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Commodity: Difference between revisions

201 bytes added ,  9 March 2004
noting how this fits in a service economy - if a redirect is replaced, please ensure the link is retained in the first paragraph or an intro phrase, the redirects are there for a reason
(starting the list of Commodities for which Commodity markets exist)
(noting how this fits in a service economy - if a redirect is replaced, please ensure the link is retained in the first paragraph or an intro phrase, the redirects are there for a reason)
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A '''commodity''' is an undifferentiated [[product]] whose market value arises from the owner's right to sell rather than the right to use. Example commodities from the financial world include [[oil]] (sold by the barrel), [[wheat]], bulk chemicals such as [[sulfuric acid]] and even [[pork belly|pork-bellies]].  More modern commodities include [[bandwidth]], [[RAM]] chips and (experimentally) computer processor cycles, and [[negative commodity]] units like [[emissions credit]]s.
A '''commodity''' is a simple element of a [[service economy]] which performs only very predictable services, e.g. [[gasoline]] which only really burns up in a fuel tank.  This simplicity makes it possible to define it as an undifferentiated [[product]] whose market value arises from the owner's right to sell rather than the right to use. Example commodities from the financial world include [[oil]] (sold by the barrel), [[wheat]], bulk chemicals such as [[sulfuric acid]] and even [[pork belly|pork-bellies]].  More modern commodities include [[bandwidth]], [[RAM]] chips and (experimentally) computer processor cycles, and [[negative commodity]] units like [[emissions credit]]s.


In the original and simplified sense, ''commodities'' were things of value, of uniform quality, that were produced in large quantities by many different producers; the items from each different producer are considered equivalent.  It is the [[contract]] and this underlying [[standard]] that define the [[commodity]], not any inherent quality of it as a living organism as such.  One can reasonably say that food commodities, for example, are defined by the fact that they substitute for each other in [[recipe]]s, and that one use the food without having to look at it too closely.
In the original and simplified sense, ''commodities'' were things of value, of uniform quality, that were produced in large quantities by many different producers; the items from each different producer are considered equivalent.  It is the [[contract]] and this underlying [[standard]] that define the [[commodity]], not any inherent quality of it as a living organism as such.  One can reasonably say that food commodities, for example, are defined by the fact that they substitute for each other in [[recipe]]s, and that one use the food without having to look at it too closely.
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