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Water transport and economic development
The French economic historian Maurice Aymard has estimated that the Dutch Republic was the only country in Europe where water transport was appreciably greater than land transport, in terms of tonnage carried. In England it was about 50-50; in Germany the ratio was 1:5, but in France it was 1:10.
That is from Tim Blanning's The Pursuit of Glory, Europe 1648-1815; here is my previous post on the book.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on July 28, 2007 at 07:32 AM in History | Permalink
Comments
The Dutch were just too ahead of their time. I am not familiar with M. Blanning's work, does he identify innovations that greatly reduced the cost or greatly increased the benefit of trade, both by land and sea?
Posted by: Christopher at Jul 28, 2007 8:34:06 AM
Bet he ignored the Channel Islands.
Posted by: dearieme at Jul 28, 2007 11:19:55 AM
I thought from the title that this was going to be a discussion of the rise in the business of moving water from one side of the planet to the other. What started off as a specialty trade in "mineral water" early in the 20th Century has become a huge industry.
The latest trend of selling bottled tap water seems to be the culmination. All claims about the special health benefits or unique taste have been dropped. Perhaps someone would like to do a study of this economic market. Why do people pay for water that they can get for free?
Why have public water fountains mostly disappeared?
Posted by: robertdfeinman at Jul 28, 2007 11:33:55 AM
Here's a 2002 article about the bottled water trade. The author talks about the importance of branding, which is clearly important for share but I'm not sure is really affecting category demand. This article notes that water's growth has come at least partly at the expense of soft drinks. And here's a long treatment from Fast Company that emphasizes the convenience of bottled water in the context of trends toward eating outside the home and eating on the go. It gives a nice history of the initial positioning of Perrier and Evian.
In addition to the factors mentioned by these authors, I would suggest that another reason for the fast uptake of bottled water in the U.S. is that it offers attractive margins to the retailer as well as the manufacturer. Also Pepsi and Coke had sophisticated national beverage distribution assets already in place.
Posted by: Timothy at Jul 28, 2007 12:15:19 PM
Kerala State in southern peninsular India is a land of backwaters, 44 rivers and a beautiful coastal line.It has around 580 sq.kms of inland waterways from north to south.Yet its water transport system is underdeveloped though it is cost effective.But in the past it was the main source of travel and goods transport.
Posted by: GVV at Jul 28, 2007 1:09:40 PM
the Dutch Republic was the only country in Europe where water transport was appreciably greater than land transport, in terms of tonnage carried. In England it was about 50-50; in Germany the ratio was 1:5, but in France it was 1:10.
I don't understand what is being measured here. If local farmers bring crops to local markets via oxen drawn carts is that supposed to have outweighed the crops that were shipped (after having been brought to wharves via those same carts?) to a major city such as London? And where would such statistical information come from?
There's a reason that all the great cities grew up on rivers or around natural harbors. Water transport is much cheaper.
Posted by: Patrick R. Sullivan at Jul 28, 2007 4:14:04 PM
There's an interesting book about long-distance trade in North America during an overlapping period. Of course water transport comes into it a great deal. I think the book I read was The Canadian Frontier, 1534-1760, by WJ Eccles, but it was a long time ago. Here is a reference to it in a bibliography on JSTOR.
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