1500-1800年荷兰船舶工业的生产力和成长体系外文翻译.docVIP

外文翻译 原文 Roots of growth and productivity change in Dutch shipping industry,1500–1800 Material Source: Explorations in Economic History Author: Jan Luiten van Zanden，Milja van Tielhof Abstract：Shipping was one of the most dynamic industries of the pre industrial period. The article presents detailed estimates of the growth of output and inputs of the shipping industry in the Netherlands between 1500 and 1800. These are used to study the development of productivity in two ways: by comparing output with inputs (labour and capital), and by analysing the relationship between output prices and input prices. Both methods lead to different results, which we explain. It appears that productivity in this sector increased strongly between ca. 1550 and 1620 as a result of technological and institutional changes,such as the increased efficiency of the network of shipping routes. After 1620 labour productivity continued to increase because of factor substitution as wages increased much more than capital costs. The competitiveness of the Dutch shipping sector did not improve anymore after ca. 1650, however, which helps to explain why its rapid growth came to an end in the second half of the 17th century. 1 The debate on productivity growth in Dutch shipping The dominant interpretation of the success of the Dutch shipping industry in the 16th and 17th centuries stresses the role played by technical progress in shipbuilding. From the end of the 15th century onwards shipbuilders in Holland continuously improved the design of ships, making each generation of vessels more efficient. This culminated at the end of the sixteenth century in the creation of the fluyt or flute (fluit in Dutch), the most famous among the different types of cargo carriers the Dutch mercantile fleet was composed of in the 17th century. These fluyts were cheap to build and to exploit. They were built as specialised cargo carriers, which did not need to defend themselves and th