The Box

Clearing the Way for Global Trade

A half-century ago, a consumer who went to the store saw shelves lined with goods made close to home. No shirts from the Dominican Republic, no toys from China, no fish from Costa Rica, no beer from Germany. Moving freight long distances was just too expensive. Indeed, the United States' international trade steadily dwindled from 1930 to 1960. That all changed on April 26, 1956, when a crane loaded the first experimental shipping container onto a ship in Newark, New Jersey. The container's popularity and usefulness have exploded in ensuing decades, as the unglamorous box transformed the worlds of shipping and international trade, and even the consumer economy.

Before the box, China wasn't a manufacturing hub and U.S. companies didn't outsource their manufacturing to lower-cost countries. In today's post-box retail environment, finding a consumer product made in the U.S. is a challenge. Huge retailers like Wal-Mart demand that suppliers make their products in China. The container's rise shifted the geography of the world's economy. Bustling ports in New York City shrank as new ports in New Jersey built container cranes and grabbed business...