Episode Details

Look at many of the items around your home and some will probably have been imported from abroad by ship. Moving goods around the world by sea is the easiest and most cost-effective way to do it. But what has made it more practical is the invention of the shipping container. They're not the most amazing thing to look at, but because of their design, and especially their universal size, it means they can be loaded and unloaded on to huge vessels at any port that is big enough to accommodate them. The standardisation of these simple metal containers in the 1950s and 60s marked a turning point in world trade, driving down costs and ultimately leading to globalisation.

看看你家周围的许多物品，有些可能是从国外通过船运进口的。 通过海上运输货物到世界各地是最简单且最具成本效益的方式。 但使它变得更加实用的是集装箱的发明。 它们并不是最令人惊奇的东西，但由于它们的设计，特别是它们的通用尺寸，这意味着它们可以在任何足够大的港口装载和卸载到大型船只上。 这些简单金属容器在 20 世纪 50 年代和 60 年代的标准化标志着世界贸易的转折点，降低了成本并最终导致全球化。

Inside these versatile metal boxes could be anything from nappies to cars, and they are transported on container ships that ply our seas and oceans. They have been described as 'the monsters of the seas' because of their huge size. The very biggest are almost half a kilometre long and are piled high with more than 20,000, 20-foot-long (6.06m) boxes. In fact, the world's largest, The Port of Rotterdam, has a capacity of 24,346 TEU (Twenty Foot Equivalent Unit) – an exact unit of measurement used to determine cargo capacity for container ships and terminals. With around 5,500 container ships globally, it's incredible to think about the amount of goods being moved around the world.

这些多功能的金属盒子里可以装着从尿布到汽车的任何东西，它们通过往返于我们的海洋的集装箱船运输。 由于体型巨大，它们被称为“海洋怪物”。 最大的箱子几乎有半公里长，堆满了 20,000 多个 20 英尺长（6.06m）的箱子。 事实上，世界上最大的港口鹿特丹港的吞吐量为 24,346 TEU（二十英尺当量单位），这是用于确定集装箱船和码头货运能力的精确测量单位。 全球