Introduction of Shipping Containers
The Introduction of Shipping Containers
Until the 1960s, shipping had not changed much in decades. Handling cargo was a labor-intensive activity, and transportation costs and times—whether by land or by sea—were huge obstacles to trade, often making transcontinental, let alone global, and trade economically unfeasible. However something happened that changed that. That was the invention of the shipping container.
The birth of the shipping container dates back to April 26, 1956 when a crane lifted fifty-eight aluminum truck bodies aboard an a ship called the Ideal-X docked in Newark, New Jersey. Five days later, the ship sailed in Houston, where fifty- eight trucks waited to take on the metal boxes and take them to their destinations. This heralded the beginning of a new era.
Decades have passed since that fateful day which changed the world. Today we live in a globalized world so it is very difficult for us to even imagine the extent to which the container changed the world. In 1956, China was not the world's workshop. It was not common to find Japanese electronics and cars in the middle of Dhaka. Western apparel brands didn’t have their products manufactured in Bangladesh either. Before the advent of the container, transporting goods was expensive. So expensive that it did not pay to ship many things halfway across the country, much less halfway around the world.
The introduction of the container had an enormous impact upon the world’s economy. The masses of poorly paid workers who once made their livings loading and unloading ships ended up losing their jobs. Cities that had been centers of maritime commerce for ages, such as New York and Liverpool, saw their harbors decline due to them being unsuited to the container trade. Merchant sailors, who had sailed out to see the world, had their traditional days-long shore leave in exotic harbors replaced by a few hours ashore at a remote parking lot for containers, their vessel ready to weigh anchor the instant
Until the 1960s, shipping had not changed much in decades. Handling cargo was a labor-intensive activity, and transportation costs and times—whether by land or by sea—were huge obstacles to trade, often making transcontinental, let alone global, and trade economically unfeasible. However something happened that changed that. That was the invention of the shipping container.
The birth of the shipping container dates back to April 26, 1956 when a crane lifted fifty-eight aluminum truck bodies aboard an a ship called the Ideal-X docked in Newark, New Jersey. Five days later, the ship sailed in Houston, where fifty- eight trucks waited to take on the metal boxes and take them to their destinations. This heralded the beginning of a new era.
Decades have passed since that fateful day which changed the world. Today we live in a globalized world so it is very difficult for us to even imagine the extent to which the container changed the world. In 1956, China was not the world's workshop. It was not common to find Japanese electronics and cars in the middle of Dhaka. Western apparel brands didn’t have their products manufactured in Bangladesh either. Before the advent of the container, transporting goods was expensive. So expensive that it did not pay to ship many things halfway across the country, much less halfway around the world.
The introduction of the container had an enormous impact upon the world’s economy. The masses of poorly paid workers who once made their livings loading and unloading ships ended up losing their jobs. Cities that had been centers of maritime commerce for ages, such as New York and Liverpool, saw their harbors decline due to them being unsuited to the container trade. Merchant sailors, who had sailed out to see the world, had their traditional days-long shore leave in exotic harbors replaced by a few hours ashore at a remote parking lot for containers, their vessel ready to weigh anchor the instant