Comments by "" (@TheDavidlloydjones) on "What's Going on With Shipping?"
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Sal really buries the lede here: the big point is, Matson invented container shipping. He gets around to it eleven minutes in, but given a truly historic fact of this imporance, I'd have thought it was the main thing to be said about excellent Matson.
First they built a one-forty-footer roll-on-roll-off lighter to serve around the islands. Then some guy on their senior staff said, "Hey, this forty-footer thing is neat. Let's do it everywhere."
There was a small problem at the time: the docks at Long Beach were controlled by a ver-ree militant Communist union. But Matson had another bright thought, "Hmm, maybe Communists like money." So they went to the union with a two part offer: first we give everybody in Long Beach right now a life-time job at a hefty raise; second, we get your leader a membership in the Bohemian Grove.
Bingo! Problem solved: Long Beach automates like crazy, Matson switches to all-container ships and the industry follows, and Long Beach becomes as dominant in peace time as it had been important in war.
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