PRICES, MARKETS AND COFFEE

PRICES, MARKETS AND

COFFEE

Durham Cathedral soars above the centre of the old British market
town as it has done for almost a thousand years. But just down
the road from the Norman cathedral and the castle that defends it, a
new coffee shop has recently opened. Amongst the cluster of shops
and stalls which crowd Durham’s market place, this newcomer
has now opened its doors to tempt the passer-by with the pungent
aroma of fresh-roasted coffee. (At least it has at the time of writing.
By the time you read this yet another entrepreneur may well
have taken over the business and be displaying fashion wear or
computer games or some other such service, which attracts the
buying public!)
There are few places on Earth that are not touched by the
continual changes of market organisation. Humankind is a restless
species and is always seeking out new and better ways to produce
things, more and different goods and services to acquire. But by what
mechanism is it decided what is produced where, and by whom? How
is the organisation of society’s economic affairs carried out?
A hot cup of coffee is a perishable commodity: how come coffee,
milk, sugar, skilled labour, specific equipment and every other
resource necessary all arrive from their separate origins to deliver a
satisfying product to your hand just at the very moment you want
it? We take it for granted but a simple cup of coffee represents in
fact a complex coming together of a unique set of ingredients that
makes up a distinctive and time-sensitive product. Any breakdown
in the multiple chains of organisation that are involved in bringing
© 2004 Tony Cleaver
you this good will result in the costly failure to produce anything
palatable that anyone would want to buy.
Coffee from Colombia, sugar from the West Indies, milk or cream
from a British farm, a china cup and saucer from somewhere local
or distant (China?), water from the regional utility, an espresso
machine from Italy, local labour and enterprise, plus a variety of
other resources that go to make up the total experience of visiting
this coffee shop: who organises all these resource flows to bring you
a cup of coffee?