CANALS. 83 



1883 that " it was not traffic that made communications, but communications 

 that made traffic ; " and an American economist has justly said that " the 

 carriers of freight hold the keys of trade." Proximity to market (to put 

 the same truth in another way) is the economic justification of intensive 

 culture, and every extension or (what amounts to the same thing) every 

 cheapening of good means of communication brings more producers and 

 consumers into profitable trade relations, and this permits of the application 

 or more capital, labour, and skill to the improvement of agricultural and 

 industrial methods. In these days of wideawake competition in a world- 

 market, a slight reduction in freight-charges may make all the difference 

 between success and failure in any industry. It seems important, then, that 

 our transport problems should be studied with a knowledge of the facts of 

 the case at home and abroad, and with due regard to the growing needs 

 and the new possibilities of an industrial revival. Our canal system — if 

 the term " system " can be applied to an unfinished network of waterways 

 of diverse depths and numerous breaks of gauge — is, it is quite true, far 

 from perfect ; but it is equally far from being in the moribund condition 

 which many people seem to imagine. One cannot, of course, read the 

 history of its creation without forming one's own opinion as to the causes 

 of its comparative inefficiency, and also as to some of the obvious remedies ; 

 but it is not my business or intention to touch on these points further than 

 as they arise out of the consideration of the general question of transit on 

 inland waterways. 



(b.) The Economic Functions of Canals and Inlaiid Waterways. 



Rivers, lakes, and inland seas are the first natural highways of commerce 

 New Imoortance and ^"^ intercourse between peoples, and, as everyone 

 n j-i.- knows, they play a most important ro/e in the earlier 



Modern Conditions ^^^^^^ ^^ civilisation. Roads and canals followed as 

 of Transit Facilities, ^j-^g f^j-gt artificial highways, and, finally, with the appli- 

 cation of steam power came the railroad and the steamship.* The evolu- 

 tion of trade had a somewhat parallel development. Originally the pro- 

 ducer — or rather the producing unit, the family — is self-supporting and self- 

 sufficient, consuming in great measure what it itself produces, there being 

 little trade between individuals or groups ; a further stage is reached when 

 with the division of trade or pursuits, exchange of wealth takes place 

 between individuals living in the same locality ; and, finally, comes the 

 period of great specialisation of industry, involving the transportation of 

 commodities from one district, country, and even continent, to another. It 

 is in this latest stage of industrial growth or economic evolution that the 

 question of transportation assumes an importance of the first order. Regu- 

 larity, suitability, and safety of service, speed and cheapness of transport — 

 these are, to-day, determining factors in the industrial struggle between the 

 progressive nations who compete in the great markets of the world. Hovv' 

 recent such facilities of communication are few people fully realise — they 

 are, in effect, the creation of the second half of the nineteenth centur)- 

 Porter, in his Progress of the Nation, written in 1842, makes the follow- 

 ing observations on a Sussex hamlet which is now practically included as a 



* On the 24th Maxch, 1824, it is interesting to note, the first steamer service was established 

 between DubHn and Liverpool, the " City of Dublin " doing the journey in fourteen hours. A 

 week was the average of sailing vessels for the same journey. 



