Norwegian Shipping in the 20th Century

Abstract

Palgrave Studies in Maritime Economics is a new, original and timely interdisciplinary series that seeks to be pivotal in nature and improve our understanding of the role of the maritime sector within port economics and global supply chain management, shipping finance, and maritime business and economic history. The maritime industry plays an increasingly important role in the changing world economy, and this new series offers an outlet for reviewing trends and developments over time as well as analysing how such changes are affecting trade, transport, the environment and financial markets. Each title in the series will communicate key research findings, shaping new approaches to maritime economics. The core audience will be academic, as well as policymakers, regulators and international maritime authorities and organisations. Individual titles will often be theoretically informed but will always be firmly evidencebased, seeking to link theory to policy outcomes and changing practices.

Dry Bulk Shipping and the Evolution of Maritime Transport Costs, 1850-2020

“…To this end, we develop and analyze a new and large dataset on dry bulk freight rates for the period from 1850 to 2020, finding that, in real terms, these followed a downward, but undulating path with a cumulative decline of 79% between 1850 and 2020. We relate this secular decline to a historical literature which documents significant productivity growth as radical changes in goods handling and storage in ports, naval architecture, and propulsion took place (Harley, 1988;Tenold, 2019).…”

“…Underpinning the secular declines from 1850 to 1910 and from 1950 to 2020 has been significant productivity growth as changes in naval architecture occurred enabling large increases in ship cargo capacities/sizes, shipping transitioned from sail to steam and from steam to the internal combustion engine, and equally dramatic improvements in goods handling and storage in ports were achieved (Harley, 1988;Tenold, 2019).…”

“…There has also been a remarkable revolution in naval architecture which has -somewhat lamentably -been overshadowed in the academic literature by the aforementioned changes in propulsion. In particular, the post-1950 era gave way to a marked transition from general cargo carriers to ships which were not only much larger in size but also much more specialized in the types of goods they carried (Beaver, 1967;Lundgren, 1996;Tenold, 2019). Much of the impetus for this increasing specialization in shipping came from the needs of the petroleum industry in which the main sites of consumption and production were generally very far removed.…”

Dry bulk shipping and the evolution of maritime transport costs, 1850–2020

“…Underpinning the secular declines from 1850 to 1910 and from 1950 to 2020 was significant productivity growth. Changes in naval architecture leading to large increases in ship cargo capacities/sizes, the transition from sail to steam and from steam to the internal combustion engine and equally dramatic improvements in goods handling and storage in ports all contributed to this process (Harley, 1988;Mohammed & Williamson, 2004;Tenold, 2019).…”

The Role of Greek Shipowners in the Revival of Northern European Shipyards in the 1950s

“…Norwegians were among the world's main tanker owners in the interwar period and the decision by their state handicapped their international business. 20 It was the Greeks that filled the space. They engaged the U.S., the world's new economic power, as their main trading partner, as they had done with Great Britain in an earlier period.…”