The merchant steamship market in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was dominated by the UK shipbuilding industry but past studies have portrayed a market characterized by the strong relationships between UK shipbuilders and shipowners where competition between firms was the exception rather than the rule. The objective of this article is to shed new light on this market by drawing on UK shipbuilding and shipping records to examine four characteristics that indicate the intensity of competition for new orders from 1889--1914: customer concentration, firms' business strategies, sales activities and price negotiation. Overall a market is revealed with many examples of shipbuilders deploying a high level of sales and marketing expertise which contributed both to the success of individual firms and to the UK shipbuilding industry as a whole.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Article
McOwat, Peter;
(2013)
Henry Bell's Comet: The Account Book for 1820
(/isis/citation/CBB001422495/)
Book
Luca Lo Basso;
(2020)
Dal vento al carbone. Le metamorfosi del lavoro marittimo in Italia nell'età della transizione (1880-1920)
(/isis/citation/CBB898540394/)
Article
Lambert, Andrew;
(2011)
John Scott Russell: Ships, Science and Scandal in the Age of Transition
(/isis/citation/CBB001231620/)
Thesis
Derek Lee Nelson;
(2018)
Shipworms and the Making of the American Coastline
(/isis/citation/CBB931326830/)
Book
William N. Still Jr;
Richard A. Stephenson;
(2018)
Shipbuilding in North Carolina, 1688-1918
(/isis/citation/CBB758437735/)
Article
Pietsch, Tamson;
(2010)
A British Sea: Making Sense of Global Space in the Late Nineteenth Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001421504/)
Article
MacLeod, Christine;
Stein, Jeremy;
Tann, Jennifer;
Andrew, James;
(2000)
Making Waves: The Royal Navy's Management of Invention and Innovation in Steam Shipping, 1815-1832
(/isis/citation/CBB000111818/)
Article
Gray, Steven;
(2015)
Coaling Warships with Naval Labour, 1870--1914: “I Wish I Could Get Hold of That Man Who First Found Coal”
(/isis/citation/CBB001422546/)
Chapter
Longfei Xi;
Hequn Shi;
Xiaoyuan Jiang;
(2021)
The Shipbuilding and Shipping Industry in Ancient China
(/isis/citation/CBB067866195/)
Article
Sturgess, Gary L.;
Cozens, Ken;
(2013)
Managing a Global Enterprise in the Eighteenth Century: Anthony Calvert of the Crescent, London, 1777--1808
(/isis/citation/CBB001421496/)
Article
Arner, Katherine;
(2013)
Making Global Commerce into International Health Diplomacy: Consuls and Disease Control in the Age of Revolutions
(/isis/citation/CBB001201444/)
Book
Larrie D. Ferreiro;
(2020)
Bridging the Seas: The Rise of Naval Architecture in the Industrial Age, 1800–2000
(/isis/citation/CBB950273431/)
Article
Wolters, Timothy S.;
(2011)
Recapitalizing the Fleet: A Material Analysis of Late-Nineteenth-Century U.S. Naval Power
(/isis/citation/CBB001230688/)
Article
Madsen, Chris;
(2012)
Technology Adoption and Adaptation in Canada's West Coast Shipyards, 1918--1950
(/isis/citation/CBB001211684/)
Article
Morriss, Roger;
(2014)
Ideology, Authority and the Politics of Innovation in the Royal Dockyards, 1796--1807
(/isis/citation/CBB001421378/)
Book
Cameron, Stephen;
(2011)
Belfast Shipbuilders: A Titanic Tale
(/isis/citation/CBB001421455/)
Article
Vdovichenko, Eugene;
(2013)
Development and Definition of the Southern Ukraine Naval Ports and Admiralties Specializations in the First Quarter of the XIX Century
(/isis/citation/CBB001321277/)
Book
Owens, Harry P.;
(2003)
Steamboats and the Cotton Economy: River Trade in the Yazoo-Mississippi Delta
(/isis/citation/CBB000500363/)
Book
Shagena, Jack L.;
(2004)
Who Really Invented the Steamboat: Fulton's Clermont Coup
(/isis/citation/CBB000470054/)
Book
Magee, Gary Bryan;
Thompson, Andrew S;
(2010)
Empire and Globalisation: Networks of People, Goods and Capital in the British World, c.1850--1914
(/isis/citation/CBB001421568/)
Be the first to comment!