There is a debate about whether coastal shipping experienced substantial productivity growth prior to the advent of steam power. To study changes over the long eighteenth century, this article uses thousands of coastal journey times culled from Board of Trade crew lists between 1835 and 1844 and coastal port books for the mid‐to‐late 1600s, along with a newly digitized coastal network. Comparisons between matched samples show that journey speeds, defined as miles sailed per day, were significantly higher in the crew lists compared to the port books, and that voyage cycle times, defined as days between starting two identical voyages, were substantially lower. The study also shows that voyage times in the east coast coal trade were substantially lower around 1840 than around 1700, but the difference was much smaller when peace years are compared. These new data imply that total factor productivity growth in the east coast coal trade was significant, especially if one accounts for gains from peace after 1815. The findings contribute to the larger literature studying the rate and sources of productivity growth during the industrial revolution.

中文翻译：

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更快的交付速度：航行时代的沿海运输时间和速度†

关于在蒸汽动力出现之前沿海航运是否经历了生产率的大幅增长存在争议。为了研究十八世纪的变化，本文使用了从1835年至1844年贸易委员会船员名单和1600年代中期后期的沿海港口书籍中选出的数千条沿海航行时间，以及一个新的数字化沿海网络。匹配的样本之间的比较表明，与港口手册相比，船员列表中定义为每天航行里程的航行速度明显更高，并且航行周期时间（定义为开始两次相同的航行之间的天数）要低得多。该研究还表明，东海岸煤炭贸易的航行时间在1840年左右比在1700年左右要少得多，但是当比较和平年数时，两者的差异要小得多。