The World’s Key Industry: History and Economics of International Shipping

320 Pages·2012·3.447 MB·English

by  Gelina Harlaftis, Stig Tenold, Jesús M. Valdaliso (eds.)

The World’s Key Industry
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The World’s Key Industry
History and Economics of International
Shipping
Edited by
Gelina Harlaftis
Department of History, Ionian University, Greece
Stig Tenold
Norwegian School of Economics, Norway
and
Jesús M.Valdaliso
School of Economics and Business Administration,
University of the Basque Country, Spain
Editorial and selection matter © Gelina Harlaftis, Stig Tenold and
Jesús M. Valdaliso 2012
Individual chapters © contributors 2012
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-36914-6
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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First published 2012 by
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ISBN 978-1-349-35029-2 ISBN 978-1-137-00375-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137003751
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
Contents
List of Tables and Figures vii
Notes on the Contributors ix
1 Introduction 1
Gelina Harlaftis, Stig Tenold and Jesús M. Valdaliso
2 Lewis R. Fischer and the Progress of Maritime
Economic History 11
David M. Williams and Lars U. Scholl
3 Shipping and Staple Economies in the Periphery 29
C. Knick Harley
4 An Appraisal of the Progress of the Steamship in
the Nineteenth Century 43
David M. Williams and John Armstrong
5 The Advantages of Water Carriage: Scale Economies
and Shipping Technology, c. 1870–2000 64
Yrjö Kaukiainen
6 Building the Networks of Trade: Perspectives
on Twentieth-Century Maritime History 88
Espen Ekberg, Even Lange and Eivind Merok
7 The Development of Commercial Infrastructure for
World Shipping 106
Gordon Boyce
8 Government and the British Shipping Industry in
the Later Twentieth Century 124
Sarah Palmer
9 Why They are Tall and We are Small! Competition
between Antwerp and Rotterdam in the Twentieth
Century 142
Stephan Vanfraechem
10 Institutional Path Dependence in Port Regulation:
A Comparison of New Zealand and Australia 158
James Reveley and Malcolm Tull
v
vi Contents
11 China’s Seaport Development during the Early
Open Door Policy Period, 1978–2002 180
Adolf K. Y. Ng and Ka-chai Tam
12 Private Companies, Culture and Place in the Development
of Hull’s Maritime Business Sector, c.1860–1914 200
Michaela G. Barnard and David J. Starkey
13 Risks and Rewards: The Business of Norwegian Shipping 220
Stig Tenold
14 Business Groups and Entrepreneurial Families in
Southern Europe: Comparing Greek and Spanish
Shipowners in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries 235
Gelina Harlaftis and Jesús M. Valdaliso
15 Epilogue: A Key Industry or an Invisible Industry? 263
Gelina Harlaftis, Stig Tenold and Jesús M. Valdaliso
Index 273
List of Tables and Figures
Tables
3.1 Balance of payments of the New England and Middle
Colonies, average 1768–72 36
4.1 Sail and steamship vessels’ share of total tonnage
entrances with cargo and in ballast, 1860–1910 48
4.2 Percentage steam participation by tonnage per region
of origin, 1855–1910 49
4.3 Percentage steam participation by number of vessels
per region of origin 50
5.1 The development of cargo-hauling efficiency
of ships 66
5.2 Total oil tanker fleets and average ship sizes, 1950–1980 68
5.3 Total ore-bulk and ore-bulk-oil fleets and average
ship sizes, 1960–80 69
5.4 Examples of typical deadweight tonnage / cargo hold
volume ratios 74
5.5 Container ships, average dead weight, TEU and gross
tonnage ratios 75
5.6 Terminal component as proportion of average freights
of grain and coal, selected distances, 1872–2001 82
8.1 The UK-registered merchant fleet 1950–95 125
10.1 New Zealand port labour productivity (all ports), 1976–88 165
11.1 Container throughputs of major Chinese ports in TEU,
1995–2000 185
11.2 The world’s top ten container ports in 2000 187
Figures
3.1 Staple-led colonial growth 32
3.2 Trade of the Malthusian colonies 34
vii
viii List of Tables and Figures
5.1 Average ship sizes, selected categories, 1930–2008 70
5.2 Scale economies: building and carrying costs per ton-mile,
bulk shipping 76
5.3 World container fleet, number of ships by size class, 1980,
1995 and 2008 77
5.4 Average projected grain freight at different distances,
1872–2001 80
5.5 Average projected coal freight at different distances,
1872–2001 81
10.1 Path-dependent sequences in port labour market
institutions 164
10.2 Working days lost in stevedoring due to industrial
disputes as a percentage of the Australian total,
1950–2010 169
10.3 National container crane rates, June 1990–June 2010 173
11.1 Shanghai and Shenzhen port authorities under
the Chinese institutional system 194
13.1 The main business risks faced by shipowners 222
13.2 An evaluation of activity and asset risk in
Norwegian shipping 231
Notes on the Contributors
John Armstrong, until recent retirement, was Professor of Business
History at Thames Valley University. He has served as editor of theJournal
of Transport Historyyy, deputy chair of the British Commission for Maritime
History and as vice-president of the International Maritime Economic
History Association. He has an interest in all forms of transport and has pub-
lished extensively. He has organized the British Commission for Maritime
History seminars at King’s College London, for over a decade. His books
include (with Andreas Kunz) Coastal Shipping and the European Economy,
1750–19800 (Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 2002). His most recent book is The
Vital Spark: the British Coastal Trade 1700–19300(IMEHA, 2009).
Michaela G. Barnard is Research Fellow in Maritime History at the
University of Hull, UK. As well as managing the Data Facility of the
History of Marine Animal Populations (HMAP) project, she teaches mar-
itime and marine environmental history and undertakes research into
the business dimensions of maritime activity, notably the role of family
firms in British shipping during the late nineteenth and twentieth cen-
turies. Her publications include the co-edited Oceans Past: Management
Insights into the History of Marine Animal Populations (Earthscan, 2007)
and numerous articles on the business of shipping.
Gordon Boyce is Professor of International Business and Director of
the Centre of Institutional and Organisational Studies (CIOS) at the
University of Newcastle. He serves on several editorial boards and
academic societies. Boyce has been a Visiting Fellow at the Australian
National University, Duke University and the Centre for Business
History. He has published several books and numerous articles in
leading journals, including Information, Mediation and Institutional
Development, How Organisations Connect (with Simon Ville and Stuart
MacIntyre),OverHalf a Million Careful Owners andCo-operative Structures
in Global Business. He has been the recipient of the Cass Prize, a Caird
Fellowship, and a British Commission for Transport History Prize.
Espen Ekbergg is Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of
Agder, Norway. He has published books and articles on the history of
the consumer co-operative movement in Norway and internationally,
ix