

ENGLAND 



2915 



ENGLAND 



The main English rlys. radi- 

 ate from London. The L. & Y. 

 and the N. Staffordshire Rlys. are 

 the two principal lines not based 

 upon London. The L.N.E. lily, 

 forms an integral part of the E. 

 coast route from London to Scot 

 land. The lure of London traffic 

 caused the Manchester, Sheffield, 

 and Lincolnshire Rly. to become 

 +,ho Great Central Rly., with a 

 Ijondon terminus at Marylebone. 

 Although London has profoundly 

 influenced the railway system, it 

 has not overwhelmed provincial 

 traffic even outside the textile 

 area of Lancashire and Yorkshire, 

 for the ports of Bristol and South- 

 ampton are well served, especially 

 from the Midlands. A new group 

 ing system came into force in 1923 

 (See Railways.) 



Canals and Roads 



During the later 19th century 

 the several rly. companies com- 

 peted vigorously for traffic, but 

 later the stringent economy in 

 rolling-stock and personnel added 

 to the ever-mounting cost per 

 passenger- or per ton-mile. The 

 gradual electrification of the rly. 

 service is of great importance. 



English barge canals have been 

 subordinated, by rly. competition, 

 mainly to the slow carriage at low 

 cost of heavy, bulky, and non- 

 perishable commodities. The canal 

 map shows roughly four main 

 canal routes radiating from the 

 Midlands to the Mersey, Humber, 

 Thames, and Severn estuaries. 

 These routes, at present, suffer 

 from differences of section, i.e. 

 width and depth of water, which 

 limit the carrying capacity of 

 " through " boats. 



The only ship canal of import- 

 ance has made Manchester a port 

 and has brought ocean steamers 

 some 30 m. inland, almost to the 

 doors of the cotton factories. 



The main roads, roughly a dozen, 

 radiate from London to all points 

 of the compass ; but Leeds, Man- 

 chester, Chester, Birmingham, and 

 Gloucester are also road centres. 

 There are two great routes which 

 do not touch London ; from 

 Sheffield through Birmingham, 

 Gloucester, Bristol, and Exeter to 

 Land's End, and from Chester 

 through Shrewsbury and Hereford 

 to Gloucester. The minor hills do 

 not affect the roads, but the Pen- 

 nines are only crossed by four 

 main roads, through the Tyne and 

 Aire Gaps, over Blackstone Edge 

 to Manchester, and by Buxton from 

 Manchester to Derby. Road de- 

 velopment will, however, follow 

 the demand for improved surfaces, 

 w/der and straighter roads, and 

 better cross connexions between 

 one and another. 



The exchange of commodities 

 within England and between Eng- 

 land and other portions of the 

 U.K. constitutes the home trade. 

 The geological division of the 

 country into an area of new rocks 

 in the S.E. separated by the oolite 

 ridges from the older rocks of the 

 W. and N. corresponds roughly to 

 a division into an agricultural S.E. 

 and an industrial Midlands and 

 N., and has definitely localised 

 many occupations. The specialised 

 local products are interchanged ; 

 London coal is brought by rly. to 

 the area N. of the Thames, a.nd by 

 sea for that S. of the river ; the tex- 

 tiles warehoused and retailed in 

 the metropolis are brought by 

 train from Lancashire and York- 

 shire ; jams, metal products, 

 luxury commodities of all kinds 

 are distributed from London. 



Burton beer, Stoke crockery, 

 Northampton boots, Leeds ready- 

 made clothing, Yarmouth fish, 

 Scilly Isles flowers, Reading bis- 

 cuits, Bristol tobacco, Nottingham 

 curtains, are a few articles of home 

 trade. Welsh mutton, Irish butter, 

 Scottish oatmeal, Belfast and Dun- 

 dee linens, Swansea tinplate, Isle 

 of Man fish, Channel Islands po- 

 tatoes and tomatoes increase its 

 total volume. In addition to long- 

 distance trade each urban centre 

 is a market attracting a consider- 

 able traffic in foodstuffs. 



The Market of the World 



England is probably the greatest 

 market in the world. The world- 

 price of wheat, for example, is 

 affected by the price which im- 

 ported wheat fetches in England. 

 The desire to supply England has 

 brought about cold storage for 

 mutton and beef, perishable fruits, 

 etc., and has caused great develop- 

 ments in canning, drying, or pre- 

 serving foodstuffs. Wheat is 

 harvested, and fruits are picked 

 somewhere in the world every week, 

 and consequently the world can 

 send to England a continuous 

 stream of foodstuffs ; the products 

 of the S. hemisphere, wheat, mut- 

 ton, beef, butter, fruits, etc., are 

 at their best when the supplies of 

 the N. begin to fail. In addition 

 to these supplements to home 

 supplies, tea, coffee, rice, etc., are 

 imported. 



But England is a market for raw 

 materials as well as foodstuffs. The 

 prices of raw cotton and raw wool 

 are affected by the English demand. 

 Iron ore in distant parts of the 

 world could be mined cheaply if it 

 could be utilised locally, but it is 

 undisturbed because the price in 

 the English market will not yield a 

 profit after freights and mining ex- 

 penses are met. Copper, tin, lead, 

 zinc, manganese, either smelted or 



as ores, are all largely imported. 

 England also obtains large quanti- 

 ties of semi-manufactured articles, 

 chiefly for textile and metal trades. 



Finally, England buys the 

 specialities of other lands : Parisian 

 finery, American motor-cars, and, 

 before the war, German pianos, 

 chemicals, etc. England pays for 

 these imports by the services of the 

 merchant shipping, of the technical 

 experts lent to other lands, and by 

 the export of coal and English 

 manufactures. English textiles are 

 sent over the whole world, English 

 machinery and metal goods cover 

 almost as wide an area. Except for 

 the coal most of the exports repre- 

 sent English labour much more 

 than English material. On a broad 

 view, therefore, England's over- 

 seas trade consists in the receipt of 

 food supplies which are paid for 

 almost entirely by the sale to the 

 rest of the world of English 

 technical skill, i.e. human labour 

 exerted through machinery. 

 Seaports of England 



London and Liverpool rank 

 among the greatest seaports of the 

 world. They are approximately 

 equal in total value of trade in 

 normal times, but London has an 

 excess of imports, in the ratio of 2 

 to 1, over exports, while at Liver- 

 pool exports and imports balance. 

 They are each responsible for a 

 third of the overseas trade of Eng- 

 land. Hull, Manchester, and 

 Southampton are the chief of the 

 smaller ports ; their imports ex- 

 ceed their exports. Grimsby, New- 

 castle, and Goole have exports and 

 imports to balance. Bristol, Har- 

 wich, Newhaven, Dover, and Folke- 

 stone are characterised by an over- 

 whelming excess, about four times 

 as valuable, of imports. 



The above facts refer to pre-war 

 conditions. During that critical 

 period Harwich, Dover, Newhaven, 

 and, to some extent, Southampton, 

 were closed, and Falmouth rose to 

 considerable importance by being 

 used to a large extent instead of 

 London. Similarly Newcastle was 

 used hi preference to Hull. 



B. C. Wallis 



CONSTITUTION AND GOVERN- 

 MENT. The system of government 

 which for centuries served to regu- 

 late the affairs of England has been 

 extended to deal with those of the 

 other three parts of the United 

 Kingdom, and to some extent with 

 those of the British possessions 

 throughout the world. The result 

 is a system unsound theoretically, 

 bewildering and confused historic- 

 ally, but from the practical point 

 of view workable, and on the whole 

 satisfactory. Fortunately there is 

 one fixed point amid the confusion 

 the British monarchy. 



