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PREFATORY NOTE.
PREFATORY NOTE.
Designed as the introductory volume of a series of books—by various writers—dealing with our "National Industries," the present work aims at telling the story of inland transport and communication from the earliest times to the present date, showing, more especially, the effect which the gradual development thereof, in successive stages, and under ever-varying circumstances, has had alike on the growth and expansion of trade and industry and on the general economic and social conditions of the c
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CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY
INTRODUCTORY The gradual improvement, throughout the centuries, of those facilities for internal communication which reached their climax in the creation of the present system of railways has constituted a dominating factor alike in our industrial and in our social advancement as a people. Until transport had provided a ready means alike of collecting raw materials and of distributing food supplies and manufactured articles, industries of the type familiar to us to-day were practically impossibl
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CHAPTER II. BRITAIN'S EARLIEST ROADS
CHAPTER II. BRITAIN'S EARLIEST ROADS
BRITAIN'S EARLIEST ROADS It has been assumed in some quarters that, because the main routes of travel in this country did not have to pass over lofty mountains, as in Austria and Switzerland, therefore the construction of roads here was, or should have been, a comparatively easy matter. But this is far from having been the case, the earliest opening of regular lines of communication by road having been materially influenced by certain physical conditions of the land itself. The original site of
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CHAPTER III. ROADS AND THE CHURCH
CHAPTER III. ROADS AND THE CHURCH
ROADS AND THE CHURCH Following the departure of the Romans, not only road-making but even road-repairing was for several centuries wholly neglected in this country. The Roman roads continued to be used, but successive rulers in troublesome times were too busily engaged in maintaining their own position or in waging wars at home or abroad to attend to such prosaic details as the repairing of roads, and they had, apparently, still less time or opportunity for converting into roads hill-side tracks
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CHAPTER IV. EARLY TRADING CONDITIONS
CHAPTER IV. EARLY TRADING CONDITIONS
EARLY TRADING CONDITIONS Rivers constituted, in the Middle Ages, the most important means of inland transport. Most of our oldest towns or cities that were not on the route of one of the Roman roads were set up alongside or within easy reach of some tidal or navigable stream in order, among other reasons, that full advantage could be taken of the transport facilities the waterways offered. So were monasteries, castles, and baronial halls, while the locating of the universities of Oxford and Camb
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CHAPTER V. EARLY ROAD LEGISLATION
CHAPTER V. EARLY ROAD LEGISLATION
EARLY ROAD LEGISLATION It was in the year A.D. 411 that the Roman legions were withdrawn from Britain, and it was not until 1555, or 1144 years after their departure, that the first general Act was passed, not for the construction, but for the repair of roads in this country. In the meantime such further construction or repairing as was actually done had been left to the Church, to private benevolence, to landowners acting either voluntarily or in accordance with the conditions on which they hel
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CHAPTER VI. EARLY CARRIAGES
CHAPTER VI. EARLY CARRIAGES
EARLY CARRIAGES The carts that succeeded the early British and Roman war chariots, and enabled the villeins and cottars to do the obligatory "cartage" for the lord of the manor, were heavy, lumbering vehicles, with wheels hewn out of solid pieces of wood, and were used for private transport rather than transport for hire. The latter came in with the "wains" or "long waggons" of England's pioneer road carriers. These long waggons, according to Stow, were brought into use about the year 1564, up t
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CHAPTER VII. LOADS, WHEELS AND ROADS
CHAPTER VII. LOADS, WHEELS AND ROADS
LOADS, WHEELS AND ROADS Before dealing more fully with the development of coaches and coaching and of vehicular traffic in general, it will be desirable to revert to the new perplexities which such development brought to those who were concerned with the care of the roads, and see in what way it was endeavoured to meet them. In Macpherson's "Annals of Commerce" the following is given under date 1629 :— "The great increase of the commerce of England of late years very much increased the inland ca
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CHAPTER VIII. THE COACHING ERA
CHAPTER VIII. THE COACHING ERA
