The French economic historian Maurice Aymard has estimated that the Dutch Republic was the only country in Europe where water transport was appreciably greater than land transport, in terms of tonnage carried. In England it was about 50-50; in Germany the ratio was 1:5, but in France it was 1:10.
That is from Tim Blanning’s The Pursuit of Glory, Europe 1648-1815; here is my previous post on the book.
The Dutch were just too ahead of their time. I am not familiar with M. Blanning’s work, does he identify innovations that greatly reduced the cost or greatly increased the benefit of trade, both by land and sea?
I thought from the title that this was going to be a discussion of the rise in the business of moving water from one side of the planet to the other. What started off as a specialty trade in “mineral water” early in the 20th Century has become a huge industry.
The latest trend of selling bottled tap water seems to be the culmination. All claims about the special health benefits or unique taste have been dropped. Perhaps someone would like to do a study of this economic market. Why do people pay for water that they can get for free?
Why have public water fountains mostly disappeared?
Kerala State in southern peninsular India is a land of backwaters, 44 rivers and a beautiful coastal line.It has around 580 sq.kms of inland waterways from north to south.Yet its water transport system is underdeveloped though it is cost effective.But in the past it was the main source of travel and goods transport.
There’s an interesting book about long-distance trade in North America during an overlapping period. Of course water transport comes into it a great deal. I think the book I read was The Canadian Frontier, 1534-1760, by WJ Eccles, but it was a long time ago. Here is a reference to it in a bibliography on JSTOR.
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