Evidence from more than 40 000 voyages shows that labour productivity growth for sailing ships in the London coal trade was rapid but quite irregular between 1700 and 1860. These granular data permit us to examine various dimensions of change, showing that ships made more voyages per year, had smaller crews, carried more coal per ship ton and had longer working lives. Some changes resulted from what happened on land rather than on the sea, notably a marked reduction in the seasonality of trade as wagonways were built in the northeast in the early eighteenth century and a pronounced dip in voyages per year due to congestion in the port of London during the 1830s and 1840s, partly caused by the operation of the coal cartel. These results for the coal trade suggest that shipping, being neither spectacularly modern nor doggedly traditional, made a respectable contribution to British economic growth.

中文翻译：

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1700 年至 1860 年伦敦煤炭贸易中的航运

超过 40,000 次航行的证据表明，1700 年至 1860 年间，伦敦煤炭贸易中帆船的劳动生产率增长很快，但很不规律。这些细致的数据使我们能够检查变化的各个维度，表明船舶每年航行更多的航行，拥有更少的船员，每船吨运载更多的煤炭，并且工作寿命更长。一些变化是由于陆地而不是海上发生的情况造成的，特别是十八世纪初在东北部修建马车道路导致贸易季节性显着减少，以及由于港口拥堵导致每年航次明显下降。 1830 年代和 1840 年代的伦敦，部分是由煤炭卡特尔的运作造成的。煤炭贸易的这些结果表明，航运业既不是极其现代，也不是顽固的传统，但却为英国经济增长做出了可观的贡献。