Latin American Merchant Shipping in the Age of Global Competition

Although Latin America had a substantial merchant fleet by the 1950s, at the end of the century most of the major shipping companies have disappeared from the continent. Continuing to grow through protectionist efforts during the 1960s and 1970s, the industry began to decline when container technology, requiring large capital investments, shifted competition to access capital. This book shows how technology undermined and finally shattered the nationalist efforts to create a significant Latin American merchant shipping industry. Written in a clear and concise style, it provides the first authoritative survey of Latin American shipping during the second half of the century.The book opens with a discussion of cargo preference—a form of protectionism—in Chile and shows how Latin American merchant fleets expanded under cargo preference. Most countries witnessed a dramatic expansion in their national fleets. In the 1970s, the impact of containers, a new technology, began to be felt. As the book shows, the large capital outlays needed to adopt containers undermined the foundations of Latin American shipping companies, and most of the merchant shipping companies in the region gradually collapsed. The book also examines the non-commercial role of merchant shipping, particularly in international clashes such as the Cuban Revolution.

?De La Pedraja's book is a scholarly and widely researched survey of his subject and it is to be hoped that his work on Latin American merchant shipping will stimulate others to undertake similar regional studies of modern shipping history in areas such as Africa, the Middle East, and South and East Asia.?-The Mirror's, ?De La Pedraja's study might prove useful to economic historians interested in attempts by Latin American nations to develop economically in the post-World War II era.?-American Historical Review, "De La Pedraja's study might prove useful to economic historians interested in attempts by Latin American nations to develop economically in the post-World War II era."-American Historical Review, "De La Pedraja's book is a scholarly and widely researched survey of his subject and it is to be hoped that his work on Latin American merchant shipping will stimulate others to undertake similar regional studies of modern shipping history in areas such as Africa, the Middle East, and South and East Asia."-The Mirror's

RENÉ DE LA PEDRAJA is Professor of History at Canisius College and the author of A Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Merchant Marine and Shipping Industry (Greenwood, 1994) and, most recently, Oil and Coffee: Latin American Merchant Shipping from the Imperial Era to the 1950s (Greenwood, 1998). He is currently doing research on the military history of Latin America.