Introduction to International Trade

International Trade

In September 2008, the BBC launched an ambitious project to

follow The Box. The Box in question was an ordinary shipping

container, except it had been painted with the BBC logo and

equipped with a GPS transmitter. The plan was to follow it as it

moved around the world. (The project is named after a book by

Marc Levinson that describes how the humble container changed

the face of world trade.)

Within a few weeks, The Box had travelled around the British

Isles, crossed the Mediterranean, sailed down the coast of Africa

and headed across the Indian Ocean. It had been spotted on the

road, on trains and of course on ships. A project like this is only

possible and only interesting because of the development of the

modern economy and technology. For one thing, the GPS tracking

device just became small enough and affordable enough to play a

role in the past few years. Further, the journey piques our curiosity

because we have no idea where the container is going next or what

it will be carrying. This is another new development. For most

of the history of world trade described in the previous chapter,

merchants knew exactly what was in their boxes, and had a pretty

good idea of the route those containers would take.