a) A selection from this chapter that I find particularly interesting is, "Even as it helped destroy the old economy, the container helped build a new one". We learned in class about how substitutes can be devastating to a market and this is a prime example of a shipping substitute causing many other shipping markets to go out of business. Levinson discusses how centers for maritime trade that had been around for hundreds of years couldn't adapt to the new demands of container trade and so they went out of business. Despite the loss of many different markets and jobs, the container was so revolutionary that it provided a more efficient market and was thus much more beneficial to the economy.
b) The author views the development of the shipping container as essential to globalization. It created a cheaper way to ship products in bulk across the world and, according to Levinson, without the container the world would be a very different place.
c) Larger businesses and consumers will most likely be gaining from this trasformation of global transportation. Container trade has provided a vast amount of goods to countries all over the world that previously wouldn't have had access to such a variety of products. The container made the cost of shipping much lower, so acquiring materials and resources has become easier for businesses. However, this decrease in cost has caused an increase in competition between businesses. Smaller businesses will lose the battle because they likely serve a local market and bigger companies will be able to offer the same products for a cheaper price.
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