This article evaluates the significance of current international developments in port facilities and management by setting them in a longer-term historical perspective. Taking as its basis an outline survey of port history over the last three centuries, it argues that, although earlier changes in shipping technology had a major impact on ports, they did not fundamentally change the labour process and physical transformation had an evolutionary character. In contrast, within the global context of trade, containerisation and bulk handling has produced a break with the past which is fundamentally transforming our understanding of the functions and character of seaports. All rights reserved. This journal contains information obtained from authentic and highly reliable sources.
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