Fuelling the World Economy

This book explores the functioning of coal markets and their influence on ports and maritime economics since the second half of the nineteenth century. Each chapter includes case studies from different parts of the world, explaining the role played by coal in the expansion of the shipping industry. This book also explores regions usually neglected by the mainstream scholarly literature in this field. The relationship between steam engine technology and imperial expansion, how the emergence of global security was driven by maritime technological revolutions, and the connection between global seaports and the spread of global economic and political systems are also discussed.

This book aims to highlight the important role seaports and fuel markets played in the evolution of international commercial flows and activities. Fuelling the World Economy will be useful for historians, economists, and geographers interested in maritime and energyissues, as well as researchers interested in transport and technology.

Chapter 1. Introduction. - Chapter 2. The Use of Coal in Maritime Transport and Maritime Station Networks: Routes, Stores and Companies, circa 1850-1930. - Chapter 3. Bunkering in West Africa: The Case of Dakar. - Chapter 4. The Rhenish-Westphalian Coal Syndicate and the German Bunker Coal Business, 1905 to 1947. - Chapter 5. Common Destines: French Trading Ports and Oil in the Twentieth Century, 1914-1965. - Chapter 6. French Capital, Gdynia, and the Position of Polish Coal on International Markets in the Interwar Period. - Chapter 7. Ports, Coal, and Exports from the Argentine Pampas Region. An Evaluation of the Institutional Actors Related to Coal Circulation in the Agro-Export Period, 1860-1930. - Chapter 8. The Economics of Mineral Coal in Brazil, 1850-1889.