Shipping Container
Malcolm McLean turned container shipping from an impractical idea into a huge industry, one that slashed the cost of transporting goods globally and sparked a boom in world trade.
The boom in global trade was caused by a simple steel box. Shipping goods around the world was 鈥� for many centuries 鈥� expensive, risky and time-consuming. But, as Tim Harford explains, 60 years ago the trucking entrepreneur Malcolm McLean changed all that by selling the idea of container shipping to the US military. Against huge odds he managed to turn 'containerisation' from a seemingly impractical idea into a massive industry 鈥� one that slashed the cost of transporting goods internationally and provoked a boom in global trade.
Producer: Ben Crighton
Editors: Richard Knight and Richard Vadon
(Photo: Container ship travelling along the Suez Canal, Credit: Science Photo Library)
Last on
Sources and related links
听
The Box - Marc Levinson (Oxford: Princeton University Press) 2008 Chapter 2.听听
The Container Principle - Alexander Klose (London: MIT Press) 2015听
Maritime Cargo Transportation Conference (U.S.), . (1954).听听
The S. S. Warrior. Washington: National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council.听
Containerisation: a modern transport system听London: G. Van Den Burg听听Hutchinson and Co. 1969听
Broadcasts
- Sat 19 Nov 2016 19:50GMT大象传媒 World Service except Americas and the Caribbean, East and Southern Africa, News Internet & West and Central Africa
- Sun 20 Nov 2016 11:50GMT大象传媒 World Service except News Internet
- Mon 21 Nov 2016 04:50GMT大象传媒 World Service Australasia
- Tue 22 Nov 2016 23:50GMT大象传媒 World Service Americas and the Caribbean
Featured in...
![]()
2016 - Download Highlights—Listen on the go
Download and enjoy these programmes from 2016
Podcast
-
![]()
50 Things That Made the Modern Economy
The stories of inventions, ideas and innovations which helped create the economic world
