船运(shipping)
藉由水路输送乘客或货物的行为或商业。早期文明利用水路运输，因水路而兴盛。埃及人或许最早利用船舶（约西元前1500年），腓尼基人、克里特人、希腊人与罗马人全都仰赖水路。在亚洲，中国船舰配备多桅杆及舵，在西元200年左右在海上航行，打从西元前4世纪，中国人就极为仰赖内陆水路运输粮食到各大城市（参阅Grand Canal）。日本多山，无法仰赖陆路从事大量运输，从历史早期就仰赖内陆与沿海的水路从事船运。香料贸易给予船运贸易重大的激励。阿拉伯人在基督教时期之前航行到香料群岛，欧洲船队的出现也是因为香料。茶叶贸易有类似的效果，在新大陆发现黄金亦然。从17世纪到19世纪，黑奴贸易是大西洋船运的特色。美国和英格兰是19世纪最强势的船运国家，德国、挪威、日本、荷兰与法国，在20世纪早期加入。目前船运仍旧是世界经济重要的一环，是越洋运送大宗物资唯一可行的方式。许多美国商船队在第三国注册避免重税。亦请参阅East India Co.、East India Co., Dutch、East India Co., French。
English version：
shipping
Act or business of transporting passengers and goods by water. Early civilizations, which arose by waterways, all utilized them for transport. The Egyptians were probably the first to use seagoing vessels (c. 1500 BC); the Phoenicians, Cretans, Greeks, and Romans also all relied on waterways. In Asia, Chinese ships equipped with multiple masts and a rudder were making sea voyages by c. AD 200; from as early as the 4th century BC the Chinese also relied heavily on internal waterways to transport food to their large cities (see Grand Canal). Japan, too mountainous to rely on roads for mass transport, also relied on internal and coastal waterways for shipping from early in its history. The spice trade was a great stimulus to shipping trade; Arabians were sailing to the spice islands before the Christian era and European merchant marines grew up largely because of it. The tea trade had a similar effect, as did the discovery of gold in the New World. From the 17th to the 19th century, the slave trade was a major feature of Atlantic shipping. The U.S. and England were the ascendant shipping nations in the 19th century; Germany, Norway, Japan, The Netherlands, and France joined them in the early 20th century. Today shipping remains a vital part of the world economy as the only viable way to transport large quantities of goods transoceanically. Many U.S. merchant ships are registered in a third nation to avoid heavy taxes. See also British East India Co., Dutch East India Co., French East India Co.