The Shadow of War Drives Wheat Prices Up
Anticipating conflict between Japan and Russia, international buyers scramble for American flour, fueling fears of 'dollar wheat.'
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The possibility of war between Japan and Russia is having a decided effect on the flour and wheat market all over the United States, and it is being predicted that it will result in dollar wheat in a very short time. Within the past eight business days, Minneapolis mills have booked almost 100,000 barrels of flour for export to Japan. There is no longer room for doubt that the people of Japan expect their country to fight Russia, and the merchants of Kobe and Nagasaki are stocking up in anticipation of a rise in the price of breadstuffs that is likely to follow the beginning of hostilities. On 'change, the probable effect of an Eastern war is a live topic. Wheat stocks today are light, totaling only 12,108,804 bushels at Minneapolis and Duluth, compared with 16,852,939 bushels at this date last year.
“There is no longer room for doubt that the people of Japan expect their country to fight Russia.”
This piece illustrates the early 20th-century economic interconnectedness of the Inland Empire with global geopolitical shifts. Just as the looming Russo-Japanese War caused market volatility for Walla Walla wheat growers in 1904, local agricultural commodities today remain highly sensitive to international trade wars and global conflicts.
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