THE COACHING ERA Whilst the Legislature had been actively engaged in endeavouring to adapt wheeled vehicles to roads, the number of vehicles of various types using the roads had greatly increased as the result of expanding trade and travel, combined with the further stimulus offered by that system of turnpike roads the story of which will be told in later chapters. The vehicle that first performed in this country the functions of a public coach in transporting a number of passengers from one pla
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CHAPTER IX. THE AGE OF BAD ROADS
CHAPTER IX. THE AGE OF BAD ROADS
THE AGE OF BAD ROADS In the present chapter I propose to bring together the testimony of various contemporary writers with a view to enabling the reader thoroughly to realise those bad-road conditions from which, it was hoped, the country would at last be saved by the introduction of the system of turnpike roads inaugurated by the Act of 1663. Evidence of the general character of English roads at the time the Act was passed, and, also, probably, for a considerable period afterwards, is afforded
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CHAPTER X. THE TURNPIKE SYSTEM
CHAPTER X. THE TURNPIKE SYSTEM
THE TURNPIKE SYSTEM The fundamental principle of the turnpike system was that of transferring the cost of repairing main roads from the parish to the users. The mediæval practice, under which the roads were maintained by religious houses, private benevolence and individual landowners, had, of course, still left the common law obligation that each and every parish should keep in repair the roads within its own particular limits, the Act of Philip and Mary, with its imposition of statute duty, bei
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CHAPTER XI. TRADE AND TRANSPORT IN THE TURNPIKE ERA
CHAPTER XI. TRADE AND TRANSPORT IN THE TURNPIKE ERA
TRADE AND TRANSPORT IN THE TURNPIKE ERA In strong contrast to the vigorous denunciations of Arthur Young of so many, though not all, of the roads over which his extensive journeyings through England had led him, are the statements of other authorities, writing about the same time, as to the commercial and social advantages resulting from such improvements as had been brought about. The conflict of testimony appears inconsistent until one remembers that, bad as were the particular conditions whic
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CHAPTER XII. SCIENTIFIC ROAD-MAKING
CHAPTER XII. SCIENTIFIC ROAD-MAKING
SCIENTIFIC ROAD-MAKING One question which naturally arises in connection with the turnpike roads is, "Why was it, when there was so widespread an organisation of turnpike trusts, and when so much money was being spent on the repair of the roads, that the roads themselves were still so defective, and only relatively better than they had been before?"—this being the real position, notwithstanding the praises bestowed on the turnpike system by those who were gratified with the stimulus given to tra
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CHAPTER XIII. RIVERS AND RIVER TRANSPORT
CHAPTER XIII. RIVERS AND RIVER TRANSPORT
RIVERS AND RIVER TRANSPORT In the earliest days of our history, and for many generations later, navigable rivers exercised a most important, if not a paramount, influence on the settlement of tribes, the location of towns, the development of trade and the social life of the people. They were natural highways, open to all who possessed the means of using them, at a time when men had otherwise still to make roads for themselves; and in a land covered to so great an extent with forest and fen such
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CHAPTER XIV. RIVER IMPROVEMENT AND INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION
CHAPTER XIV. RIVER IMPROVEMENT AND INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION
RIVER IMPROVEMENT AND INDUSTRIAL EXPANSION The earliest legislation applying to navigable rivers referred only to the taking of salmon or to restrictions on weirs and other hindrances to navigation. Regulations in regard to these matters began to be enforced in 1285, and numerous statutes relating more especially to the removal alike of weirs, jetties, mills, mill-dams, etc., causing obstruction to boats, were passed; though in 1370 and subsequently there were complaints that the said statutes w
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CHAPTER XV. DISADVANTAGES OF RIVER NAVIGATION
CHAPTER XV. DISADVANTAGES OF RIVER NAVIGATION
DISADVANTAGES OF RIVER NAVIGATION It will have been assumed, from the two preceding chapters, that rivers, whether naturally navigable or rendered navigable by art, were of material service in supplementing defective roads, in opening up to communication parts of the country that would then otherwise have remained isolated, and in aiding the development of some of the greatest of our national industries. While this assumption is well founded, yet, as time went on, the unsatisfactory nature of mu
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CHAPTER XVI. THE CANAL ERA
CHAPTER XVI. THE CANAL ERA
