Introduction

In the years between 1838 and 1875 the organization of the passenger steamboat trade from the head of Lake Ontario to the low point of continuous navigation of the upper St. Lawrence had passed through several phases. Four models of line organization have been identified in this era. These included the combination of owned and chartered vessels, characterized by centralized management. The second was the "sub-contract" model, which sacrificed the centralized management for a much looser organization with risks more widely spread. The principal difference between this and the "cartel" or "conference" model was that in the former the contracts imposed a hierarchy while the latter used a contracted distribution of power similar to holding shares in a join stock company. The final model is that which combined centralized management with diffuse ownership. Instead of ownership being in the hands of personal proprietors or partners, it focused the capital of a large number of investors through the medium of the joint stock corporation.

In the preceding chapters these models have been discussed in some detail, as have some of the immediate and long-term factors affecting the transition from one to the next. The following sections summarize and draw some conclusions about the overriding conditions affecting the operations of the Royal Mail lines.

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Chapter 5 appeared in FreshWater.