In the history of shipping, the late nineteenth century stands out as an especially interesting and dramatic period. This was not only the era in which steam increasingly challenged and eventually surpassed sail but also the age which witnessed sharp changes in both the economics and business of sea transport. It is hardly surprising that such an epoch has spawned a large number of volumes dealing with ships and seafarers. The result of this approach is that we know quite a bit about the fates of the fastest clippers, the days of the last steel barques, and a host of colourful individuals such as the famed Bully Waterman. It is, I hope, non-contentious to state that the bulk of the extant literature skims only the picturesque and romantic surface of the industry. At the same time, the function and structure of shipping, especially from a quantitative perspective, have been treated much less satisfactorily. We know far too little, for example, about the volume or value of goods transported or the profitability of the industry. Yet as every student knows, shipping was first and foremost an economic activity carried on in the hope of earning profits.

This focus on the anecdotal aspects of the maritime past means, of course, that our understanding of many important topics is both distorted and incomplete. Indeed, it is only in the last decade or so that a “new shipping history” has emerged, especially in a few countries bordering the North Atlantic. While these historians have not ignored traditional questions, they are breaking new ground by compiling quantitative data sets from a variety of under-utilized sources. Some of the main - but not the only - proponents of this new approach to understanding shipping have been associated with the Atlantic Canada Shipping Project in Newfoundland.

It is quite easy to understand why the economics and profitability of shipping have not been popular subjects for maritime historians. Aside from the fact that they lack the romantic appeal of speed records and fail to capture the imagination in the way that descriptions of clipper ships do, these topics are also much more difficult to examine. Even though it is possible to study the economics of shipping without having mastered the technicalities of shipbuilding or sailing, there are other difficulties to be overcome.