ABSTRACT
When Vasco da Gama arrived in India in 1457 and found that he could buy pepper for 3 ducats in Calicut and sell it for 80 ducats in Europe (see Chapter 1), he was doing exactly what traders do today – using sea transport to exploit an interregional arbitrage. It was not just a commercial success. By bringing spices to the European population in far greater volumes than could be transported overland by camel, he made their lives better and, in modern economic jargon, ‘added value’. Over the succeeding six centuries, as shipping became more efficient, the opportunities to add value by moving goods around the world increased and sea trade has grown, giving shipping a central role in the globalization of the world economy.