THE CANAL ERA The initiation, in the middle of the eighteenth century, of the British Canal Era was primarily due, not to any examples in canal construction already offered by the ancients, by the Chinese and other Eastern nations, or by Continental countries, but to a natural transition from certain forms of river improvement already carried out in England. I have shown, on page 131 , that when, in 1661, Sir William Sandys obtained his Act for making the Wye and the Lugg navigable, he secured p
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CHAPTER XVII. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
CHAPTER XVII. THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION Contemporaneously with the canal period in England came an industrial revolution which was to place this country—hitherto distinctly backward in the development of its industries—at the head of manufacturing nations, but was, also, to show that, however great the advantages conferred by canals, as compared both with rivers and with roads, even canals were inadequate to meet the full and ever-expanding requirements of trade and transport. The main causes of this industri
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CHAPTER XVIII. EVOLUTION OF THE RAILWAY
CHAPTER XVIII. EVOLUTION OF THE RAILWAY
EVOLUTION OF THE RAILWAY The early history of the railway is the early history of the English coal trade. Down to the sixteenth century the fuel supply of the country alike for manufacturing and for domestic purposes was derived almost exclusively from those forests and peat-beds that once covered so large a portion of the area of the British Isles. Coal was not unknown, though it was then called "sea-coal," a name distinguishing coal from charcoal, and given to it because the fact of the earlie
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CHAPTER XIX. THE RAILWAY ERA
CHAPTER XIX. THE RAILWAY ERA
THE RAILWAY ERA Between 1801 and 1825 no fewer than twenty-nine "iron railways" were either opened or begun in various parts of Great Britain. The full list is given by John Francis in his "History of the English Railway." It shows, as Francis points out, that from Plymouth to Glasgow, and from Carnarvon to Surrey, "there was scarcely a county where some form of the railway was not used." Most of these new railways were, however, still operated in conjunction with collieries or ironworks and can
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CHAPTER XX. RAILWAY EXPANSION
CHAPTER XX. RAILWAY EXPANSION
RAILWAY EXPANSION The monopolist tendencies of the waterway interests, the magnitude of the profits secured, and the resort by traders to the building of railways as an alternative thereto and as a means of meeting the transport requirements of expanding industries, were factors in the development of the railway system that operated as direct causes in the construction of other lines besides the Liverpool and Manchester. From these particular points of view the story of the Leicester and Swannin
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CHAPTER XXI. RAILWAYS AND THE STATE
CHAPTER XXI. RAILWAYS AND THE STATE
RAILWAYS AND THE STATE From the earliest moment of there being any prospect of railways, operated by locomotives in place of animal power, coming into general use, the attitude of the State towards their promoters was one less of sympathy than of distrust; and this distrust was directly due to the experience the country had already had of the waterway interests, whose merciless exactions and huge dividends had led to the fear that if the railway companies, in turn, were to get a monopoly of the
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CHAPTER XXII. DECLINE OF CANALS
CHAPTER XXII. DECLINE OF CANALS
DECLINE OF CANALS Considering that, in spite of the unreasonableness, the exactions and the large profits of many of the canal companies in the later days of their prosperous monopoly, the canals themselves had rendered such invaluable service to the trade, commerce and industry of the country, the question may well have arisen why they were not allowed, or enabled to a greater extent than was actually the case, to continue their career of usefulness. There has, indeed, for some years been in th
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CHAPTER XXIII. DECLINE OF TURNPIKES
CHAPTER XXIII. DECLINE OF TURNPIKES
DECLINE OF TURNPIKES The inherent defects of the turnpike system must in themselves have been fatal to its permanent continuance, irrespective of the influence of the railways, which did not kill the turnpikes so much as merely give them the coup de grace . No one can deny the adequacy of the time that Parliament had devoted to the kindred subjects of roads and waggons. By 1838—and only a few years, therefore, later than the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway—Parliament had passed n
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CHAPTER XXIV. END OF THE COACHING ERA
CHAPTER XXIV. END OF THE COACHING ERA
END OF THE COACHING ERA What are known as the "palmy days" of the coaching era began about the year 1820, and lasted until 1836. By 1820 the improvements in road-making of Telford and McAdam had led to quicker travelling and the running of far more coaches, at greater speeds, than had previously been the case. By 1836 it was evident that coaching had reached the climax of its popularity, and could not hope to maintain its position against the competition of the railways which were spreading so r
