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Prepaid tickets to the New World: the New York Continental Conference and transatlantic steerage Fares 1885–1895*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 January 2010

Torsten Feys
Torsten Feys
Affiliation:
European University Institutea
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Abstract

This article surveys the situation of the shipping cartels (conferences) which regulated transatlantic migrant transport from the European Continent to the United States. The focus of the article is to identify the internal and external pressures underlying these agreements and the strategies employed to neutralize these pressures. The author reaches the conclusion that a pool agreement was essential for the effectiveness of the Conference, which was both a means of horizontal integration regulating the competition between shipping companies and a means of vertical integration to gain control over the transatlantic migrant agent network selling the ocean passage tickets. The author also correlates the efficiency of the agreements with steerage fares and migration costs.

Resumen

Este artículo examina la situación de los cárteles del transporte naviero (conferencias) que regularon el transporte migratorio transatlántico del continente europeo a los Estados Unidos. El objetivo del artículo es identificar las presiones internas y externas subyacentes a estos acuerdos, así como las estrategias empleadas para neutralizar estas presiones. El autor llega a la conclusión de que un acuerdo sobre la división del mercado en quatos (market shares) era esencial para la eficacia de la Conferencia, que era al mismo tiempo una forma de integración horizontal que regulaban la competencia entre las compañías de transporte naviero, así como una integración vertical para obtener el control sobre la red de agentes transatlánticos de venta de billetes a la emigración. El autor correlaciona también la eficacia de los acuerdos con las tarifas para emigrantes y los costes de la migración.

Keywords

cárteles de transporte navieromigracióntarifas para emigrantesredes marítimas siglo XIXshipping cartelsmigrationsteerage faresmaritime networks 19th century
Type
Articles/Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , Otoño 2008 , pp. 173 - 204
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2008

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