348 History of Inland Transport 



should try to get more than, in these particular circumstances, 

 such traffic will bear. The amount of the railway rate in such 

 a case as this will, in fact, be determined far more by the ele- 

 ment of sea competition than by any question as to either 

 presumptive cost of service or actual mileage. 



It may well happen that between two other points, in regard 

 to which there is no sea competition, the rates are higher than 

 between two where there is sea competition, although the 

 distance is the same. Here we have the elements of one of 

 those " anomalies " which have often been urged as a reason 

 for equal mileage rates. The inequality in the rates is, however, 

 directly due to the inequality in the conditions. It is not a 

 case of making the no-sea-competition places pay a rate in 

 itself unreasonable ; it is simply a case of charging the sea- 

 competition places no more than they would be likely to pay. 

 There may be an apparent inconsistency ; but an increase in 

 the rates where the sea competition exists would not neces- 

 sarily be of advantage to the trader in the district where there 

 is no such competition, though it might lead to the traffic 

 going by sea, and involve the railway company in a loss of 

 revenue which would not improve their position in giving 

 the best possible terms to the inland trader. Nor could any 

 claim by the latter to be put on the same footing as the trader 

 on the coast, who has the alternative of sea-transport open to 

 him, necessarily be made good. Discrimination of places, 

 in addition to the discrimination of trades, there certainly may 

 be ; but it is a discrimination due essentially to geography and 

 economic laws. 



Other apparent anomalies arise from the fact that where 

 two or more railway companies have lines running to the same 

 destination, the rates charged by each and all of them are, by 

 arrangement between the companies concerned, generally 

 governed by the shortest distance. Here, again, the idea of 

 equal mileage rates is found impracticable. If the rates 

 charged by each of the companies were arbitrarily fixed at 

 so much per ton per mile, the line with the shortest route 

 would naturally get all the traffic. When all charge the same 

 between the same points all of them benefit, and the traders 

 have the advantage of several routes instead of only one ; 

 though there is still the " anomaly " that the trader whose 

 consignment is carried twenty miles, and the trader whose 



