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Freight Rates in the Trade between Europe and South America, 1840–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Juan E. Oribe Stemmer
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The purpose of this article is to examine the evolution, between 1840 and 1914, of the freight rates for bulk cargoes and general cargoes, in the trades between South American ports in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile and Peru, and European ports in the United Kingdom/Continent range. The article does not deal with the transport of passengers nor the exports of refrigerated foodstuffs from South America. The basic data on the freight rates charged for some of the main exports and imports in those trades are shown in Graphs i a/b (p. 24). The Appendix includes information about the methodology and the sources used for the preparation of the freight series. The freight rates quoted in the text are nominal or ‘market’ prices in decimal pounds.1

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Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 21 , Issue 1-2 , June 1989 , pp. 23 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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References

* The author would like to thank Mr Robin Craig for his comments and suggestions on the original draft and the Latin American Centre, Saint Antony's College, Oxford, for its assistance during the research for this paper. The research was financed in part by a grant from the Kummerman Foundation, Geneva.

1 The real extent of the fall in freight rates over the long period covered by this survey can be surmised from the information in Table 6, which shows the nominal rates of freight for textiles and nitrate and their deflated or real values. The procedures and conventions adopted for the preparation of the Tables are outlined in the Appendix.

2 Information on the foreign trade of both countries in: Parliamentry Accounts and Papers, Statistical Tables relating to Foreign Countries (1855).

Juan E. Oribe Stemmer is a journalist for El Paris, Montevideo, and was formerly a Senior Associate Member of St. Antony's College, Oxford.

3 See Graph 1.

4 Trade cycles aro regular fluctuations in economic activity. Economists distinguish four main types of cycle: the Kitchin or inventory cycle with a length of 3–5 years; the Juglar or investment cycle (7–11 years); the Kuznets or building cycle (15–25 years); and the long wave or Kondratieff cycle (45–60 years). Van Duijn, J. J., the Long Wave in Economic Life (London, 1983), pp. 5–7.Google ScholarRostow, W. W., British Economy of the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1948), pp. 41–2.Google Scholar For a study of the shipping cycles after 1945, see: Hampton, Michael, ‘Analysis. Shipping cycles’, Seatrade, 01 1986.Google Scholar

5 Parliamentary Accounts and Papers. Select Committee on Navigation Laws (Commons), First, Second, Third and Fourth Reports from the Select Committee on Navigation Laws [232, 246, 392, 556, 557] HMSO 1847. Minutes of Evidence. See also the statement of G. F. Young, Chairman of the Shipowners' Society in Parliamentary Accounts and Papers. Select Committee on British Shipping. Report from the Select Committee on British Shipping together with the Minutes of Evidence [Cd. 545] 1844. QQ. 88–89.Google Scholar

6 Exports of coal from the United Kingdom: same sources as in Table 1. For further information on the sources used see the Appendix. PAP, Select Committee on Manufactures, Commerce and Shipping, Minutes of Evidence, 1833 (690), VI. QQ. 7036Google Scholar; Angier, E. A. V., Fifty Years' Freights (London, 1920), p. 132Google Scholar; Royal Commission on Shipping Rings, Minutes of Evidence. QQ. 16947.

7 United Nations. Economic Commission for Latin America, Los fletes marítimos en el comercio exterior de América Latina, Sales No.: S.69.11.G.7, p. 58Google Scholar; North, D. C., ‘The role of transportation in the economic development of North America’, in Colloque d'Histoire Maritime 1965. Les grandes voies maritimes dan le monde. XV–XIX siecles, p. 214.Google Scholar

8 PAP, Royal Commission on Shipping Rings. [Cd. 4668]HMSO 1909. Report, pp. 13 and 64. Minutes of Evidence. QQ. 20978 and 21842. USA. 63rd. Congress. House of Representatives. Report of the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries on Steamship Agreements and Affiliations, 1914, pp. 161, 187.Google Scholar

9 PAP: Royal Commission on Shipping Rings. Report, p. 64.Google Scholar Minutes of Evidence. QQ. 11013–11015 and QQ. 16924. On the conferences in the South American trades: Greenhill, R., ‘Shipping 1850–1914’, in Platt, D. C. M., Business Imperialism. 1840–1930 (Oxford, 1977), p. 119, ff.Google ScholarVéliz, Claudio, Historia de la Marina Mercante de Chile (Santíago, 1961), pp. 276–7.Google Scholar

10 The Proceedings of the Conferences of the Atlantic Canada Shipping Project are very useful sources on this subject (Maritime History Group, Memorial University of Newfoundland). For an analysis of the concept of innovation and diffusion of technology in shipping see Lane, F. C., ‘Progrès technologiques et productivité dans les transports maritimes de la fin du Moyen Age au début des temps modernes’, Revue Historique 98th Year, CCLI (1974), pp. 277–302Google Scholar; Rosenberg, N., ‘Factors affecting the diffusion of technology’, Explorations in Economic History, vol. 10 (1972), pp. 3–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

