Balances of trade versus shipping realities Some (hopfully) - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation
Balances of trade versus shipping realities Some (hopfully) constructive remarks from the sea Silvia Marzagalli Universit de Nice Sophia-Antipolis 1. Balances of trade are inadequate to capture the nature of apparent imbalances of trade
Some (hopfully) constructive remarks from the sea
Silvia Marzagalli Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis
Imbalances between two countries can be generated
by a huge difference in prices between markets (see Morineau, next slide) or imply a real imbalance which requires a flow of payments to balance it (other case study by Morineau on trade between France and The Netherlands)
Value cargo at departure from Bordeaux Sale value at Léogane Cargo bought at Léogane Value cargo sold in Bordeaux Michel Morineau, « Quelques recherches relatives à la Balance du Commerce extérieur français au XVIIIe s.: ou cette fois un égale deux », Aires et structures…, 1975
When comparing French and US- statistics to reconstruct the evolution of the trade between the two countries during the French Wars, trends are consistently similar eastwards and much more inconsistent westwards (see two following slides) However, even in the case of eastward trade, difference in values are hight (approx. 50 %); They varies between 30% and 90% for the westward trade, depending on years
Trade between France and the US (eastwards), 1790-1815
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 20 40 60 80 100 120 1790 1792 II IV VI VIII X XII XIV-1806 1808 1810 1812 1814 millions de $ millions de francs
French imports from US (F) US exports to France ($)
NB: 1 US-$ = 5 F
Sources: Statistical Tables Exhibiting the Commerce of the United States with European Countries, from 1790 to 1890, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1893 (1893) ; PITKIN, 1816; AN, F12501A ; Statistiques de la France (1838 ); VILLIERS (1991)
Trade between France and the US, westward
0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1 1,2 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 III V VII IX millions de $ millions de francs
French exports to US (F) US imports from France ($)
NB: 1 US-$ = 5 F
Insurance and freight Vessels captured by British [cross-check of ship-
departures and ship arrivals tend to demonstrate that ships did actually arrive at destination, with the exception of a few years]
Interest of US-merchants to declare reduced
values when importing (wine is taxed 23% ad valorem, brandy 35%)
Interest of inflating export values for French
merchants after 1810 (to increase possibility of importing)
The last leg (or first destination) of maritime flows is not necessarily adequate to understand the circulation of goods
Complexification of US shipping routes during the French Wars. The case of Bordeaux
History Review, 79 (2005), p. 811-844 .
1791 1796-1815
20000 40000 60000 80000 100000 120000 140000 160000
1790 1792 1794 1796 1798 1800 1802 1804 1806 1808 1810 1812 1814
thousands of US- $
Foreign trade of the United States, 1790-1815
imports reexports exports
Source: Douglass C. NORTH, « The United States Balance of Payments, 1790-1860 », in Trends in American Economy in the Nineteenth Century, 1960.
When reexport trade is essential, and when trade routes are influenced by warfare, balances of trade on a country-by-country are absolutely inadequate to understand trade flows
Sources: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem Clearances of Foreign Vessels, microfilm #129 and Salem Impost Book, microfilm #29, reel 5. NARA, RG 84, Palermo 144 et Bordeaux 225 (actually Marseille) ; The People's Friend & Daily Advertiser, 17 Octobre 1806; Daily Advertiser, 1 Decembre 1807;
Balance of trade: export to France; import from Spain
captured by balances of trade: Sukey of Salem
Other ex. (not linked to warfare) of complexe tramping: a Mediterranean caravane. Captain Jospeh Martin, 1739-
1742
(2003)
a programme financed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche
(December 2007- December 2011)
An international project coordinated by :
Silvia Marzagalli
(Centre de la Méditerranée moderne et contemporaine, Nice)
Pierrick Pourchasse
(Centre de Recherche Bretonne et Celtique)
Jean-Pierre Dedieu
(Laboratoire de recherche historique Rhône-Alpes)
and an international network of researchers throughout Europe
Goals :
To create a relational data-base of ships voyages. The
base contains approx. 400 000 voyages (late 16th – 19 c.)
To put the base be on-line and to facilitate its use (codes,
cartography, dictionnaries of goods and measures, etc.)
To insure the perennity of the data-base and its
progressive growth.
shipping and trade
?
Declared destination from Dunkerque: « Lissabon » (but real destination is England)
1/3 of shipping tonnage from North France to GB (1787) consisted in smuggling
G5-series at the National Archives (Paris)
Presentation of results: Archives Nationales, 24 May 2011
details on each clearing ship are known; for 65 other ports, data
Total known details: 30000 out of approx. 45000 clearances (a fifth being foreign ships)
1787
NB: map need to be updated + Corsica + some colonial ports
.
Possibility of concentrating on a relevant item or
group of items and track through shipping data-bases and balances of trade its circulation (volumes, values, etc.)
Possibility of providing elements for countries where
the balance of trade do not provide data on geographical destinations/origins of trade flows (provided trade is maritime)
Necessity of joining forces (specially in establishing a
dictionnary of goods)