ABSTRACT
The Greek-owned Shipping’s great achievement since 1946, time when ~100 liberties acquired, is presented. It lies in the disproportion between a large global fleet and
a small national seaborne trade. We also presented the 1300 years historical
link between 21 Greek islands, and at least 31 great ship owners; kinship ties created by living in the same
island, and… by marriages among fleet owners; the common participation in the ship capital of the ship owner and of his crew (συμπλοιοκτησiα = common ownership). The
causes shown were 1) international and 2) national: 1) Greeks were
cross-traders; the shipping policy of oil companies favored them; the seaborne trade expansion too. 2) Greek-fatherland was occupied for 376 years (1453 - 1829) by Turks; Greek merchants/ship owners had to work abroad (UK 1800s; NY 1939; Canada 1939); Greeks became skilled in owning and building ships since the time of Themistocles (524 - 459 BC), who saved Europe from Persians. We showed four additional
important factors: 1) Tradition, 2) Time, 3) Strategy and 4) Setoff. Tradition found responsible for 49% (in tonnage terms) of the fleet owned by top (≥1 m dwt) 74 shipping companies, i.e. 146 m dwt in 2016 were traditional.
This proved that Greeks—at least 1 out of 2—have a “nontraditional” shipping DNA. We found that
in May, 2009, there were 47 top Greek-owned shipping
companies owning 120.5 m dwt and by 2016 they
were 77, owning 299 m dwt! Alfred Marshall’s Law for decreasing cost
industries holds here… Finally, we showed the strategy of Greek-owned shipping, which was: “buy used ships—at rock
bottom prices—larger and younger than the ones you are about to sell”; “sell/scrap smaller and older ones”.
Setoff, as shown, is the innovative element originating in Greek DNA: a
subsequent generation frequently forms its own opinion of how the company had to be managed... This leads to set off by one or two
family-members in creating their own company. The
setoff companies, nevertheless, showed faster growth, demolishing-out the old saying:
“strength is in unity”. These set off companies owned ~110