11 Deakin, B. M., Shipping Conferences (London, 1973), pp. 100–1.Google Scholar

12 PAP, Royal Commission on Supply of Food and Raw Materials in Time of War. [2643–45] 1905. Report, p. 9.Google Scholar

13 Mitchell's Maritime Register, 22.9.1876 and 1.12.1876.

14 Ibid., 8.3.1877.

15 Brasil, , Importaçāo e Exportaçāo. Movimento maritimo, cambial e do cafe da Republica dos Estados Unidos do Brasil em 1903, p. 199.Google Scholar USA. 63rd Congress. House of Representatives. Report of the Committee on the Merchant Marine, ch. 6.

16 Tornquist, E. et al, The Economic Development of the Argentina Republic in the Last Fifty Years (Buenos Aires, 1919), pp. 30–1.Google Scholar

17 Broeze, F. J. A., ‘The cost of distance: shipping and the early Australian economy, 1788–1850’, Economic History Review, vol. 28 (1975), p. 597.Google Scholar

18 PAP. Select Committee on Manufactures, Commerce and Shipping. Minutes of Evidence, p. 306.Google Scholar

19 PAP. Select Committee on Navigation Laws. Minutes of Evidence. QQ. 932–3 and QQ. 2706 and ff.

20 PAP. House of Commons. Select Committee on British Shipping. Minutes of Evidence. 1844. (545) viii, p. 1.Google Scholar G. E. Young, Chairman of the Shipowners' Association. Craig, R., ‘The African guano trade’, Mariner's Mirror, vol. 50 (1964), p. 25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 North, D. C., ‘The role of transportation in the economic development of North America’, Colloque d'Histoire Maritime. 1965, Table 2, p. 236.Google Scholar On the 1833–42 cycle see Matthews, R. C. O., A Study in Trade-Cycle History, (Cambridge, 1954). PP. 2, 212.Google Scholar

22 PAP. Select Committee on Navigation Laws. Minutes of Evidence. QQ. 2771–2773.

23 PAP. Guano trade. Account of the number and tonnage of vessels and number of seamen in the guano trade, 1846, xlv, p. 377.Google Scholar

24 North, D. C., ‘The role of transportation…’, Table 2, p. 236.Google Scholar

25 Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, 26 and 27 March 1851.

26 Ibid., 1 January 1851.

27 Mitchell's Maritime Register, 7 January 1860.

28 For the guano trade with the West Coast see PAP. Royal Commission on Unseaworthy Ships, Minutes of Evidence. PAP, 1873, xxxvi, pp. 353–61, 373–7; Mathew, W. M., The House of Gibbs and the Peruvian guano monopoly (London, 1981), pp. 115–34Google Scholar; Eames, A., Ships and Seamen of Anglesey (Llangefni, 1981), pp. 237–40.Google Scholar

29 Mitchell's Maritime Register 7 Jan. 1860.

30 Idem.

31 Ibid., 5 Jan. 1861.

32 Ibid., 2 Jan. 1864.

33 Angier, E. A. V., Fifty years' freights, p. 6Google Scholar; Royal Commission on Shipping Rings. Report, op. cit., p. 12; Fletcher, Max, ‘The Suez Canal and world shipping’, Journal of Economic History, vol. 18 (1958).Google Scholar

34 Craig, R., The Ship. Steam Tramps and Cargo Liners, 1850–1950 (London, 1980), pp. 11–18.Google Scholar

35 These percentages are derived from the information on the movement of shipping at British ports in the Annual Statements of the Trade and Navigation of the United Kingdom for different years. The West Coast includes Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. The East Coast includes Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.

36 PAP, Commercial Reports received at the Foreign Office from Her Majesty's Consuls during the Year 1865, Costa Rica. 1866. [3582] LXIX, pp. 807–8Google Scholar; Commercial Reports. Venezuela. Puerto Cabello. 1872. lviii, pp. 994–5; M. Barbance. pp. 180–1, 201; Mitchell's Maritime Register, 2.1.1874 and 16.2.1877.

