The Shipping container; Land and Sea.
Capitalism is a topic that spans over centuries and across the world. Capitalism is the world today. Its principles appear far away from everyday life; double book keeping, free markets, supply and demand, state backed banking systems; but the smoke of the Capitalist furnace pervades modern life.
Technology is a tool used by Capitalists to seek, find, make, advertise and sell new commodities. Despite technology’s importance in a Capitalist world it will never be a system of thought. Technology and Capitalism keep the ships of the world sailing into vast seas of human advancement, where many discoveries have yet to be mined or harvested.
So continues the exchange between science and politicians and technology and change.
Technology can serve to strengthen the grip of the powerful. One technological advancement that changed the world is the internet, a by-product of a military project. The internet was not intended for the public but now the internet has helped create an economy, jobs, and a currency. The history of Capitalism provides further examples of how technology can take Capitalism by the hand.
In a truncated coverage of the key technological advancements (in the history of capitalism) the most important inventions are: factory machinery, railways, steamships, and the shipping container, or the standardisation of the shipping container. How could something so simple create such a massive impact on the world of trade?
In the book, ‘The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger’ author Marc Levinison examines the the role of the shipping container in creating global trade.
The container sizes need to be standardized so that the containers can be most efficiently stacked – literally, one on top of the other – and so that ships, trains, trucks and cranes at the ports can be specially fitted or built to a single size specification.
This then led to Containerization.
The containers have standardized dimensions. They can be loaded and unloaded, stacked, transported efficiently over long distances, and transferred from one mode of transport to another…without being opened.
This then became a major factor in the development of a new system of transporting goods,
Intermodalism.
‘Intermodalism is a system that is based on the theory that efficiency will be vastly improved when the same container, with the same cargo, can be transported with minimum interruption via different transport modes from an initial place of receipt to a final delivery point many kilometers or miles away. That means the containers would move seamlessly between ships, trucks and trains.’
This standardization now applies across the global industry, thanks to the work of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), who in1961, set standard sizes for all containers.
The ISO maintains the flow of the shipping container and its contents.
There was political stability after World War Two with the emergence of America as a World Super Power. In the aftermath of the war countries focused their efforts on rebuilding their economies through trade. The political stability provided a fertile economic climate but it was technology that provided the tools to sow the seeds; and intermodalism was yielded, thus unifying resources along the production chain. This is an example of how technology takes politics by the hand. The shipping container revolutionised the world of shipping and helped to bring the advent of global capitalism.
The shipping container has a strategic role in bringing benefit to communities on land and sea.
Currently, Britain is facing a housing crises and the shipping container may very well be part of delivering the solution. The current housing crisis has been created by a number of conditions that show, ‘a good example of how socialism and crony capitalism go hand in hand’; a partnership that benefits a few groups in society.
If you happen to not be a Capitalist or a crony, like most ordinary people, then you will have your pockets empty after paying the rent or mortgage, and your hands tied with debt. Furthermore, the cycle of poverty generated by negative equity as result of burrowing is a red alert to show that lowering house prices and mortgage rates is not the solution.
The revolution in Capitalism created by the shipping container teaches one very important lesson, if politicians prevent change then the invisible hand of progress will open a door. The question then becomes whether the Capitalists will exchange hands for a better deal. Leaving the cronies outside, in the cold.