3.1B: Transport Technology and Globalisation
Developments in transport and trade in the 19th century (railways, the telegraph, steam ships) accelerated in the 20th century (jet aircraft, containerisation) contributing to a 'shrinking world'.
- Technological developments in transport and communication in the 19th century promoted globalisation and led to the development of TNCs.
- The 19th Century saw the development of the railway, telegraph and steam ship.
- The 20th Century saw the development of the jet aircraft and containerisation.
- These increase globalisation by reducing transport costs per unit output - so products are affordable for customers in a distant market, setting up a new flow of goods/information
- Harnessing new forms of energy allows larger loads to be transported
- e.g. coal in the railway steam engine, oil in internal combustion, and jet engines in lorries and aircraft
- Larger loads produce an economy of scale - a reduced cost per unit output
Developments in transport technology have been encouraged by growth in trade - the exchange of goods and services between people and companies, which is increasingly cross-border between countries rather than just within a country. Transporting goods and people around the world has become cheaper over time.
19th Century
- Faster steam trains replaced horse-drawn and canal transport.
- 1802: invented
- 1830s public railways (Liverpool and Manchester))
- The electric telegraph was the first long-distance instant communication technology (1830s). The Trans-Atlantic telegraph cable in the 1860's replaced a 3 week boat journey with instant Morse Code messages.
- Steam ships replaced sailing ships and increased speed and cargo capacity dramatically (1840s)
20th Century - developments accelerated
Jet Aircraft
The Boeing 747 'jumbo jet' introduced in the 1960s lowered the cost of international air travel, bring international tourism within the purchasing capabilities of the middle class.
They reduced travel time for passengers to hours, rather than days, replacing steam ships.
Containerisation
The Boeing 747 'jumbo jet' introduced in the 1960s lowered the cost of international air travel, bring international tourism within the purchasing capabilities of the middle class.
They reduced travel time for passengers to hours, rather than days, replacing steam ships.
Containerisation
- Reduced transport costs for goods by dramatically lowering costs of 'break bulk cargo' (products that have to be loaded individually)
- less time spent when products change transport type, e.g. at a dock = more trade = cheaper
- Dramatically sped up goods trade and reduced costs, making consumer goods cheaper.
- Most goods are transported like this.
- Ubiquitous, standardised metal/steel boxes quickly transferable from a ship to a lorry or railway. (the containers are inter-modal)
- Process is easily mechanised; containers are unloaded by crane, increasingly automatically. In the past, cargo was loaded manually in crates or stacks.
- Reduced labour costs as fewer dockworkers required to unload loose commodities or pack awkwardly shaped products into the hold.
- Fewer losses from theft.
- The world's fleet if 9500 container ships can carry up to 18,000 twenty-foot shipping containers each.
- Container ships are so efficient that the transport costs of moving an iPhone or television from China to the UK are less than £1.
- Shipping cost reduced as fewer days are wasted queuing at a port waiting to unload.
- Faster transport times increase the distance perishable products can be transported, e.g. cut flowers from Kenya, opening up more distant markets and reducing losses.
The Shrinking World
The physical distance between places remains unchanged, but new technologies reduce the time taken to transport goods/people/communicate information.
There is also more widespread knowledge about distant places, so they feel less exotic. The friction of distance has been reduced.
In the 1700s, the fastest transport was a three-masted frigate (HMS Dolphin) which took two years to navigate the globe.
In the 1930s, propeller aircraft (the Lockhead Vega) took 8 days.
In the 1990s jet aircraft (Concorde) took 31 hours.
- The process of time-space compression.
- Time-space compression is an effect of increased connectivity with more distant place, and an effect of the shrinking world.
There is also more widespread knowledge about distant places, so they feel less exotic. The friction of distance has been reduced.
In the 1700s, the fastest transport was a three-masted frigate (HMS Dolphin) which took two years to navigate the globe.
In the 1930s, propeller aircraft (the Lockhead Vega) took 8 days.
In the 1990s jet aircraft (Concorde) took 31 hours.