Empty Vessel: The Story of the Global Economy in One Ship

By: Ian Kumekawa

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Synopsis: 'Thrilling, meticulous and wondrously original' PHILIPPE SANDSA jaw-dropping microhistory of the global economy over the last fifty years told through the many lives of a single ship.At 94 meters long and 9,500 deadweight tonnes, once called the Bibby Resolution, is an unremarkable hulk, crossing the oceans unnoticed. And yet, the astonishing journey of this boat can tell us the story of the modern world.First built as a Swedish offshore oil rig in the 1970s, it went on to become a barracks for British soldiers in the Falklands War in the 1980s, a jail off New York in the 1990s, a prison in Portland in the 2000s, and accommodation for Nigerian oil workers off the coast of Africa in the 2010s. It has been called Safe Esperia, HMP The Weare, even 'The Love Boat'. In each of its lives this empty vessel has been commanded by economic forces much larger than itself: private investment, war, mass incarceration, imperial interests, national sovereignty, inflation, booms, busts and greed.Through its encounters with a world of island tax havens, the English court system, exploited labour forces, free banking zones or immigration politics, the ordinary boat at the heart of this story reveals our complex modern economy to us, connecting the dots of a dramatically changing world in the making, and warning us of its dangerous consequences.

Book Quality:: Publisher Quality
ISBN-13:: 9781399816267
Related ISBNs:: 9781399816229
Publisher:: John Murray Press
Date of Addition:: 05/06/25
Copyrighted By:: Ian Kumekawa
Adult content:: No
Language:: English
Has Image Descriptions:: No
Narrated By:: Dion Graham
Categories:: History, Nonfiction, Business and Finance, Politics and Government
Submitted By:: Bookshare Staff
Usage Restrictions:: This is a copyrighted book.