Customer Reviews

Seeds of Wealth: Five Plants That Made Men Rich

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According to this book's dust jacket, the author, Henry Hobhouse, quit the news business and returned to his farm in Somerset in 1954. For these past 50 years he has been assembling random facts on every subject imaginable. When it came time to write this book, he evidently stuck those facts in a blender and pushed puree. Beyond the four plants in question, this book seems to have no organizing principle beyond "we've got to stick everything in somewhere." In one three page tour de force, for example, he manages to discuss the differences between British and Dutch estates in Asia, the use of ships for Haj pilgrims, the key players of WWII, the League of Nations collapse, the problems with American bankers, how the U.S. caused the dismemberment of the British empire (which he still pines for), and the Irish troubles. I was left pining myself -- for an editor.
None of this is to say you should pass by this book. You may enjoy it (as I did) and will learn all sorts of remarkable things that could come in handy should you, say, end up on Jeopardy some day. Just don't buy it if you expect your books to have a linear narrative on some finite set of topics.

This fascinating book looks at the causative role of plants in history. The cultivation of and trade in these plants created enormous wealth and changed the history of the world in many ways.

The chapter on timber is titled The Essential Carpet. In it, Hobhouse discusses how the shortage of timber in the United Kingdom led to the use of coal, which led to scientific advances and ultimately to the industrial revolution. On the other hand, the abundance of timber in the USA spurred the westward march of the country during the 1800s.

In The Grape's Bid For Immortality, the author discusses the growing of vines and making of wine from 600BC to the present. Wine has an enormous potential for the creation of wealth, multiplying nett profits wherever it is successful.

In the chapter Wheels Shod For Speed, he tells the story of rubber and how it changed the economies of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and indeed the world. More Than A Smoke is a fascinating account of how the colony and ultimately state of Virginia owes it wealth to tobacco. Initially this area had a monopoly on tobacco by decree of the king of England. This industry created a landlord class, which amongst them counted certain signatories of the Declaration of Independence, like Washington and Jefferson.

The book is full of fascinating facts and observations, for example that the original alkaline tobacco might not be harmful and that the acidity of modern cigarettes might be the root cause of the harmful effects of smoking on health.

Seeds Of Health is a truly engrossing book as it deals with politics, economics, global history and more particularly Anglo-American relations, and the role of nature in creating wealth and economic growth. The text contains black and white illustrations and the book concludes with a bibliography and an index.

Gardening history and trivia enthusiasts will welcome Henry Hobhouse's gorgeous Seeds Of Wealth: Four Plants That Made Men Rich, presenting four essays examining the social consequences of exploiting timber, tobacco, rubber and the wine grape. These are cash crops central to world interests for centuries: all have had a major impact on the world - and all have been largely ignored. Each essay provides an exciting history which surveys the plant's evolution in human affairs. Hobhouse has long been a reporter and Seeds Of Wealth is scholarly yet accessible and highly recommended for the non-specialist general reader with an interest in agriculture and its role in creating prosperity.

This writer is meticulous in his research. In addition, he reads like a novel. Extremely interesting.