488 History of Inland Transport 



For many years the crippling effect of legislative restrictions 

 greatly checked the development of motor-car construction 

 in this country. The Act of 1896 gave a stimulus to the 

 building of pleasure cars, but French and German makers 

 had the advantage until British manufacturers showed they 

 could produce cars which would bear comparison with the 

 foreign importations. 



Real expansion of the home industry came with the Heavy 

 Motor-car Order of 1904, although even then no great degree 

 of progress followed immediately thereon. Traders generally 

 were reluctant to acquire commercial motors for themselves 

 until the success of the new vehicles had been assured, and 

 some early failures, due to faulty construction, gave commercial 

 motors a bad name at the start. With the adoption of im- 

 proved methods, their utility was fully established, and the 

 expansion of the industry during the last four or five years 

 has been remarkable in the extreme. 



British manufacturers had already gained a world-wide 

 reputation for their steam road-vehicles (traction engines), 

 and they readily adapted their plant, etc., to the building of 

 the best type of commercial motors when the initial difficulties 

 had been overcome. While, therefore, French and German 

 makers were still sending their pleasure motors to this country, 

 British producers of commercial motors kept this branch of 

 the industry in their own hands, the position to-day being 

 that practically all the public service and commercial motors 

 used in this country are British-made. The main if not the 

 only chance here for foreign vehicles of these types is when 

 the British makers cannot execute orders promptly enough to 

 meet requirements. 



In point of fact the orders coming to hand far exceed the 

 present productive capacity of some of our manufacturers, 

 who, in addition to seeking to supply the home market, are 

 now sending British-made commercial motors to almost 

 every country in the world. I am assured, by an authority 

 in a position to know, that certain of the English and Scotch 

 manufacturers specialising in commercial motors had so many 

 orders on hand in October, 1911, that unless they increased 

 their premises, and laid down fresh machinery, they would 

 be unable to execute any more until the end of 1912. 



Much enlargement or rebuilding of works is already pro- 



