The Steel Arteries
How a simple metal box globalized the world economy
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Beschreibung
Discover how the invention of the standard shipping container destroyed distance and created the global economy.
"The Steel Arteries – How a simple metal box globalized the world economy" tells the unlikely story of the most influential invention of the 20th century: the shipping container. Before 1956, loading a ship was a chaotic, week-long process of manual labor, sacks, and barrels. Then, a truck driver named Malcom McLean had the idea to detach the truck trailer and stack it directly onto the ship.
Author David Box chronicles the resistance McLean faced from dockworker unions and traditional ports. The book explains how standardization lowered the cost of shipping by over 90%, making it cheaper to manufacture a toothbrush in China and ship it to New York than to make it locally. It reveals how this "boring" metal box destroyed local manufacturing and created the modern consumer world.
"The Steel Arteries" is a micro-history of efficiency. It illustrates how a simple change in geometry can reshape the geopolitical landscape, turning the oceans into a conveyor belt for the world's goods.
Autor*in
David Box
Author
Themen in »The Steel Arteries«
Shipping Container Globalization Malcom McLean Logistics Trade History Supply Chain Economy