The three centuries preceding the 19th-century industrialization are characterized by great growth in long-distance trade. This expansion of trade would not have been possible without a specific European “invention”—an early modern sailing ship, which made truly global trade possible. While it is impossible to deny the overall expansion of shipping between 1500 and 1800, historians do not agree on the factors of the expansion. Was there a transport revolution in shipping, a productivity growth and decline in transport costs, or were the causes of the trade growth primarily related to shifts in supply and demand in Eurasia? If there is a measurable productivity growth in shipping, is it an outcome of institutional innovation, as e.g. Douglass C. North stated, or is the technical development (hull design, rigging, sheathing, navigation skills, etc.) the key? As many historians pointed out, there is little evidence in measurable decline in transport costs and total productivity of shipping before the 19th century, i.e. before the breakthrough of steam and steel. Studying the role of Scandinavian fleets in the period 1500–1800 provides an enlightening illustration of how merchant fleets expanded without a significant change in shipping techniques and what role the institutional framework, transport demand and international situation played.