ITS INFLUENCE ON PRICES. 



her soil, the number, the industry, and intelligence of her popu- 

 lation, the products of every description, animal and vegetable, 

 which abound in her territory, yet, from the absence of sufficiently 

 easy means of intercommunication, these advantages have been 

 hitherto almost annihilated. All these productions, in the place 

 where they are raised, can be obtained at a lower price than in 

 most other countries; and yet, in consequence of the cost of 

 transport, they would attain, if brought to the place where they are 

 in demand, a price which would amount to a prohibition on their 

 consumption. From this cause the industry of France has long 

 been to a great extent paralysed. 



10. In some cases the price of an article at the place of consump- 

 tion consists exclusively of the cost of transport. An article has 

 frequently no value in the place where it is found, which never- 

 theless would have a considerable value transported elsewhere. 

 Numerous instances of this will occur in the case of manures used 

 in agriculture. Every reduction, therefore, which can be made in 

 the cost of the transport of these, will tend in a still greater 

 proportion to lower their price to those who use them. 



Cases even occur in which the cost of transport is actually 

 greater than the price paid for an article by the consumer. This, 

 which would seem a paradox, is nevertheless easily explained. 

 An article in a given place may be a nuisance, and its possessor 

 may be willing to pay something for its removal. This article, 

 however, transported to another place, may become eminently 

 useful, and even be the means of stimulating profitable production. 

 The cleansing the common sewers of a city affords a striking 

 example of this. The filth and offal which are removed are a 

 nuisance where they exist, and may even be the cause of pestilence 

 and death. Transported, however, to the fields of the agriculturist, 

 they become the instruments of increased fertility. Cases may be 

 cited where the whole cost of transport will be more than 

 covered by the sum paid for the removal of the nuisance.* 



1 1 . Every improvement in the art of transport having a tendency 

 to diminish cost, and augment speed and safety, operates in a 

 variety of ways to stimulate consumption and production, and 

 thereby advance national wealth and prosperity. When the 

 price of an article in the market of consumption is reduced by this 

 cause, the demand for it is increased : 1st, by enabling former 

 consumers to use it more freely and largely ; and, 2ndly, by 

 placing it within the reach of other classes of consumers who were 

 before compelled to abstain from it by its dearness. The increase of 



* In Aberdeen the streets were swept every day, at an annual cost of 

 1400Z., and the refuse brought in 2000Z. a-year. In Perth the scavenging 

 cost 1300Z. per annum, and the manure sold for 1730J. 



5 



