Submarine Telegraph Cables: Business and Politics, 1838–1939

Abstract

International telecommunication is not only a business but also a political enterprise, the subject of great-power rivalries. In the late nineteenth century, British firms held a near monopoly, because Britain had more advanced industry, a wealthier capital market, and a merchant marine and colonial empire that provided customers for the new service. After the 1880s, they encountered increasing competition on the North Atlantic from American, German, and French firms. Elsewhere, the British conglomerate Eastern and Associated retained its hegemony until the 1920s. Following World War I, radiotelegraphy threatened the dominance of cables. In the 1930s, cable companies were almost bankrupted by the Depression and by competition from shortwave radio.

Public Enterprise in the Modern Western World: An Historical Analysis

“…The same can be said about that other major mid 19th century innovation in communications, the international telegraph, which, especially in the secure form of submarine cables, proved a vital tool for armies, navies, diplomats, newspapers and stock exchanges. Britain's coal, iron, technological lead and mercantile strength allowed it to completely dominate submarine cables (Table 1), leaving other countries strategically exposed (Headrick 1991, 2001). Even though monopoly elements were present, in the form of the (largely British owned) Eastern Company, as clearly were strategic factors, the British government hardly intervened.…”

Comparing Implementation of Internet Diffusion in the United States and France: Policies, Beliefs, and Institutions

“…The reasons behind these governmental moves are multiple and include: national interest, including national security interest, adherence to international programs and directives, administrative efficiency, economic growth, and so on. All these factors are actually part of governments' longstanding interests in ICTs in general (Headrick & Griset, 2001), and the Internet in particular. They proved to be another instance of industrial and economic growth combining with public policy, such as the railroad industry had been a century and a half earlier (Dobbin, 2001).…”

A Wired World: The Evolving Geography of Submarine Cables and the Shift to Asia

“…The first heyday of cables ended by 1929, when shortwave radio and other wireless communications undercut the cost of sending a telegraphic message to as low as one-sixth the cost by cable. By 1937, the number of international wireless circuits nearly equaled the global submarine cable network (Hugill 1999;Headrick and Griset 2001). When a 1929 earthquake off the coast of Nova Scotia broke twelve of the twenty-one North Atlantic cables, customers hardly noticed, because all traffic was diverted to radio (Headrick and Griset 2001).…”

“…International telecommunication was "not only a business but also a political enterprise, the subject of great-power rivalries" (Headrick and Griset 2001, 543): The first U.S. trans-Pacific cable was a reaction to the U.S. Navy's discovery that its messages between Washington and its newly acquired colony of the Philippines were traveling on British cables across the Atlantic Ocean, through the Mediterranean, and around Asia to Hong Kong and Manila (Hugill 1999;Headrick and Griset 2001). The Japanese government persistently worked to reverse-engineer the telephone and related foreign technologies in efforts to develop Japanese capability in this strategic industry (Anchordoguy 2001).…”

“…By 1937, the number of international wireless circuits nearly equaled the global submarine cable network (Hugill 1999;Headrick and Griset 2001). When a 1929 earthquake off the coast of Nova Scotia broke twelve of the twenty-one North Atlantic cables, customers hardly noticed, because all traffic was diverted to radio (Headrick and Griset 2001). The Great Depression precipitated a deep decline in the international commerce on which cables relied, which was not to return until the first trans-Atlantic telephone cable, TAT-1, was placed in service in 1956 and "made the old telegraph cables obsolete overnight" (Headrick 1991, 274).…”