The present volume contains the proceedings of an international conference on the economic history of the seaports of Antwerp and Rotterdam (1870-2000). This venue was held at Antwerp on 10-11 May 2001 and was hosted by the Antwerp Port Authority. This international conference aimed at confronting the development of both ports. In the course of the last century and a half, economic growth in the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam has been staggering. Maritime economic historians, economists and geographers alike have investigated the development of both ports extensively, but separately. So far, only a limited number of attempts have been made to analyse Rotterdam-Antwerp port history from a comparative perspective. The papers presented at the conference provide a challenging starting point to - certain how and why both ports reacted differently to virtually the same economic and political stimuli. By bringing together both historians, economists and lawyers with different fields of interest, we have attempted to put the history of the ports of Antwerp and Rotterdam in a broader international and comparative perspective.

Inhalt

Recent trends in maritime and port history.- Throughput in the port of Antwerp (1901-2000): an integrated functional approach 29.- Port traffic in Rotterdam: the competitive edge of a Rhine-port (1880-1914).- Commentary.- Port throughput and international trade: have port authorities any degrees of freedom left?.- Commentary.- Thirty-five years of containerization in Antwerp and Rotterdam: structural changes in the container handling market.- The Kempen nexus. The spatial-economic development of Rotterdam and Antwerp.- The Antwerp port: elements of spatial planning.- Port and politics in Antwerp: a prudent approach.- The end of the sea.- Commentary.- Land-use policy in the port of Antwerp (1870-1994).- Port of Rotterdam: land-use policy during the twentieth century.- Commentary.- Evolution of the Rotterdam port authority's position.- "Much ado about nothing?" Reorganising the hiring system and decasualization in the port of Antwerp during the 1960s: motives, obstacles, outcome.- "Dock-work is a skilled profession". Decasualization and the Rotterdam labour market (1945-1970).- Commentary.- The first mechanization wave in coal and ore handling as an example of patterns of technological innovation in the port of Rotterdam.- Commentary.- Opportunities in comparative Antwerp-Rotterdam port history.- Annex.- Maps of port of Antwerp and Rotterdam.