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Opening to the East: Shipping Between Europe and Asia, 1770–1830

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  • Solar, Peter M.

Abstract

Shipping costs between Europe and Asia were reduced by two-thirds between the 1770s and the 1820s. Copper sheathing and other technical improvements which allowed ships to make more frequent voyages over longer lifetimes accounted for part of the cost reduction. British hegemony in the Indian Ocean, which ended an eighteenth-century arms race, accounted for the rest by allowing the substitution of smaller ships which cost less to build and required fewer men per ton. These changes were at least as important as the elimination of monopoly profits in narrowing intercontinental price differentials during the early nineteenth century.

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  • Solar, Peter M., 2013. "Opening to the East: Shipping Between Europe and Asia, 1770–1830," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 73(3), pages 625-661, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:cup:jechis:v:73:y:2013:i:03:p:625-661_00
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    Cited by:

    1. Peter M. Solar & Klas Rönnbäck, 2015. "Copper sheathing and the British slave trade," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 68(3), pages 806-829, August.
    2. Peter M. Solar & Oliver Buxton Dunn & Aidan Kane, 2024. "Shipping in the London coal trade, 1700‒1860," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(3), pages 1005-1034, August.
    3. Timothy J. Hatton, 2024. "Sailing Ship Technology, Navigation and the Duration of Voyages to Australia, 1848-85," CEH Discussion Papers 07, Centre for Economic History, Research School of Economics, Australian National University.
    4. Miotto, Martina & Pascali, Luigi, 2022. "Solving the longitude puzzle: A story of clocks, ships and cities," CEPR Discussion Papers 17037, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2016. "Did Science Cause the Industrial Revolution?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(1), pages 224-239, March.
    6. Morgan Kelly & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2017. "Technological Dynamism in a Stagnant Sector: Safety at Sea during the Early Industrial Revolution," Working Papers 201711, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    7. Chilosi, David & Federico, Giovanni, 2015. "Early globalizations: The integration of Asia in the world economy, 1800–1938," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-18.
    8. Dan Bogart & Oliver Dunn & Eduard J. Alvarez‐Palau & Leigh Shaw‐Taylor, 2021. "Speedier delivery: coastal shipping times and speeds during the Age of Sail," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 74(1), pages 87-114, February.
    9. Kelly, Morgan & Ó Gráda, Cormac, 2018. "Speed under Sail during the Early Industrial Revolution," CEPR Discussion Papers 12576, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Morgan Kelly & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2017. "Speed under Sail, 1750–1830," Working Papers 201710, School of Economics, University College Dublin.

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