... containers weren't invented

Intermodal containers – among other names also known as freight container, shipping, ocean and sea container or simply container. The big steel boxes used to transport goods and cargo from one end of the world to the other one.

Modern, standartised shipping containers can be transported via ship, rail and truck, all designed to be part of an efficient, secure and cost-effective global trade network. You might also spot them re-purposed in the so-called "shipping container architecture" as storage areas or housing units, as they are easy to transport and easy to set up. In the past, moving cargo on and off ships was labour-intensive and with it shipping was expensive. Shipping overseas was simply not worth it. Starting in the 1950s, the introduction of containers split costs on a large scale with the efficiency of ports skyrocketing.

So, imagine containers were not invented. However unlikely it would have been, given the pace of globalization and its trend to standartisation of products, let's look at the effects of containerization or the lack of it.

We would still be transporting goods in old-fashioned style, stacked in crates, bags and barrels on trains, ships and trucks. Especially loading and unloading the cargo at the port takes a lot of time, a complicated process where every single item has to be moved from one means of transportation to the next one mostly by hand. It is estimated that in the past, half of the overall cost of transporting goods by sea involved the laborous loading and unloading. Without taking into account the time a ship is tied to the port in this process, often a week or more.

A container can be moved as a single unit from ship to train to truck in highly mechanised transfers. This reduces the cost of international trade and increases its speed, especially of consumer goods and commodities. Toys, TVs, clothing, meat, computers and more are typically transported by container. One twenty foot container can fit the shopping of 300 trolleys. Or 3.000 game computers. Or 1.000.000 pencils.

Even though globalization probably wouldn't stall, it would proceed at a much slower rate. Without containers, many chains of production would still be very local. No more toys and clothes made in China. Smartphones with raw materials from Africa, designed in the USA, assembled in Vietnam, sold across the world, would be extraordinaryly expensive. And you, dear reader or listener, wouldn't be reading or listening to this article on your phone, laptop or desktop computer. These products would be a luxury reserved to the rich. An integral part of nowadays communication missing.