The transition from sail to steam in the Danish merchant fleet, 1865–1910

Abstract

The most recent authoritative work on the modern economic history of Denmark gives a survey in broad outline of the development of the Danish merchant fleet and shipping industry in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.¹According to this account there was a traffic revolution during the 1860s taking the form, as far as the merchant fleet was concerned, of a substantial increase in steam-tonnage. The faster and more regular conveyance provided by steamship is emphasised and the steady extension of the route network during the second half of the century is regarded as a consequence of it. The expansion of the merchant fleet was accompanied by a separation between the shipowning and trading sides of the business, and the capital requirements of regular traffic meant that steampship companies were usually formed on a joint-stock basis.² The 1890s brought a new turning-point for Danish shipping: the rise in freight rates caused tonnage to double in a single decade, and steamships were now wholly predominant. Prosperity was accompanied by the founding of numerous companies and a notable redeployment of ships towards the international freight market.³ However, the work in question devotes most of its attention to the contribution made by shipping to the growth of Denmark's gross national income, and in this respect the conversion of the Danish merchant fleet from sail to steam is declared to be a growth-promoting factor.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carl-Axel Nilsson

Ove Hornby, born 1942, and Carl-Axel Nilsson, born 1931, are senior lecturers at the Institute of Economic History, University of Copenhagen. Ove Hornby takes a special interest in the Danish economy and economic policy of the 19th century, whereas Carl-Axel Nilsson mainly has concerned himself with structural changes in the Swedish economy during the last century.