World

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What to expect

From the award-winning and Sunday Times bestselling author of Material World, a story that will take you from ancient civilizations, empire and globalisation through to the most influential geopolitical issue of our times.

The story of trade is the story of humanity. From the copper in Mesopotamian ploughs to the silicon atoms within the chip inside your smartphone, intricate global trading networks have evolved over millennia to fulfil the distinctly human desire to buy and sell.

Today, the volume of trade bestriding the planet is unprecedented. Yet, as fractures in the global order emerge – from an era of globalisation and untrammelled flows of goods and money to a new world of restrictions, intervention and, possibly, war – understanding this fundamental shift to the dominant economic consensus is more important than ever.

Ed Conway tells this extraordinary story through these three commonplace products – bread, cloth and cars. With a compelling blend of economic history and first-hand access to key figures and institutions, he takes us from policy treaties to ground level to show us the people who make, ship and sometimes smuggle the products we buy on a daily basis.

Discover the hidden, shifting trade world behind everything you see around you.

© Ed Conway 2026 (P) Penguin Audio 2026

Critics Review

There are good reporters, and smart thinkers, and sharp writers - but Ed Conway is all three at once... A superb guide to the way the world economy sustains and frustrates us, and it's full of telling details and provocative ideas
Tim Harford
Reading Trade World is an exercise in revelation, an education in the secret story behind a countless array of connections and products and companies we take for granted, and above all an urgent call to get serious about reducing our vulnerabilities and optimising our future. Ed is not just a masterful explainer of hard problems, but the master. This is my book of the year, unless he writes another one; and merely the latest proof that Ed Conway is the most important - and best - journalist in Britain right now
Amol Rajan
Ed Conway is our age’s master in the art of explaining, in simple, clear and engaging language, the building blocks on which our whole civilisation rests
Matthew Parris
With Trade World, Ed Conway illuminates the vast extent of our mutual economic dependence in the global trading system. With fascinating accounts of how three basic products - bread, clothes and cars - are made, this compelling book stands as a warning about how damaging it will be if these links through trade are unwound
Diane Coyle
Ed Conway is opening up a whole new way of looking at how the world works ... Essential and gripping reading. A much needed and erudite warning for our era of Donald Trump's tariff threats and growing protectionism elsewhere
Adam Boulton
Conway has a serious message to get across, but the process is so enjoyable you barely notice it happening
The Times
Author Ed Conway
Narrator Ed Conway
Duration 14 hours and 51 minutes
Release Date
ISBN 9780753562727
Format Audiobook
Publisher Ebury Publishing
Genre Globalization, History: specific events and topics, International relations, International trade and commerce
Availability AU, GB, IE

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