Standardization emerged when grain elevators severed grain from its grower.

Evidence

With grains thus turned into “homogeneous abstractions” (Cronon 1991, p. 132), disentangled at least partially from their heterogeneous physical reality, it was possible to enter into a contract to buy or to sell 5,000 bushels (the standard contract size) of, for example, “Chicago No. 2 white winter wheat” at a set price at a given future time. Such a contract had no link to any particular physical entity, and because its terms were standardized it was not connected permanently to those who had initially entered into it. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 73 (#expands, via linked claim)

The standardization of grain was both a technical and a social process. In Chicago the bushel, originally a unit of volume, became a unit of weight in order to permit measurement on scales on top of each elevator. A team of inspectors employed first by the Chicago Board of Trade and then by the state of Illinois checked that the scales were fair and made the inevitably contestable judgments that the contents of this bin were good enough to be classed as “No. 1 white winter wheat,” which had to “be plump, well cleaned and free from other grains,” while that bin contained only “No. 2,” which was defined as “sound, but not clean enough for No. 1” (Cronon 1991, p. 118). — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 72 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Standardized grain grades allow contracts detached from any particular physical entity — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 73; Grade standardization of grain required contestable human judgment. — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial…, 72

Related

• Standardized grain grades allow contracts detached from any particular physical entity (similarity 0.89)
• Grade standardization of grain required contestable human judgment. (similarity 0.86)
• Standardized grain grades rest on state inspectors’ contestable judgment calls (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Standardized grain grades allow contracts detached from any particular physical entity #expands (0.90) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 73
• Grade standardization of grain required contestable human judgment. #qualifies (0.80) — Donald MacKenzie, An Engine, Not a Camera, 72