LOCOMOTION AND TRANSPORT. 



become profitable in the port from which they sailed, and which 

 they could not have brought with profit unless aided by the 

 expedient just mentioned. 



20. Important as are improvements in the transport of the pro- 

 ducts of industry, they are less so than those which facilitate the 

 transport of persons. Here speed becomes of paramount importance. 

 In the case of the products of industry, the time of the transport 

 is represented only by the interest on the cost of production of the 

 article transmitted. 



In the case of the transport of persons, the time of transport is 

 represented by the value of the labour of the travellers, and their 

 expenses on the road ; and as travellers in general belong to the 

 superior and more intelligent classes their time is proportionally 

 valuable. 



21. When cheapness can be sufficiently combined with speed, 

 considerable advantage is gained by the operative classes. 



The demand for labour in the several great centres of population 

 varies from time to time, sometimes exceeding, and sometimes 

 falling short of the supply. In the latter case, the operative 

 having little other capital save his bodily strength, is reduced to 

 extreme distress, nay, often even to mendicancy. 



In the former case, the producer is compelled to pay an excessive 

 rate of wages, which falls disadvantageously on the articles pro- 

 duced, in the shape of an undue increase of price, and thereby 

 checks consumption. But although the equilibrium between supply 

 and demand in the labour market is liable to be thus deranged, it 

 rarely or never happens that it is subject to the same derangement 

 in all the centres of population. Supply is never in excess every- 

 where at once, nor is it in all places at once deficient. Improve- 

 ments in transport, which will render travelling cheap, easy, and 

 expeditious, so as to bring it within the means of the thrifty and 

 industrious operative, will enable labour to shift its place and seek 

 those markets in which the demand is greatest. Thus, the places 

 where the supply is in excess will be relieved, and those where the 

 demand is in excess will be supplied. 



22. The extent of soil by which great cities are supplied with 

 perishable articles of food, is necessarily limited by the speed of 

 transport. A ring of country immediately about a great capital, is 

 occupied by market gardens and other establishments for supplying 

 the vast population collected in the city with their commodities. 

 The width of this ring will be determined by the speed with whici 

 the articles in question can be transported. It cannot exceed such a 

 breadth as will enable the products raised at its .extreme limit to 

 reach the centre in such a time as may be compatible with their 

 fitness for use. 



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