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Early Nineteenth-Century Shipowning—A Chapter in Business Enterprise

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Robert G. Albion
Robert G. Albion
Affiliation:
Princeton University
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Extract

Until the close of the Civil War, shipowning was one of the principal forms of capital investment along our northern seaboard. Gradually, investors found other outlets for their surplus wealth in government funds, in bank and insurance stocks; in railroads, and in factories. Although its relative importance had declined, shipowning reached its peak on the eve of the Civil War. After that, it declined sharply.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , May 1941 , pp. 1 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1941

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References

1 See, for instance, my Square Riggers on Schedule (1938), 106–139, 313–316, for an analysis of packet ownership, and my Rise of New York Port, 1815–1860 (1939), 266–270. Two unpublished theses deal with particular aspects of the subject: Harvard, C P. Wright's doctoral dissertation, “The Origins and Early Years of the Transatlantic Packet Ships of New York” (1932)Google Scholar and Parker's, W. J. Lewis Columbia master's thesis on “The Palmer Fleet of Coal Schooners” (1940)Google Scholar. A wealth of pertinent source material is reproduced in Porter, K. W., The Jacksons and the Lees (1937)Google Scholar.

2 These acts and other legal aspects of ownership are analyzed in detail in Blunt, Joseph, The Merchant and Shipmaster's Assistant (1832), 152–165Google Scholar.

3 See Griswold, F. G., House Flags of the Merchants of New York (1926) for details also included in his Clipper Ships and Yachts (1927)Google Scholar.

4 Morison, S. E., Maritime History of Massachusetts (1921), 96Google Scholar.

5 See Morison, Maritime History; Griswold, House Flags of the Merchants of New York, Porter, K. W., John Jacob Astor, Business Man (1931)Google Scholar; McMaster, J. B., Life and Times of Stephen Girard (1918)Google Scholar; Low, W. G.. Something About A. A. Low and Brothers' Fleet of Clipper Ships (1919)Google Scholar; Anderson, I. W., Under the Black Horse Flag (1926)Google Scholar and Dictionary of American Biography, passim.

6 Albion, Rise of New York Port, 269.

7 Incidents in the Life of Jacob Barker of New Orleans (1855), 16.

8 Albion, Square Riggers, 106–139, 313–316.

9 New York Custom House, Mss. Customs Registers (hereafter C. R.) Sail, 1850, 65. Compare with analyses of ownership of thirty-two regular packets in Albion, Square Riggers, 313–316.

10 Scoville, J. A., Old Merchants of New York (1863), II, 161Google Scholar.

11 New York Journal of Commerce, April 10, 1830.

12 See Coffin, R. P. T., Captain Abby and Captain John (1939)Google Scholar.

13 C. R. Steam, 1850, 4.

14 Beach, M. Y., Wealth and Biography of New York's Wealthy Citizens (1855)Google Scholar.

15 New York Evening Post, May 1, 1818.

16 C. E. (Customs Enrollments) Sail, 1838, 79.

17 C. R. Steam, 1850: C. E. Steam, 1850: W. J. Lane, Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt: and Dictionary of American Biography, under Law, Morgan, and Roberts.

18 C. R. Steam, 1850, passim.