A Contingent Commodity: Boston, Bombay and the End of the Global Ice Trade

Abstract In the mid-nineteenth century huge blocks of ice were harvested in New England and transported to port cities as far away as Bombay, Calcutta and even Hong Kong. After expanding in scale for a few decades, the trade would suddenly decline in the latter part of the century. Almost all histories of the ice trade have attributed this decline to the rise of artificial ice. Through a focus on the trade between the United States and India, however, this article argues against this popular conclusion. It instead shows how the ice trade was both a product and casualty of important shifts in the global economy in the middle of the 19th century that affected the cost of moving ice across the oceans. When treated seriously as a global commodity, ice, this article argues, provides a useful window into these vital shifts in the global economy and highlights the importance of taking circulation more seriously in commodity histories.