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This section studies the rise of transatlantic mass migration and long-distance steamshipping between 1830 to 1870, and the ways in which the two intersected. It explores the successes and failures in establishing migration networks, and contrasts activity at the ports of Rotterdam and Antwerp to better understand the impact of commercial networks on the path dependency of migrants. It also considers the organisation of transport and the influence of government policies on both sail and steam shipping during the period. It examines chain migration; business networks; American migration legislation; the rise of Nativism; and migration as an international trade issue, before concluding that steamship lines targeted migrants with full knowledge of their financial value.

This chapter uses a supply and demand framework to analyse the cause of the rapid decline of the tanker sector. The increase in the price of oil, plus the spatial shifts in oil production and changes to the chartering policies of oil companies worked to both spread and prolong the crisis. Another core contributing factor was the failure of shipowners to recognise the imbalance of supply and demand as a lasting rather than cyclical concern. The chapter concludes by asserting that shipowners, financial institutions, and government intervention all played significant roles in escalating the crisis further.

This chapter explores the government reaction to steam power and the issues of public safety that surrounded it. In particular, it questions the lack of prominent government intervention until the middle of the nineteenth century. It studies the economic advantages of steam over sail; the new hazards associated with steam power and the causes and rates of accidents; the call for government intervention which grew out of these hazards; an analysis of the lack of government response to this pressure for close to thirty years; and a study and assessment of the action eventually taken. It concludes by bringing these points together and places them into the wider context of maritime safety, the role of government, the problematic aspects of laissez-faire politics, and the difficulties inherent in the transition to new technology.

This chapter explores the level of involvement of the British government in mercantile shipping during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It provides the history behind the 1651 Navigation Act and the previous instances of British trade being restricted to British vessels, which date as far back as the fourteenth century and were also present during the reign of Elizabeth I. It then analyses the competition between British and Dutch shipping and the escalating tensions that caused the passing of the 1651 Navigation Act and the outbreak of the Dutch wars. It lists the Navigation Act provisions that applied to shipping, and attempts to answer what scope foreign ships had to trade with England as a result of its implementation. Though the bulk of the chapter discusses the Navigation Acts and their fallout, it also considers the increase of government intervention in maritime activity during the eighteenth century which included law-making efforts concerning the Navy, and investment in docks and ports. It concludes that government intervention, when present, was often beneficial to the industry, particularly when it came to employment issues and working conditions.

This chapter assesses the entrepreneurship of Christopher Furness with regard to shaping both the internal organisation and external activity of the Furness Group. It provides a thorough account of his personal reputation and cultivated image, his creative talent within the business, his approaches to product development, cost-effective technologies, and sales deficiencies, and the way he generated productive opportunities in the external shipping environment. It considers how he structured and organised the Group and worked to ensure his successors would follow the same format. Finally, it identifies the way in which he attempted to modify environmental constraints to nullify the threat of external market uncertainty. Furness’ business and political writings are core sources for this study. It concludes that his style of entrepreneurship was liberal, laissez-faire, waste-resistant, reputation dependent, expansive, and, above all else, concerned with sustaining a business empire. His dynastic sensibilities led him to leave the business to his nephews rather than his son, whom he did not consider qualified to run the business.