Public goods and private solutions in maritime history

Abstract

The maritime world during the days of sail was not unlike other frontiers. As long as individuals bore the full costs of their actions, they tended freely to take responsibility for their lives. And thus those in the private sector provided the goods and services that were needed. Government-provided goods and services were usually superfluous or redundant, if not burdensome. Of course, over the past century, roughly speaking, there have been both amazing technological advances and huge increases in government involvement in daily life, both on land and on the sea. One should not be deceived into thinking that the former have necessitated the latter. It is not that the sea was a frontier whose primitive characteristics led to the superfluity of government involvement. It is that on such a frontier individuals were generally unable to socialize the costs of their actions. Both benefits and costs accrued to those who acted. The government provision of goods and services largely constitutes a convenient method by which some individuals can retain the benefits for themselves while shifting many of the costs to others.