Cargill: Trading the World's Grain

by Wayne G. Broehl Jr.

Leading business historian Wayne G. Broehl, Jr. offers the first full-scale history of Cargill and its rise to international leadership among the "big five" grain traders, a group whose distinctions are private ownership and a passion for secrecy, even though they deal in the most "public" of commodities, the grains that feed the world.
In Broehl's account the Cargill story becomes a grand narrative history and reveals a classic example of the American tradition of development from a small-scale frontier enteprise to a complex international organization and a successful competitor in global markets. Cargill, International ranks highly on the Forbes list of the 400 largest private companies. Over the years the company has successfully integrated into its operations everything from manufacturing steel to squeezing oranges to turning chickens into McNuggets, but the core business was, and has remained grain, one of the basic building blocks of civilization.
Carefully documented from a rich lode of family and business correspondence made available for the first time, Cargill is history at its best. Wayne Broehl has continued the story of this remarkable company in Cargill: Going Global (1998).

Genres: Business, History

1027 pages, Hardcover

First published February 15, 1992

Reviews

[Marks54 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first volume of a well done history of perhaps the largest privately-held firm in the world. Most company histories come across as either cheer leading or expose. This is neither, but is a rich story that is well documented and well written. Commodity products are interesting because they are extremely, making it hard for a firm to become dominant. That is what Cargill did. It is also interesting as a counterpoint to standard economic histories that stress the railroads and the "robber barons". Cargill is the firm that grew to control much of the grain processing business - for example the grain elevators you see by the railheads all across the Midwest. The family dynamics are also interesting. I have long wanted to read the subsequent volumes but have not gotten around to doing so, sine th initial project that brought me to this book.

[Parker Samelson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting topic but long winded and boring.

[Andy Gutwein · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of a series of 3; from the beginning (late 1800's up through the 1960s; very interesting not only about Cargill but also history in general; long book

[Hoang Truong · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a quite a long book with a lot of grain statistics. However, it is a must read book if anyone want to build a family business dynasty because the book includes many interesting stories about family business conflict. The book covers the grain market from the 1800s pretty well

[Billy McCoy · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long but good book!