ABSTRACT
Shipping is first and foremost an international business, so we must be aware of how the different parts of the trading world fit together. When we delve into history it turns out that the pattern of trade, which to contemporary observers looks so firmly established, is in fact constantly changing. Today's economic geography is just a snapshot taken at a point in time as the world economy creeps along its evolutionary path. The pace is so slow that we can hardly see the motion but, viewed from a historical perspective, the progress is evident. Although economic textbooks sometimes give the impression that the evolu~ion of trade has been one of harmonious economic development, it can equally well be seen as a continuous struggle of power politics for control of trade'!
