A new look at the leadership of Greek ship owners in world shipping in the second half of the twentieth century. This book examines the fundamental factors of the dynamism of Greek entrepreneurship in family businesses and provides evidence for the organization, management and strategies of Greek family shipping companies.

Greek-owned shipping has been at the top of the world fleet for the last twenty years. Winner of the 1997 Runciman Award, this richly sourced study traces the development of the Greek tramp fleet from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. Gelina Harlaftis argues that the success of Greek-owned shipping in recent years has been a result not of a number of entrepreneurs using flags of convenience in the 1940s, but of networks and organisational structures which date back to the nineteenth century. This study provides the most comprehensive history of development of modern Greek shipping ever published. It is illustrated with numerous maps and photographs, and includes extensive tables of primary data.

This study seeks to correct the underrepresentation of Mediterranean maritime history in academic publications, in attempt to understand the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic environment in which maritime activity takes place, by compiling ten essays from maritime historians concerning Spain, France, Italy, Malta, Slovenia, Greece, Turkey, and Israel. The aim of the collection is to provide an insight into Mediterranean maritime history to those who could not previously access such information due to language barriers or difficulty securing non-English publications; some of the essays have translated into English specifically for this publication. The majority of the essays concern the Early Modern period, and the remainder concern the contemporary.