Fat: Lubricant of modernity

This article explores the global history of fat as both a vital nutrient and a versatile industrial commodity from the nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. The study highlights fat’s expanding applications – from foodstuffs like margarine and shortening to non-food products including soaps, paints and early plastics. Drawing on historical data and trade patterns, it reveals how colonial and geopolitical dynamics shaped resource preferences. The article calls for situating fat within broader narratives of industrialisation, globalisation, and imperialism and integrating it into commodity histories traditionally focused on sugar, cotton or tobacco. This article was published open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .