Most of the world's commodity trades, if we think of them as the shipowner does in quantitative rather than value terms, were conducted in rather humdrum ships which tend to be neglected by maritime historians. The trades which gave sustenance to literally thousands of bulk carrying cargo vessels, both sail and steam, are rarely explored or analysed. It is very appropriate therefore, that Memorial University's Maritime History Group should direct the attention of scholars to some of the implications of a few of the world's major commodity flows from the point of view of the shipowner, the shipbuilder and the seafarer.

On most of the world's main trade routes at any time there would exist a demand for vessels having certain optimal characteristics. Routes no less than cargoes might determine, especially for most of the nineteenth century, the choice of sail or steam. The facilities offered by ports and harbours would be a critically important consideration to be carefully assessed by shipowners, charterers and merchants and would influence the kind of vessel to be employed. The relative volume/value ratio of the cargo to be carried would play its part in determining the freighting operation, and any peculiarities of the cargo itself would similarly modify the methods adopted in conducting the trade. Special skills or know-how would come to reside in shipowners and shipmasters who made particular trades their principal concern.