Dear Colleagues,

I am an interloper on your list.  My partner Norman Bennett who  
writes on the Port wine trade is your member.

I have an odd query for you.  I am a urban labor historian who works  
on Lourenço Marques  Mozambique (today Maputo).

In the late colonial era Mozambique was one of the leading producers  
of cashew nuts, and I'm writing a history of the women workers in the  
nation's largest factory.

Here is the dilemma:

For some reason, American demand for cashew nuts spiked in the 1930s  
driving up the price for the nut when depression prices for most   
agricultural products were in the basement. The sharp increase in the  
price / demand from America was the lift off for the industry in  
Mozambique and India.

The only theory I have found to account for WHY demand spiked (thus  
driving up the price) was Paulo Soares' suggestion that the end of  
prohibition in the U.S. saw a spike in interest in bar snacks. Since  
salted nuts are a favorite bar snack, perhaps it was the return of  
bar culture that drove up the price of cashews.

Does anyone know anything about this?  Any suggestions for readings?

Thanks so much,

Jeanne Penvenne

Jeanne Marie Penvenne
Associate Professor of History
Tufts University
Sabbatical 2007-2008
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