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Opening to the East: shipping between Europe and Asia, 1770-1830

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  • Peter Solar

    (Vesalius College)

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."

Suggested Citation

  • Peter Solar, 2013. "Opening to the East: shipping between Europe and Asia, 1770-1830," Working Papers 13013, Economic History Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehs:wpaper:13013
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    File URL: http://www.ehs.org.uk/dotAsset/b02a89e3-b0cf-4689-95e1-892682f725da.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

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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. Morgan Kelly & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2014. "Speed under Sail, 1750-1850," Working Papers 201410, School of Economics, University College Dublin.
    3. 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.
    4. Cormac Ó Gráda, 2016. "Did Science Cause the Industrial Revolution?," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 54(1), pages 224-239, March.
    5. 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.
    6. Kelly, Morgan & Gráda, Cormac Ó & Solar, Peter, 2019. "Safety at Sea during the Industrial Revolution," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 439, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    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. Kelly, Morgan & Ó Gráda, Cormac & Solar, Peter M., 2021. "Safety at Sea during the Industrial Revolution," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 81(1), pages 239-275, March.
    9. 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.
    10. Kelly, Morgan & Ó Gráda, Cormac, 2018. "Speed under Sail during the Early Industrial Revolution," CEPR Discussion Papers 12576, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    11. Michel Fouquin & Jules Hugot, 2016. "Back to the Future: International Trade Costs and the Two Globalizations," Vniversitas Económica, Universidad Javeriana - Bogotá, vol. 0(0), pages 1-35, August.
    12. Bruno Damásio & Sandro Mendonça, 2018. "Modeling insurgent-incumbent dynamics: Vector autoregressions,multivariate Markov chains, and the nature of technological competition," Working Papers REM 2018/44, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, REM, Universidade de Lisboa.
    13. Morgan Kelly & Cormac Ó Gráda, 2017. "Speed under Sail, 1750–1830," Working Papers 201710, School of Economics, University College Dublin.

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