39 History of Inland Transport 



the exact quantities of timber or the precise number of bricks 

 he wants for the particular work, or for a certain stage of 

 the work, on which he is engaged. The coal merchant orders 

 forward from day to day, or at intervals according to the state 

 of business, only the particular quantities of coal he requires 

 for present or prospective early needs, since the railway 

 arrangements generally render it unnecessary for him to 

 provide for more than a few days' supply at a time. So it goes 

 on through almost every department of present-day trade. 



The advantages for the trader himself are enormous, and the 

 railways have encouraged him in the tendency here in question 

 by giving, for 2-ton or 4-ton lots, minimum special or ex- 

 ceptional rates which on the State railways of the Continent 

 would be available only for 5-ton, lo-ton or still higher 

 quantities. Yet when a trader has delivery made to him in 

 several consignments rather than one, it is evident that, 

 whatever the convenience to himself, the company must do 

 more work for their money and incur the risk, also, of having 

 to run two or more partly-filled waggons on separate days 

 in place, it may be, of one full one. Hence a further problem 

 in the railway world of recent years has been how to adjust 

 traffic arrangements to commercial conditions based on the 

 now established requirements of the British trader for small 

 consignments at frequent intervals, and yet secure for the 

 railways themselves the advantage of economical loading. 

 Much has been done in this direction by the leading companies 

 in the setting up of transhipping depots and otherwise, and 

 substantial economies have been effected thereby. 



Another respect in which railway facilities have influenced 

 the course of trade lies in the fact that the large warehouses, 

 provided by the railway companies at certain of their goods 

 depots enable a large number of merchants, agents or other 

 traders to dispense with warehouses of their own and carry on 

 their business from a city office, whence they send their 

 instructions to the railway companies as to the destination 

 of particular consignments when these are to be despatched to 

 the purchaser. The railway companies are thus relied on to 

 (i) collect the goods, (2) load them into the railway waggons, 

 (3) transport them from one town to another, (4) unload them, 

 (5) remove them to the railway warehouse, (6) store them 

 there until they are wanted, (7) pick out, as and when required, 



