Drew Keeling publicó The Business of Transatlantic Migration between Europe and the United States, 1900-1914. (Zurich:
Chronos, 2012. ISBN: 978-3-0340-1152-5), que fue reseñado por Richard Sicotte, del
Departamento de Economía de la Universidad
de Vermont para EH.Net, quien comentó “In The
Business of Transatlantic Migration, Drew Keeling provides a
history of early twentieth century migration from Europe to the United States
that focuses on the decisions and interactions of migrants, shipping companies
and immigration policy-makers. The book provides a wealth of statistical
and narrative information that will be of exceptional utility to future
scholars. Keeling’s encyclopedic knowledge of sources and his ability to
synthesize them are on brilliant display. As the title suggests, the focus is
on the nuts and bolts of the act of migration itself. Keeling employs a
business history approach that combines careful observations from an
astonishing breadth of primary and secondary sources, including a mass of quantitative
data that he has gathered on his own. One way to view the content of this
book is as a careful study of important aspects of the shipping industry’s
supply of, and migrants demand for, ocean transportation.
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On the supply side, Keeling discusses the main steamship firms, their executives and business strategies. For example, Keeling has a very informative and concise description of the complexities surrounding J.P. Morgan’s organization of International Mercantile Marine, a combination of several steamship companies. Furthermore, he clearly describes the consequences of Morgan’s venture for the “balance of power” among the major shipping firms. Keeling also carefully describes the circumstances leading to a major price war in 1904. There is an interesting discussion of how the shipping lines improved the quality of the accommodations offered to migrants over the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as an explanation of the pattern of investment in new ships. Additionally, Keeling provides information on the efforts of firms to establish and maintain cartel agreements, a development that he seems to view in a generally positive light.
Keeling’s
thesis on migrant demand for transport is that it was derivative of the overall
flow of migration, and was quite price inelastic. Indeed, his position is
that migrants’ expected gains from migration were always, or almost always
positive, but that the returns to migration had a high variance. The
uncertainty associated with the returns is what kept more from migrating.
He does not view transport costs as an important factor in the migration
decision during this period. For this reason, he maintains that shipping
cartels did not affect migrant flows or the composition of migrants. On
the first point, I disagree. In previous work, George Deltas, Pete
Tomczak and I (2008) provide econometric evidence of a large negative effect of
shipping firms’ collusion on migration. There is no direct evidence on
the second point yet, although recent work by Abramitzky, Boustan and Eriksson
(2012), and Spitzer and Zimran (2014) suggest that the data and approach
necessary for a rigorous test are now available.
The fact
that many migrants returned to Europe, either permanently or temporarily,
provided an important eastbound demand for shipping firms. Westbound
flows normally greatly exceeded eastbound flows, yet one can view the provision
of both as a joint product. Keeling makes keen observations about the
implications of this eastbound demand for ship owners’ incentives to improve
quality which westbound migrants also enjoyed. He also provides estimates
of the extent of repeat and return migration, although the latter is
considerably lower than the calculations made by Bandiera, Rasul and Viarengo
(2013). Without question, this topic is an important and relatively
neglected aspect of early twentieth century migration, and Keeling’s work here
will help lead the way.
The
literature on transatlantic travel and transport has benefited from a number of
excellent contributions in recent years, such as those by Torsten Feys (2013),
Raymond Cohn (2008), and DuPont, Gandhi and Weiss (2012). The
Business of Transatlantic Migration by Drew Keeling is an outstanding
contribution to this literature, and is highly recommended to scholars of the
history of both transportation and migration.
References:
Abramitzky, Ran, Leah Boustan and Katherine Eriksson. 2012.
“Europe’s Tired, Poor, Huddled Masses: Self-Selection and Economic Outcomes in
the Age of Mass Migration.”American
Economic Review, 102: 1832-1856.
Bandiera, Oriana, Imran Rasul and Martina Viarengo. 2013. “The
Making of Modern America: Migratory Flows in the Age of Mass Migration.” Journal
of Development Economics, 102:
23-47.
Cohn, Raymond. 2008. Mass Migration Under Sail: European
Immigration to the Antebellum United States. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Deltas, George, Richard Sicotte and Pete Tomczak. 2008.
“Passenger Shipping Cartels and Their Effect on Trans-Atlantic Migration.” Review
of Economics and Statistics, 90:
119-133.
DuPont, Brandon, Alka Gandhi and Thomas Weiss. 2012. “The
Long-Term Rise in Overseas Travel by Americans, 1820-2000.” Economic
History Review, 65:
144-167.
Feys, Torsten. 2013. The Battle for Migrants: The Introduction
of Steamshipping on the North Atlantic and Its Impact on the European Exodus.
St. John’s, Newfoundland: International Maritime History Association.
Spitzer, Yannay and Ariell Zimran. 2014. “Migrant
Self-Selection: Anthropometric Evidence from the Mass Migration of Italians to
the United States.” Working paper.
Richard Sicotte is author of several articles on the economic
history of the shipping industry. He is currently researching procurement
and renegotiation of highway construction contracts.”
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