The origins of our modern supply chains are not as distinct from colonial trade routes as is often assumed.

The fundamental infrastructure, power imbalances, and economic logic of today’s global trade system were directly inherited from the colonial era.

Instead of a new invention, modern supply chains are in many ways an evolution of a system designed for resource extraction and unequal exchange.

The Infrastructure: From Forts to Ports 

Modern logistics relies on a vast network of ports, canals, railways, and roads to move goods from production to consumption. What is often not taught is that this network was largely built by colonial powers for a specific, extractive purpose.

• Ports and Naval Bases: European empires, such as the Portuguese, Dutch, and British, didn't just stumble upon global trade; they militarized it. They established fortified ports and naval bases at strategic points around the world to secure their control over trade routes. Many of today’s major ports in Asia, Africa, and Latin America were established or heavily expanded during this period to serve as hubs for exporting raw materials.

• Railways and Roads: The railways and roads built in colonized territories were not designed to connect internal markets or benefit local populations. Instead, they were built to connect mines and plantations in the interior directly to coastal ports, creating a one-way path for resources to be shipped back to the colonizing country. This skewed infrastructure legacy continues to hinder economic development in many post-colonial nations, making it difficult for them to create diversified internal economies.

The Economic Logic: From Mercantilism to Globalized Production 

The economic principles that governed colonial trade also set the foundation for the modern global economy.

• Unequal Exchange: Colonial empires operated under the doctrine of mercantilism, a system where colonies existed to provide raw materials and a captive market for the manufactured goods of the "mother country." This created an unequal exchange, with colonies specializing in low-value primary products and the colonizers retaining control over high-value manufacturing and technology.

• Commodity Dependence: The legacy of this system is that many former colonies are still locked into commodity-based economies, dependent on the export of a few raw materials like cocoa, coffee, or minerals. This makes their economies vulnerable to global price fluctuations and continues the cycle of unequal exchange. Modern supply chains, with their emphasis on cheap labor and raw materials from the Global South, can be seen as an extension of this exploitative model.

• The Global Division of Labor: The colonial era established a global division of labor that persists today: the Global South provides the raw materials and cheap labor, and the Global North controls the technology, manufacturing, and financial capital. This structure is a direct descendant of colonial economic policy and is the hidden framework upon which our modern supply chains are built.

The Human Cost: Forced Labor to Low-Wage Workers 

The human element of colonial trade, primarily the use of forced and enslaved labor, also has a clear echo in today's supply chains.

• Labor Exploitation: The colonial system relied heavily on the brutal exploitation of labor to extract resources and produce goods at minimal cost. The trans-Atlantic slave trade, for instance, was a brutal supply chain in its own right, moving human beings as a commodity to work in plantations.

• The Modern-Day "Race to the Bottom": Today, the pursuit of the lowest possible production cost has led to a "race to the bottom" for wages and working conditions in many parts of the world. Global corporations often locate their factories and production facilities in countries with weak labor laws and low wages, a practice that bears a striking resemblance to the colonial search for cheap labor. This perpetuates a cycle of poverty and exploitation that is a direct legacy of the colonial past.

In conclusion, our modern supply chains are not a new, neutral, or purely efficient system. They are the direct descendants of colonial trade routes, built on the same infrastructure, economic logic, and exploitation of labor that defined the age of empire. Understanding this history is crucial to seeing how the current global economy perpetuates the very same inequalities it claims to have moved beyond.