> When did we ever have a refinery above a deep-sea oil well?
Refineries are generally located near the ocean, which is to say, economically "close" to transportation.
Ivory, beaver pelts, and platinum are/were relatively concentrated forms of wealth. Terrestrial transportation is not as big an issue with those as it was with, say, the proximity of iron and coke in the US in the earlier days of the industrial revolution. The key point here, is that those resources were controlled by the US.
> The individual trappers in the American wilds did not control or dominate the fur market - it was the trading companies which did that.
They clearly didn't control such trade without local representatives. Nor did Europe retain such control in the long run.
> But the market is so large and complex that domination of those niches doesn't naturally lead to domination of the entire market by South Africa.
Because with modern transportation, everything is now fairly "close." Unless you are dealing with quite large quantities, location is often no longer an issue on Earth.
Refineries are generally located near the ocean, which is to say, economically "close" to transportation.
Ivory, beaver pelts, and platinum are/were relatively concentrated forms of wealth. Terrestrial transportation is not as big an issue with those as it was with, say, the proximity of iron and coke in the US in the earlier days of the industrial revolution. The key point here, is that those resources were controlled by the US.
> The individual trappers in the American wilds did not control or dominate the fur market - it was the trading companies which did that.
They clearly didn't control such trade without local representatives. Nor did Europe retain such control in the long run.
> But the market is so large and complex that domination of those niches doesn't naturally lead to domination of the entire market by South Africa.
Because with modern transportation, everything is now fairly "close." Unless you are dealing with quite large quantities, location is often no longer an issue on Earth.