The World's Key Industry History and Economics of International Shipping

by Harlaftis, Gelina; Valdaliso, Jesús; Tenold, Stig

• ISBN13: 9780230369146
• ISBN10: 0230369146
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-22
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

For anyone interested in the growth and development of the world economy, knowledge of the history and mechanisms of shipping provides important insights. The international shipping industry served not only to integrate world markets, it was the international business par excellence and preceded trends that later became visible in many other sectors of economic activity. This book focuses on the history and economics of the global shipping industry and contains contributions from distinguished maritime historians and economists. The essays share an international, comparative and historical view of shipping. They provide an analysis of the overall development of the industry from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day, covering a wide range of topics, such as technological progress, freight rates, the institutions of shipping, the role of the state, port development and maritime businesses. Developments in the shipping industry have had a profound influence on the dynamics of national and international economies. This book helps to understand the essential role of "the world's key industry".

Author Biography

Gelina Harlaftis is Professor of Maritime History in the Department of History at the Ionian University, Greece. She was President of the International Maritime Economic History Association from 2004 to 2008 and has been a Fellow at several universities in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. She is the co-author of several works on the subject including Leadership in World Shipping (with loannis Theotokas). Stig Tenold is Professor of Economic History at the Norwegian School of Economics. His main research field is twentieth-century Norwegian and international shipping history, and he is the author of Tankers in Trouble-Norwegian Shipping and the Crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, and Odfjell-The History of a Shipping Company, co-authored with Atle Thowsen. Jess M. Valdaliso is Professor of Economic History in the School of Economics and Business Administration at the University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain. He is the author of several books and articles on the Spanish shipping and shipbuilding industries in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is also President of the International Maritime Economic History Association.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures	p. vii
Notes on the Contributors	p. ix
Introduction	p. 1
Lewis R. Fischer and the Progress of Maritime Economic History	p. 11
Shipping and Staple Economies in the Periphery	p. 29
An Appraisal of the Progress of the Steamship in the Nineteenth Century	p. 43
The Advantages of Water Carriage: Scale Economies and Shipping Technology, c. 1870-2000	p. 64
Building the Networks of Trade: Perspectives on Twentieth-Century Maritime History	p. 88
The Development of Commercial Infrastructure for World Shipping	p. 106
Government and the British Shipping Industry in the Later Twentieth Century	p. 124
Why They are Tall and We are Small! Competition between Antwerp and Rotterdam in the Twentieth Century	p. 42
Institutional Path Dependence in Port Regulation: A Comparison of New Zealand and Australia	p. 158
China's Seaport Development during the Early Open Door Policy Period, 1978-2002	p. 180
Private Companies, Culture and Place in the Development of Hull's Maritime Business Sector, c. 1860-1914	p. 200
Risks and Rewards: The Business of Norwegian Shipping	p. 220
Business Groups and Entrepreneurial Families in Southern Europe: Comparing Greek and Spanish Shipowners in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries	p. 235
Epilogue: A Key Industry or an Invisible Industry?	p. 263
Index	p. 273
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