37 Heaton, R. M., ‘The Lamport and Holt Fleet’, Sea Breezes, vol. 51 (1977), p. 389.Google Scholar

38 Mitchell's Maritime Register, 7.2.1873; 12.12.1873; and 4.2.1876.

39 Ibid., 25.6.1875.

40 Angier, E. A. V., Fifty years' freights, p. 126.Google ScholarPAP. Royal Commission on Supply of Food and Raw Materials in Time of War [Cd. 2643] 1905. Annex B, p. 126.Google Scholar

41 On the Scandinavian schooners in the trades with Southern Brazil see K. E. Follet, ‘Den Danske besejling af Sydamerika i det 19. arhundrede’, in Yearbook of the Danish Maritime Museum 1979 Also McGregor, D. R.Schooners in Four Centuries, (Hemel Hempstead, 1982), p. 95.Google Scholar

42 A few shipping firms owning sailing ships continued to operate regular services in the southbound trades from the Continent to Chile until 1914. Of these, the most important was the ‘P’ Line owned by the firm of F. Laeisz from Hamburg. The outward cargo of its sailing ships consisted chiefly of bulky and light goods taken at very cheap rates of freight. They returned home with full loads of nitrate. These large squareriggers made very fast passages and sailed from Hamburg at regular intervals, being a favourite mode of conveyance for general cargoes.

See PAP, Conditions and prospects of British Trade in Certain South American Countries (1899), XCVI, Chile, p. 16Google Scholar; Walle, W., Der Einfluss Meteorologischer Navigation auf die Entwicklung der deutschen transozeanischen Segelschiffahrt von 1868 bis 1914, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Friedrich-Wilhelms Universität, Bonn (1979).Google Scholar

43 UNCTAD, Code of Conduct for Liner Conferences, Chapter 1: definitions. The Convention on the Code was signed in 1974. For a contemporary and very detailed description of the liner conference system and its history see PAP. Royal Commission on Shipping Rings. Report. In particular p. 9.

44 PAP. Royal Commission on Shipping Rings. Report, p. 12.Google Scholar

45 Royal Commission on Shipping Rings. Report, p. 21. Appendix 1. Minutes of Evidence, QQ. 19092

46 Royal Commission on Shipping Rings. Report, p. 21.

47 Idem. USA. 63 rd Congress. House of Representatives. Report of the Committee on the Merchant-Marine, ch. 6.

48 Royal Commission on Shipping Rings. Report, p. 12: ‘the system of Conferences and deferred rebates was by degrees instituted on practically all the main trade routes outward from this country… with the exception of the Atlantic trade the system applies to practically all the cargo, except coal shiments, shipped outwards from this country’.

See also the appendices to the Report, which include more detailed information on the agreements in the outward trades of the main countries in Europe.

Another important investigation of the liner conference system was undertaken shortly before the First World War by the United States Congress. USA. 63rd Congress. House of Representatives, Report of the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries on Steamship Agreements and Affiliations, 1914.Google Scholar

49 Royal Commission on Shipping Rings. Report, p. 9–10.

50 Idem., Appendices I, XX and XXIX.

51 Idem. Minutes of Evidence. QQ. 19092 (12).

52 Idem. Appendix I, p. 9. 63rd Congress. House of Representatives. Report of the Committee on the Merchant Marine, ch. 6; PAP Commercial Reports. Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, 1902. Pp. 38–9.Google Scholar

53 63rd Congress. House of Representatives. Report of the Committee on the Merchant Marine, ch. 6.

54 Angier, E. A. V., Fifty years' freights, p. 130.Google ScholarPAP. Diplomatic and Consular Reports. Brazil. Foreign trade of Santos in 1909. 1910. xcvi, p. 503Google Scholar and similar reports for 1910 and 1911. Idem., Brazil, ‘Report for the years 1912–13 on the trade of Brazil’, 1914–1916, LXXI, p. 40.Google Scholar

55 Idem.

56 Deakin, B. M., Shipping Conferences, pp. 97–103.Google Scholar

57 Royal Commision on Shipping Rings. Minutes of Evidence. QQ. 16890.

58 Idem. QQ. 19209–19213 and QQ. 1899.

59 Idem. Report, p. 13. See also idem. Minutes of Evidence. QQ. 19287–19295. PAP. Royal Commission on Supply of Food and Raw Materials in Time of War. Annex B, p. 127Google Scholar; Deakin, B. M., Shipping Conferences, pp. 100–1.Google Scholar

60 Royal Commission on Shipping Rings. Report, p. 13; idem. Minutes of Evidence. QQ. 1923–19295.

61 Angier, E. A. V., Fifty years' freights, p. 104.Google Scholar

62 Ibid., p. 46.

63 Ibid., p. 61.

64 Ibid., p. 96; Aldcroft, D. H., ‘The depression in British Shipping, 1901–1911’, The journal of Transport History, VII (1965–1966), p. 17.Google Scholar

65 Ibid., p. 130.

66 Angier, E. A. V., Fifty years' freights, pp. 101–2.Google Scholar

67 Ibid., p. 130.

68 Ibid., p. 137.

69 PAP. Diplomatic and Consular Reports. Brazil. “Report for the years 1912–1913 on the trade of Brazil”, 1914–1916. vol. LXXI.Google Scholar

70 Angier, E. A. V., Fifty years' freights, pp. 139–49.Google Scholar