The data in this collection consists of historical data relating to trade patterns and development indicators which enabled the testing of, firstly, the role of a reduction in shipping times (brought about through steam technology) in the expansion of world trade in the 19th Century and, secondly, the impact of these changing trade patterns on economic development. Five datasets are included: 1) information on shipping times for different sailing technologies (sail/steam) across roughly 16,000 country pairs; 2) 23,000 bilateral trade observations for nearly 1,000 distinct country pairs (1850-1900); 3) data on the duration of voyages of sailing ships from 1750-1854; 4) country-level data on per-capita GDP, population, exports, urban population; 5) data on freight rates for shipping materials and coal from the ports of Cardiff and Newcastle (1855-1900).

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