in this chapter we have concentrated on the shipping market as a whole. during the last fifty years the cost of transporting major commodities by sea has fallen steadily. our aim is to show how this has been achieved and how the different parts of the shipping market- the liner business, bulk shipping, the charter market,etc.- fit together. we have discussed market organization and the economic mechanisms which match a diverse fleet of merchant ships to an equally diverse but constant changing pattern of seaborne trade.