| Summary: | The Pilsner-style beer is the most popular and widespread beer style in the world with local variants and global brands all competing in marketplaces from Asia to Africa to the Americas. Yet no one has ever examined why this beer and not another was able to capture the global market for malt beverages. This is important from the point of view of the study of beer as a commodity, but its greater importance is in the way the spread of the Pilsner style serves as a visible,
traceable marker for the changes wrought by globalization in an age of empire. Its spread was dependent not only on technological innovations and faster transportation, but also on the increased connectedness of the world, and on the political structures like empires that dominated the world at the time. Drawing upon a wide range of archival sources from Great Britain, Germany, Ireland, and South Africa, this study traces the spread in consumption and production of the Pilsner in the
British Empire between 1870 and 1914. Through an analysis of brewers, colonial consumers, and policies pursued by metropolitan and colonial governments, I explore the social and economic consequences of changing technology and consumptive tastes in the South African colonies through their integration in the global economy. Innovations in finance capital and the utilization of new technologies made it possible for brewers to meet the growing demand for this style of beer that linked
colony and metropole, consumer and producer-ultimately leading to an imperial legacy of flavor. In addition, I argue that the history of empire needs to be expanded from a focus on colonial-metropolitan exchange to one that includes imperial and trade rivalries of other European powers to better understand colonial markets and colonial identities. This project represents the first comprehensive study of this commodity from its origins in central and northern Europe to the British
colonies in Africa during the era of High Imperialism, and its findings address important issues across several fields. It advances our knowledge of marketing and technology in the spread of new global commodities like Pilsner by illustrating both the benefits and costs of new business models and technology during the Second Industrial Revolution. By detailing the evolution of consumer tastes through changing hierarchical relationships between the British metropole and colonies, as well
as the evolution of business organizations and practices, this study contributes to ongoing debates in the fields of the history of empire and global commodity studies.
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