The globalization of the waves: shipping and its role in promoting global markets for goods, services, capital, labor, and ideas, c. 1800—2000
In international seaborne transport, the factors of production are extremely mobile. Ships and seamen work all over the world, with limited links to the “home country”, so shipping was “the first globalized industry”. It is an activity that promotes globalization of other markets, by integrating geographically dispersed agents.
We analyze these dimensions – the globalized and the globalizing aspects of shipping – across time. Improvements in shipping facilitated the establishment and growth of the international economy. We analyze the pioneering role of shipping in establishing global markets – for goods, services, capital, labor, and ideas – and evaluate how globalization has affected seafaring cultures and communities.
The first session – Maritime transport: promoting global markets – deals with the global nature of shipping, and how it has been a harbinger and carrier of globalization.
The second session – Maritime labor: economic and cultural exchange – deals specifically with the market for seafarers, the first global labor market.
Organizer(s)
- Stig Tenold, Norwegian School of Economics, Tenold
- Jari Ojala, University of Jyväskylä, Ojala
- Pirita Frigren, University of Jyväskylä, Frigren
- Jelle van Lottum, Huygens Institute for the history of the Netherlands, van Lottum
Session members
- Sif Goodale, University of California, Irvine, Goodale
- Kristof Loockx, University of Antwerp, Loockx
- Kevin Tang, Oxford University, Tang
- Yuan Yi, Columbia University, Yi
- Daniel Castillo Hidalgo, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Castillo Hidalgo
- Shannon P Guillot-Wright, University of Texas, Guillot-Wright
- David Chilosi, University of Groningen, Chilosi
- Giovanni Federico, University of Pisa, Federico
- Giulio Mellinato, Universita Degli Studi di Milano Bicocca, Mellinato
- Camilla Brautaset, University of Bergen, Brautaset
Proposed discussant(s)
- Jelle van Lottum, Huygens Institute for the history of the Netherlands, van Lottum