These two volumes present a unique resource on the history and development of merchant shipping from the last decades of the eighteenth century to the latter decades of the nineteenth. International in coverage - including Britain, the United States, France, Holland, India, and the Middle East - the volumes provide a rich compendium of facts and figures on all aspects of merchant shipping, international commerce and trade, seamanship and mercantile law. Among the topics covered are the repeal of the Navigation Laws, the education of merchant seamen, the progress of steam navigation in Europe, steamships of the United States, steam to India and overland routes, the ships and operations of major shipping companies, and the changes introduced by the opening of the Suez Canal. Lindsay was the leading authority on the history of merchant shipping and these volumes reveal both his wide practical and commercial experience and his impressive command of his subject. Definitive and comprehensive, it remains unchallenged. This two volume set includes a substantial introduction by leading naval historian Andrew Lambert, Laughton Professor of Naval History, King's College London.