什麼是船運

藉由水路輸送乘客或貨物的行爲或商業。早期文明利用水路運輸，因水路而興盛。埃及人或許最早利用船舶（約西元前1500年），腓尼基人、克里特人、希臘人與羅馬人全都仰賴水路。在亞洲，中國船艦配備多桅杆及舵，在西元200年左右在海上航行，打從西元前4世紀，中國人就極爲仰賴內陸水路運輸糧食到各大城市（參閱Grand Canal）。日本多山，無法仰賴陸路從事大量運輸，從歷史早期就仰賴內陸與沿海的水路從事船運。香料貿易給予船運貿易重大的激勵。阿拉伯人在基督教時期之前航行到香料羣島，歐洲船隊的出現也是因爲香料。茶葉貿易有類似的效果，在新大陸發現黃金亦然。從17世紀到19世紀，黑奴貿易是大西洋船運的特色。美國和英格蘭是19世紀最強勢的船運國家，德國、挪威、日本、荷蘭與法國，在20世紀早期加入。目前船運仍舊是世界經濟重要的一環，是越洋運送大宗物資唯一可行的方式。許多美國商船隊在第三國註冊避免重稅。亦請參閱East India Co.、East India Co., Dutch、East India Co., French。

shipping

Act or business of transporting passengers and goods by water. Early civilizations, which arose by waterways, all utilized them for transport. The Egyptians were probably the first to use seagoing vessels (c. 1500 BC); the Phoenicians, Cretans, greeks, and Romans also all relied on waterways. In Asia, Chinese ships equipped with multiple masts and a rudder were making sea voyages by c. AD 200; from as early as the 4th century BC the Chinese also relied heavily on internal waterways to transport food to their large cities (see Grand Canal). Japan, too mountainous to rely on roads for mass transport, also relied on internal and coastal waterways for shipping from early in its history. The spice trade was a great stimulus to shipping trade; Arabians were sailing to the spice islands before the Christian era and European merchant marines grew up largely because of it. The tea trade had a similar effect, as did the discovery of gold in the New World. From the 17th to the 19th century, the slave trade was a major feature of Atlantic shipping. The U.S. and England were the ascendant shipping nations in the 19th century; Germany, Norway, Japan, The Netherlands, and France joined them in the early 20th century. Today shipping remains a vital part of the world economy as the only viable way to transport large quantities of goods transoceanically. Many U.S. merchant ships are registered in a third nation to avoid heavy taxes. See also British East India Co., Dutch East India Co., French East India Co.