To turn Tolstoy on his head, all books are happy in their own fashion. For this I wish to thank the staff of the Hamburg Staatsarchiv, particularly Dr. Klaus-Joachim Lorenzen-Schmidt, who was supportive in many ways; the staff of the Commerzbibliothek der Handelskammer Hamburg; the staff of the Gemeentearchief Rotterdam, especially the exceptional support from Dr. R. H. Krans; Henk Torenvlied of the Havenbedrijf Archief of the Port of Rotterdam; Internatio-Müller N. V. in Rotterdam for allowing me to consult the Internatio archives, and Annelies Tol who oversaw my visit; the staff of the Nationaal Archief in The Hague; the staff of the Gemeentearchief Amsterdam; Virginie Saverys of the Compagnie Maritime Belge for allowing me to consult its archives in Antwerp, and Riet de Block who helped guide me through them; the staff of the Antwerp Stadsarchief; the staff of the Antwerp Havenbedrijf Bibliotheek; Albert Himmler and G. Thues of the Antwerp Havenbedrijf’s Technische Dienst; Dawn Littler, Gordon Read, and the staff of the Merseyside Maritime Museum; the staffs of the University of Liverpool Archives and the Liverpool Record Office; the staffs of the British Library, the National Archives of the United Kingdom, the Guildhall Manuscripts Collection – now in the London Metropolitan Archives – the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, the School of Oriental and African Studies Archives, and the Docklands Library and Archive, especially Bob Aspinall; Lord Sterling and Stephen Rabson of P & O for graciously allowing me access to house materials and arranging interviews; Elementis; Jean-Paul Herbert of the Archives de l’association French Lines in Le Havre; the staff of the Centre des archives contemporaines in Fontainebleau; and, in Paris, the staffs of the Archives nationales, the archives of the Ministère des affaires étrangères, and the Service historique de la marine, with special thanks to the staff of the Bibliothèque nationale de France during difficult teething moments in 1999.

I would also like to thank all the individuals who granted me interviews, many of whom showed me additional kindnesses, which I shall never forget. Their names appear in the bibliography. In addition, I am grateful for the introductions or other support shown me by many maritime professionals and their organizations. For Belgium these are the Antwerpse Scheepvaartvereniging and Frank Boogaerts of the Vereniging der Expediteurs van Antwerpen. For France: Madame Auguste of the Banque Indo-Suez and Madame Collet of COFRALI. For Germany: Hans-Jürgen Capell of Hapag-Lloyd; Herbert R. Schmidt and Robert Völkl of the Verein Hamburger Spediteure e. V.; P.-J. Schönberg of Behn Meyer Holding A. G.; and especially Wilhelm Michels of C. Illies & Co., who over much correspondence answered many questions about his company for me. For Great Britain: Charlotte Bleasdale of the John Swire and Sons archives; Mrs. B. Fletcher of the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers; and R. G. S. Johnston of the United Kingdom Major Ports Group Limited. For the Netherlands: S. S. Balgobind of Nedlloyd; M. S. B. Duin of the Vereniging van Rotterdamse Cargadoors; Fenex; Ton de Graaf of ABN-AMRO Bank; and A. C. Snelleman of HAL Investments B. V.

Generous support for this project came from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Syracuse University twice allowed me leave time to accept these fellowships. I am also appreciative of the research support I have received from the University of Miami and its College of Arts and Sciences, which supported the production of maps and the reproduction of pictures that appear in this volume. I would also like to thank all those who invited me to present earlier versions of this research and offered valuable feedback. These include university presentations at Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Ghent, Memorial (St. John’s), Miami, Rice, and Princeton (the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies), as well as invitations to the following focused conferences or workshops: the Comparative and Cross-National History conference at the University of Cincinnati; the Internationaal Instituut voor Sociale Geschiedenis workshop in Amsterdam; the Marine marchande française de 1850 à 2000 conference in Paris; the Resources and Infrastructures in the Maritime Economy, 1500–2000 conference in Hull; the Seascapes, Littoral Cultures, and Trans-Oceanic Exchanges conference in Washington, D.C.; and the New Horizons in Maritime History conference at King’s College, Cambridge.

Earlier versions of some material in this book appeared in “Ship Agents in the Twentieth Century,” in Gordon Boyce and Richard Gorski, eds., Resources and Infrastructures in the Maritime Economy, 1500–2000 (St. John’s, 2002), 5–22, used here with the kind permission of the International Maritime Economic History Association; “The Business Trip: Maritime Networks in the Twentieth Century,” Business History Review (Spring 2003): 1–32; “Comparative and Cross-National History,” in Deborah Cohen and Maura O’Connor, eds., Comparison and History (Routledge: Reference Cohen and O’Connor2004), 115–132; “Pilgrims’ Progress: The Business of the Hajj,” Past and Present 191 (May 2006): 189–228; “L’Enigme de la marine marchande française au XXe,” Revue d’histoire maritime, 5 (2006): 119–134; and “Steamships,” in Akira Iriye and Pierre-Yves Saunier, eds., The Palgrave Dictionary of Transnational History (Palgrave Macmillan: 2009), 976–979, reproduced with permission of Palgrave Macmillan.

Others who in one way or another helped me through this project are John Barzman, Lenny Berlanstein, Marie-Françoise Berneron-Couvenhes, the late Frank Broeze, Vicki Caron, Bernard Cassagnou, Roland Caty, Alice Conklin, Lorraine Coons, Marcel Courdurié, Ferry de Goey, Torsten Feys, Skip Fischer, André Frémont, Patrick Fridenson, Donna Gabaccia, Wendy Goldman, Jean-Michel Harel, Renate Hauschild-Thiesen, Jean Heffer, Poul Holm, Stéphane Hoste, Franklin Kopitzsch, Andrew Lambert, Michel Lescure, Maurice Lévy-Leboyer, Reginald Loyen, Patrick Malcor, Roy Mankelow, Rory Miller, Sarah Palmer, Keetie Sluyterman, Paul van de Laar, Hugo van Driel, Stephan Vanfraechem, Alex Varias, and Birgitte Wolf. Tom Cairns Clery prepared the special-made maps in this book. Thanks as well to David Tenenbaum for his help on these. I would also like to thank my editor, Eric Crahan.

Finally, there is Mary Lindemann, without whom this book, and everything else during the years I researched and wrote it, would have been less rewarding.