The Canal Era 183 



no doubt, was rolled out with great effect in the discussions 

 that took place. 



The discovery, however, that canals were likely to be not 

 only exceedingly useful but a profitable form of investment 

 was quite sufficient to overcome all scruples, and even to 

 give rise, in 1791-4, to a " canal mania " which was a prelude 

 to the still greater " railway mania " of 1845-6. In the four 

 years in question no fewer than eighty-one canal and naviga- 

 tion Acts were passed. 



So great had the eagerness of the public to invest in canal 

 shares become that when, in 1790, the promoters of the 

 Ellesmere Canal held their first meeting, the shares for which 

 application was made were four times greater than the number 

 to be issued. In 1792, when a meeting was held at Rochdale 

 to consider the proposed construction of the Rochdale Canal, 

 60,000 was subscribed in an hour. In August, 1792, Leicester 

 Canal shares were selling at 155, Coventry Canal shares at 

 350, Grand Trunks at the same figure, and Birmingham and 

 Fazley shares at 1170. At a sale of canal shares in October, 

 1792, the prices realised included Trent navigation, 175 

 guineas per share ; Soar Canal (Leicestershire) 765 gs. ; 

 Erewash Canal, 642 gs. ; Oxford Canal, 156 gs. ; Cromford 

 Canal, 130 gs. ; Leicester Canal, 175 gs., and ten shares in 

 the Grand Junction Canal (of which not a single sod had 

 then been cut) at 355 gs. premium for the ten. 



The spirit of speculation thus developed led to the making 

 of a number of canals which had no real prospect of remunera- 

 tive business, were commercial failures from the start, and 

 involved the ruin of many investors. Canals of this type are 

 still to be found in the country to-day picturesque derelicts 

 which some persons think the State should acquire and put 

 in order again because it is " such a pity " they are not made 

 use of. 



Dealing with the general position as it was in 1803, Phillips 

 wrote in his " General History of Inland Navigation " (4th 

 edition) : " Since the year 1758 no less than 165 Acts of 

 Parliament have received the royal assent for cutting, alter- 

 ing, amending, etc., canals in Great Britain, at the expense 

 of 13,008,199, the whole subscribed by private individuals ; 

 the length of ground which they employ is 2896^ miles. . . . 

 Of these Acts 90 are on account of collieries opened in their 