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CHAPTER XXV. RAILWAY RATES AND CHARGES
CHAPTER XXV. RAILWAY RATES AND CHARGES
RAILWAY RATES AND CHARGES The combined result of (1) a vast increase in industrial production; (2) the decline in river, canal and road transport; and (3) the various conditions which checked competition on and between the railways was to increase greatly the need for transportation facilities, and to make traders and the public in general more and more dependent on the one means of consignment and locomotion thus so rapidly becoming paramount. Coupled with the many technical details which, as p
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CHAPTER XXVI. THE RAILWAY SYSTEM TO-DAY
CHAPTER XXVI. THE RAILWAY SYSTEM TO-DAY
THE RAILWAY SYSTEM TO-DAY Whatever the difficulties which have attended the development of British railways, the lines themselves have been spread throughout the three kingdoms to such an extent that there are now very few districts not within easy reach of a railway; while though the different lines are still owned by, altogether, a considerable number of companies, the physical connections between them and the arrangements of the leading companies, not only for through bookings but for through
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CHAPTER XXVII. WHAT THE RAILWAYS HAVE DONE
CHAPTER XXVII. WHAT THE RAILWAYS HAVE DONE
WHAT THE RAILWAYS HAVE DONE To say that the railways have revolutionised trade and industries would be simply to repeat one of the commonplaces of modern economic history. Taking the general statement for granted, I would invite the reader to look a little more closely at some of the actual results that railways have, or have not, brought about. In the first place it would be going too far to say that the Railway Age inaugurated the Industrial Era. The invention of, or the improvements in, machi
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CHAPTER XXVIII. RAILWAYS A NATIONAL INDUSTRY
CHAPTER XXVIII. RAILWAYS A NATIONAL INDUSTRY
RAILWAYS A NATIONAL INDUSTRY Having seen the part that railways have played in helping to develop the industrial interests of the country in general, we may now consider (1) to what extent the railways themselves constitute a national industry, and (2) various conditions relating thereto. The latest available statistics as to the number of all classes of railway servants connected with the working of railways, and including, as I understand, both salaried and wages staffs with the exception of h
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CHAPTER XXIX. TRAMWAYS, MOTOR-BUSES AND RAILLESS ELECTRIC TRACTION
CHAPTER XXIX. TRAMWAYS, MOTOR-BUSES AND RAILLESS ELECTRIC TRACTION
TRAMWAYS, MOTOR-BUSES AND RAILLESS ELECTRIC TRACTION In previous chapters I have shown that the first great highway for the citizens of London passing from one part of the capital to another was the River Thames; that the livelihood of the watermen became imperilled by the competition successively of private carriages, hackney coaches, and cabriolets, or "cabs"; and that these, in turn, had afterwards to face the competition of omnibuses. A still further development, leading to competition with
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CHAPTER XXX. CYCLES, MOTOR-VEHICLES AND TUBES
CHAPTER XXX. CYCLES, MOTOR-VEHICLES AND TUBES
CYCLES, MOTOR-VEHICLES AND TUBES In addition to the developments in locomotion spoken of in the previous chapter, there have been various others to which reference should be made. The principle of a manu-motive machine, furnished with wheels, by means of which an individual could propel himself along a road with greater speed and less exertion than in walking, goes back to the very earliest days of human history, evidences of an attempt to adapt such principle having come down to us from the tim
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CHAPTER XXXI. THE OUTLOOK
CHAPTER XXXI. THE OUTLOOK
THE OUTLOOK Having now traced the important part that improvements in the conditions of inland transport and communication have played in the economic and social development of this country, and having seen, also, the action taken therein, on the one hand by so-called "private enterprise" (defined by Samuel Smiles as "the liberality, public spirit and commercial enterprise of merchants, traders and manufacturers"), and on the other hand by State and local authorities, we have now to consider, in
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AUTHORITIES.
AUTHORITIES.
The following books, pamphlets, and reports have, among others, been consulted in the preparation of the present work: "A Cursory View of the Advantages of an Intended Canal from Chesterfield to Gainsborough" (1769). Adams, William Bridges: "Practical Remarks on Railways" (1854). "A History of Ten Years of Automobilism, 1896-1906," edited by Lord Montagu (1906). Aikin, J., M.D. : "A Description of the Country from Thirty to Forty Miles round Manchester" (1795). Allnutt, Zachariah: "Useful and Co
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