There are 44 landlocked countries. Together they hold a small fraction of world trade, and with a handful of exceptions they are poorer than their coastal neighbours.

That is not a coincidence. Shipping a container by sea costs a fraction of moving it overland, and a country without a port has to buy access from whoever stands between it and the water.

This video explains the mechanics: transit fees, border delays, the leverage a neighbour holds when it owns your only road to a harbour, and what happens politically when that neighbour is hostile. Then it looks at the exceptions: Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg and asks what they have that Chad and Bolivia don't.

We cover:
· What a port really buys a country, in cost per tonne
· Transit dependency: the neighbour who can switch you off
· Bolivia's lost coastline and the navy it still keeps
· Why Switzerland is landlocked and rich anyway

#Geography #Economics #Trade