Holding on to and letting go of seed: quasi-commodities and the passage of property
Veit Braun
Abstract
This paper analyses the reframing of German seed as a market good. In the late nineteenth century, seed was sold on dedicated transregional markets for the first time. These emerging seed markets faced several problems, among them unpredictability, ill-adapted products, and the proliferation of reproduced seed on the market, which made it difficult for breeders to alienate their product and for farmers to appropriate it. In this article, I explore how seed was turned into a ‘quasi-commodity,’ a market good not fully alienated yet completely appropriated. Highlighting the challenge that seed posed for the passage of property in market transactions, the article seeks to answer what is wrong with the current excess of property rights in markets for consumer goods.