On the origin of shipping conferences: excess capacity and the opening of the Suez Canal

Much of the literature on shipping conferences has taken for granted that their origin lay in the opening of the Suez Canal. This literature asserts that the opening of the Canal created or induced the creation of excess capacity which in turn led to the use of shipping conferences. I show that the opening of the Suez Canal did not create or induce the creation of excess capacity. Moreover, the only instance of excess capacity in the first years of shipping conferences is traceable to a recession and is not connected to the origin of shipping conferences. -Author