Jari Ojala, University of JyvŠskylŠ

Productivity of sailing ships has been widely studied since the path-breaking articles by Douglass C. North in the 1950s and 1960s. There is a general agreement that the shipping productivity rose from the 17th century on, especially during the latter part of the 19th century, due to the technological changes. There is, however, only few empirical studies concerning shipping productivity prior to the mid-19th century. The profitability of shipping has been studied even less because of the scarce source material. Finnish source material offers a good possibility to make estimations of shipping productivity and profitability during the 18th and 19th centuries. According to the private ship ownersâ account books, the rate of return of Finnish ships was at its highest levels during the French Revolutionary wars at the turn of the 18th and 19th century. After that the profitability slowly stagnated, but it was not until the 1880s that shipping by sail became an unprofitable business for the Finnish ship owners. The average rate of return of Finnish ships was at the turn of the 18th and 19th century about 35%. During the 1820s and 1830s the rate of return was about 20%, but after the mid century profits fell under 10%. Unfortunately, the evidence is based on only two major ship-owning trading houses in the early part of the 19th century. More comprehensive source material will hopefully provide additional information on the revenues of shipping by sail from the turn of the 18th and 19th century. Although the profitability decreased from the 1820s on, it was not until the mid-19th century that the ship owners started to cut their expenses in order to improve productivity and, consequently, the profitability of shipping. The growing average size of the vessels during the 18th century indicates that the ship owners wanted to improve the productivity of their vessels during the time of the decreasing profits. On the other hand, there is no evidence to be found that ship speed increased. Instead, ships were in more efficient use as a result of reduction in port and lay up times and ballast voyages. Labour productivity did not increase significantly before the mid 19th century.