THE CONSTRUCTION COSTS AND THE VALUE OF THE BRITISH MERCHANT FLEET, 1850 ‐ 19381

Date01 February 1956
Published date01 February 1956
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1956.tb00805.x
THE
CONSTRUCTION COSTS AND
THE
VALUE
OF
THE BRITISH MERCHANT FLEET,
1850
-
1938'
I
INTRODUCTION
THE
student of shipping has
a
great advantage over
his
colleagues in
other fields, for the statistical evidence on the physical volume
of
the
main group of assets, vessels, is quite exceptional. The series
of
registered tonnage goes very far back, and
is
unique in giving a break-
down by years of origin after 1910. This opens rare opportunities for
relating the structure of assets to past economic development, techno-
logical conditions, the historical costs of construction, and other
influences. There remain,, however, considerable obstacles
to
investiga-
tion of these relationships
;
in particular, there are the difficulties
of
calculating the construction cost of the fleet in the second half of
the nineteenth century. Information on construction costs
is
very
fragmentary
or
indirect before 1900, and, since the development
of
this information into a continuous series has required the use
of
assumptions as yet unverified, this paper must be regarded as tentative.'
In
this paper all measures are given as rates per registered ton.
The economic significance of this unit has undergone a number
of
major changes which may fairly be called revolutionary, but it has
the obvious advantage of maintaining a convention deeply rooted in
all available
sources.
Acceptance of this conventional unit of measure-
ment does not imply that changes in its economic significance can be
ignored
in
interpreting the results.
It is expedient
to
keep to this measure because
of
the absence
of
any other that would be fully as satisfactory for long-term analysis.
Technical development has
so
often changed the economic significance
of the various units used to measure shipping capacity that even
an
attempt to come nearer to an economically-defined unit, by the
introduction of the deadweight ton, is subject to qualifications.
Fairplay's
Journal
gives repeated warnings, including this opinion
by a shipbuilding expert
:
'
To
value ships at
so
much per deadweight
I
wish
to
thank
Mr.
J.
J.
McGibbon for his patient help in collecting
the information
for
this paper, and
Mr.
A. A. Adam
for
his improvement
of
the English in the original manuscript.
Publication of this pa er is intended
to
be only one stage in a programme
of
research which cannot
fe
completed satisfactorily without the co-operation
of
those in whose archives lies the material that would illuminate
or
settle
many
of
the problems described above. In particular, information about actual
sales and purchases of ships
in
any
of
the years
of
the investigation would be
of
great help.
44
225
200
175
150
125
100
75
THE
BRITISH
MERCHANT
FLEET,
1850-1938
45
ton is a positive absurdity that has crept into the business
of
buying
and selling ships.
.
.
.
The continued use of this expression can only
lead the ship-designer
. . .
to design vessels that will cost the lowest
!
..
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..
..
..
..
..
25
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..
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..
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:
;.:
..
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I
5L-
I
I
I
1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1938
FIG.
1.
Information on
the
construction costs
of
steamers,
1850-1938.
(1905-09
=
100)
amount per ton
.
. .
disregarding efficiency and economy in service.'
The absence
of
an economically satisfactory unit
of
shipping space
gives rise to ambiguity in all measurements
of
construction costs,
for
price must be vague
if
quantity
is
ill-defined. The difficulty affects all
"6

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