Maritime Trade and Transport - HWWI

1. Introduction
Hardly any other development in recent decades has had a greater effect on people’s daily life
and added more to prosperity in large parts of the world than the rapid intensification of
world trade and international division of labor. This dynamic development would not have
been possible if significant technical and technological advances in shipping had not been
achieved at the same time. The brisk increase in demand for transport by trading nations was
met by the availability of appropriate services on the part of shipping lines. Progress in ma -
ritime shipping, the primary mode of transport for intraregional and intercontinental trade,
should be mentioned especially here. In the year 1600, an estimated 1,000 trading vessels with
a load capacity of approximately 90,000 tons (t)* traversed the Hanseatic region – and that
was already 50% more than a century before.** Today the world’s largest container ship, the
Emma Maersk, alone has a capacity of approximately 157,000 t.
As early as the Hanseatic period, from middle of the 12th to the 17th century, maritime traffic
permitted an intensive exchange of goods between regions and nations. During its heyday,
the Hanseatic League comprised some 200 ocean and river ports in Northern Europe. Due
to the advantages derived through the interregional exchange of goods, being situated on the
sea or a river was an important factor in the economic development of a city. This explains
why so many major cities on the North Sea and the Baltic were established in such locations.
In other parts of Europe, too, as well as on other continents, numerous cities are located at the
water, their ports serving as the basis for their economic development.
The harbors in these cities have experienced a remarkable transformation through the centuries.
As in maritime shipping, these ports have adapted to changing requirements over time
* Here and in the following, the term “tons” refer to “metric tons”
and will be abbreviated as “t.”
** See Zimmerling (1979).
Berenberg Bank · HWWI: Strategy 2030 · No. 4
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