IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/exehis/v46y2009i2p266-284.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

New evidence on the fluctuations in ocean freight rates in the 1850s

Author

Listed:
  • Klovland, Jan Tore

Abstract

Newly constructed global indices of ocean freight rates in the 1850s show large cyclical fluctuations in these years. A new type of freight rate index, referred to as a repeat sailings index, is presented, which is similar to a type of index frequently applied to house prices. An econometric model of the freight rate market is estimated on monthly data from the 1850s. It is found that harvest failures, business cycles, the supply of tonnage and the Crimean War all significantly affected freight rates in this period. The Crimean War may have accounted for about a quarter of the surge in freight rates in the years prior to the outbreak of the War; once the War broke out in March 1854, however, it was of less importance.

Suggested Citation

  • Klovland, Jan Tore, 2009. "New evidence on the fluctuations in ocean freight rates in the 1850s," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(2), pages 266-284, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:46:y:2009:i:2:p:266-284
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014-4983(08)00045-4
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. S. Fairlie, 1965. "The Nineteenth-Century Corn Law Reconsidered," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 18(3), pages 562-575, December.
    2. Horace Davis, 1894. "California Breadstuffs," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(4), pages 517-517.
    3. Harley, C. Knick, 1988. "Ocean Freight Rates and Productivity, 1740–1913: The Primacy of Mechanical Invention Reaffirmed," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(4), pages 851-876, December.
    4. Mohammed, Saif I. Shah & Williamson, Jeffrey G., 2004. "Freight rates and productivity gains in British tramp shipping 1869-1950," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 172-203, April.
    5. Case, Karl E & Shiller, Robert J, 1989. "The Efficiency of the Market for Single-Family Homes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 79(1), pages 125-137, March.
    6. Gatzlaff, Dean H & Haurin, Donald R, 1997. "Sample Selection Bias and Repeat-Sales Index Estimates," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 14(1-2), pages 33-50, Jan.-Marc.
    7. Persson, Karl Gunnar, 2004. "Mind the gap! Transport costs and price convergence in the nineteenth century Atlantic economy," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(2), pages 125-147, August.
    8. Arthur F. Burns & Wesley C. Mitchell, 1946. "Measuring Business Cycles," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number burn46-1.
    9. Thor Hultgren & William I. Greenwald, 1953. "Transport and the State of Trade in Britain," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number hult53-1.
    10. David S Jacks & Krishna Pendakur, 2010. "Global Trade and the Maritime Transport Revolution," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(4), pages 745-755, November.
    11. Klovland Jan Tore, 1993. "Zooming in on Sauerbeck: Monthly Wholesale Prices in Britain 1845-1890," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 195-228, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. David Greasley & Les Oxley, 2010. "Cliometrics And Time Series Econometrics: Some Theory And Applications," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 970-1042, December.
    2. David S. Jacks & Martin Stuermer, 2021. "Dry bulk shipping and the evolution of maritime transport costs, 1850–2020," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 204-227, July.
    3. Absell, Christopher David & Tena-Junguito, Antonio, 2018. "The Reconstruction Of Brazil’S Foreign Trade Series, 1821-1913," Revista de Historia Económica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(1), pages 87-115, March.
    4. Absell, Christopher David & Incerpi, Andrea, 2022. "Opening the black box of distance: evidence from Italy, 1862-1938," IFCS - Working Papers in Economic History.WH 36226, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Instituto Figuerola.
    5. Devaney, Steven, 2010. "Trends in office rents in the City of London: 1867-1959," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 47(2), pages 198-212, April.
    6. Ola Honningdal Grytten, 2012. "Financial crises and monetary expansion," Working Paper 2011/21, Norges Bank.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. 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.
    2. David S. Jacks & Martin Stuermer, 2021. "Dry bulk shipping and the evolution of maritime transport costs, 1850–2020," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 204-227, July.
    3. O’Rourke, Kevin Hjortshøj, 2019. "Economic History and Contemporary Challenges to Globalization," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 79(2), pages 356-382, June.
    4. Kevin Hjortshøj O'Rourke, 2018. "Economic history and contemporary challenges to globalization," Oxford Economic and Social History Working Papers _167, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    5. David Chilosi & Giovanni Federico, 2021. "The effects of market integration during the first globalization: a multi-market approach," European Review of Economic History, European Historical Economics Society, vol. 25(1), pages 20-58.
    6. Federico, Giovanni, 2007. "Market integration and market efficiency: The case of 19th century Italy," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 293-316, April.
    7. Julio Martínez-Galarraga, 2014. "Market potential estimates in history: a survey of methods and an application to Spain, 1867-1930," Working Papers 0051, European Historical Economics Society (EHES).
    8. Michel Baroni & Fabrice Barthélémy & Mahdi Mokrane, 2011. "A repeat sales index robust to small datasets," Journal of Property Investment & Finance, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 29(1), pages 35-48, February.
    9. Liang Peng, 2012. "Repeat Sales Regression on Heterogeneous Properties," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 804-827, October.
    10. Baroni, Michel & Barthélémy, Fabrice & Mokrane, Mahdi, 2004. "Physical Real Estate: A Paris Repeat Sales Residential Index," ESSEC Working Papers DR 04007, ESSEC Research Center, ESSEC Business School.
    11. Vincent Bignon & Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa, 2018. "The Toll of Tariffs: Protectionism, Education and Fertility in Late 19th Century France," Working papers 690, Banque de France.
    12. Liang Peng & Lei Zhang, 2021. "House Prices and Systematic Risk: Evidence from Microdata," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 49(4), pages 1069-1092, December.
    13. Uebele, Martin, 2011. "National and international market integration in the 19th century: Evidence from comovement," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 226-242, April.
    14. Liang Peng, 2020. "Benchmarking Local Commercial Real Estate Returns: Statistics Meets Economics," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 48(4), pages 1004-1029, December.
    15. Wang, Ferdinand T. & Zorn, Peter M., 1997. "Estimating House Price Growth with Repeat Sales Data: What's the Aim of the Game?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(2), pages 93-118, June.
    16. Smersh, Greg T. & Smith, Marc T., 2000. "Accessibility Changes and Urban House Price Appreciation: A Constrained Optimization Approach to Determining Distance Effects," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 187-196, September.
    17. Garner, Thesia I. & Verbrugge, Randal, 2009. "Reconciling user costs and rental equivalence: Evidence from the US consumer expenditure survey," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 172-192, September.
    18. Sabaté, Marcela & Fillat, Carmen & Gracia, Ana Belén, 2011. "A gravity criterium for discriminating traditional protection measures," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 111(1), pages 50-53, April.
    19. Hill, Robert J. & Trojanek, Radoslaw, 2022. "An evaluation of competing methods for constructing house price indexes: The case of Warsaw," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    20. Victor Ginsburgh & Jianping Mei & Michael Moses, 2006. "On the computation of art indices in art," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/7290, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Ocean freight rate index The Crimean War Freight market model;

    Lists

    This item is featured on the following reading lists, Wikipedia, or ReplicationWiki pages:
    1. Business cycle in Wikipedia English
    2. 景氣循環 in Wikipedia Chinese
    3. מחזור עסקים in Wikipedia Hebrew

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:46:y:2009:i:2:p:266-284. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622830 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.