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How many people's lives are saved from increased access to trans-oceanic trade? I don't have an answer to that, but isn't it possible that the counterfactual w
by harpersealtako 5y ago
How many people's lives are saved from increased access to trans-oceanic trade? I don't have an answer to that, but isn't it possible that the counterfactual world where no container ships exist involves worse health and mortality outcomes?
- wilkommen 5y agoProbably not, national economies would just have to function more independently. The only way I can see how trans-oceanic trade results in better health and mortality outcomes is that it makes the various world superpowers more dependent on each other for trade, reducing the likelihood of large-scale armed conflict.
- mistrial9 5y agotrans-ocean ships enabled the Age of Expansion (1500s) and were directly responsible for transporting gold from the Spanish New World back to Europe, by the ton. The question "what if there were no ships instead of lots of ships" is so far from the actual implementation of movement of goods and military power, that it is simply some kind of thought exercise.