Trade and Transport in the Turnpike Era 87 



cheaper than before the roads were amended by turnpikes." 

 He proceeds to give a number of examples of such reductions 

 in freight, among them being the following : 



" From Birmingham to London it is said there is not less 

 than 25 or 30 waggons sent weekly ; ys. per hundred was 

 formerly paid, the price now paid is from 3 to 43. per hundred. 



" From Portsmouth to London the common price was 73. 

 per hundred, the Government paid so in Queen Anne's war, 

 and now only 4 to 53. per hundred is paid ; and in the late 

 war arms and warlike stores for his Majesty's service were 

 carried at the rate of 4 or 53. per hundred. 



" From Exeter to London, and from other towns in the 

 west of like distance the carriage of wool and other goods is 

 very great, especially in times of war. 123. per hundred was 

 formerly paid, now only 8s. per hundred. The same can be 

 affirmed with respect to Bristol, Gloucester and the adjacent 

 counties." 



While the traders and the consumers were, presumably, 

 both benefiting from these reduced charges, the carriers also 

 gained, by reason of the greater loads they were able to take 

 with the same number of horses. On this point the writer 

 says : " The roads in general were formerly so bad and deep, 

 so full of holes and sloughs that a team of horses could scarce 

 draw from any place of 60 miles distant, or upwards, above 

 30 hundred weight of goods ; whereas the same team can now 

 draw with more ease 50 or 60 hundred." On the other hand 

 he did not overlook the fact that the keeping up of the turnpike 

 roads was " a prodigious expense to the nation," so that, 

 in his opinion, the reduction in transport charges was only 

 " a seeming alleviation " of the general burden. 



At the time Defoe made his tour of England the turnpike 

 system was still in its infancy ; but he is very eulogistic over 

 the improvements then already made. 



Having, as already mentioned on p. 65, described the roads 

 from London to the North across the clay-belt of the Midlands, 

 Defoe tells how " turnpikes or toll-bars " had been set up on 

 " several great roads of England, beginning at London, and 

 proceeding through almost all those dirty deep roads " in 

 the midland counties especially, " At which Turn-pikes all 

 Carriages, Droves of Cattle and Travellers on Horse-back are 

 obliged to pay an easy Toll ; that is to say, a Horse a Penny, 



