About Corbita

Commodity markets, explained for the rest of us.

Painting of a Roman corbita merchant ship laden with amphorae at golden dusk — The corbita — a slow, round-hulled Roman merchant ship that carried grain, wine, oil and metal across the Mediterranean for centuries.

Corbita was founded in 2024 on a simple premise: the prices of oil, copper, wheat and lithium shape modern life — but the analysis around them is locked behind trader terminals and paywalled research desks.

We take our name from the corbita, the unglamorous workhorse of ancient trade. It was never the fastest ship, but it carried the cargo that built empires. The same is true today: commodities are slow, heavy, and quietly decisive.

Each week we publish one in-depth piece connecting an economic or political event to the commodity markets it moves, written for readers who want to understand the global economy, not trade it. Our team is a mix of former commodity analysts, foreign correspondents, and climate-policy researchers based across London, Singapore and São Paulo.

Editorial principles

Independence

We take no money from producers, traders, or governments. Subscribers fund the work.

Clarity over jargon

If our analysis can't be understood by a curious non-expert, we rewrite it.

Macro context first

We don't predict prices. We explain the political and economic systems behind them.