Transport, already well organised, regular and dependent on professional carriers, was steadily improved. On land better bridges, causeways and tunnels were constantly being built (in 1480 gunpowder was used to improve roads in the Tyrol), while at sea merchants looked for cheaper, faster, safer vessels, and improved port facilities (stone quays, cranes).
On land much was carried by pack animals and some by horse-and ox-carts, the largest of which could carry a ton in weight. Road surfaces were rough, and difficult in winter, but adequate for large amounts of goods to pass. Speed was governed as much by the stamina of men and animals as by the state of the roads. Over long distances land transport was more expensive than sea transport, but the relationship depended on the commodities, and the perceived risks at sea. In the late fourteenth century a Flemish correspondent wrote that dearer cloth could stand land costs to Italy while the cheaper could not; and in the mid-fifteenth century English wool sent overland to Venice was competitive with that sent in galleys.
Insofar as ships were easily adaptable to most cargoes, and commercial shipping was impressed for naval actions, it could be said that medieval ships were unspecialised, but this does not mean that all ships were much the same. In the Mediterranean the two extremes of oared galleys and round sailing ships were employed commercially, and elsewhere there was great variety of type and size. Galleys were effective war-ships, but expensive cargo ships: oars made them more manoeuvrable and added safety and speed, but large numbers of rowers increased costs and cut hold capacity. Commercially, therefore, they worked most profitably on routes with expensive light cargoes, as in the Levant and Black Sea, but still needed state subsidy. In Venice galleys of up to 250 tons burden were built by the state and their operation auctioned annually to merchants; they were also protected through extra tariffs not only on English wool brought overland, but also on cotton carried on competing sailing ships from Syria. The other extreme was to be found in Genoa, whose interests included bulk cargoes, notably alum. At first alum had been shipped from Asia Minor to Flanders on galleys, but soon cheaper sailing ships were used, which allowed other bulk goods — wines, olive oils and dried fruits — to be shipped northwards relatively cheaply. In the fifteenth century Genoa ran some of the largest sailing ships known to the medieval world, the ‘carracks’ which reached 800 to 1,000 tons burden. The essential difference between galleys and carracks is illustrated by Florence’s new mid-fifteenth-century fleet. To obtain steady supplies of wool for its cloth industry, Florence chose the reliability of galleys, but without Levantine cargoes to finance the outward voyage these proved unprofitable. Elsewhere most sea-going vessels were sailing ships, varying in size, hull shape, hull structure, number of masts and rigging. Hansards ran large cogs to carry grain; ships in the Low Countries tended to be small and flatter-bottomed for access to shallow ports; and Iberians developed the caravel. A development common to Atlantic and Mediterranean nations was the three-masted fully rigged ship.
Shipping was a capitalised and professional enterprise. At one extreme, small ships were owned by one man, who might also be the master, but at the other were multiple ship-owners. The best known of these in England was William Canyngs of Bristol. In the 1470s he was said to own nine major vessels ranging from 140 to 900 tons and a ship’s ‘galyot’ of 50 tons, to have 800 men working for him on his ships, and a further 100 as workmen, carpenters and masons. He was not alone; others in Bristol, Dartmouth or London owned several ships, either outright or in shares. Shares (which could be bought, sold, bequeathed and accumulated) were common and could be held as an investment by laymen and women who had no other interest in the sea. To maintain profits, owners ran ships all year round and tried to limit time in port by specifying loading times for those who chartered ships.
Fifteenth-century navigation skills were good. Ocean sailing was regular to Iceland, Madeira, the Azores and Canaries, and open-sea sailing within the Baltic and Mediterranean. Seamen used a boxed ship’s compass, line and hourglass, and sounding lead. Professional pilots were available. Portolan charts were used by Mediterranean sailors, but northern sailors preferred written sea-books or rutters (routiers) which provided the information about tides, currents and soundings necessary in northern seas.