49 History of Inland Transport 



parts " exported, the total value thereof being ^1,502,000 in 

 1909 and ^2,511,000 in 1910. The imports in the same years 

 rose from ^4,218,000 to 5,065,000. It may be assumed that 

 the latter figures relate more particularly to pleasure cars ; 

 though it should be remembered that even on these, as im- 

 ported from France or Germany, additional work may often 

 be done here in the way of body-building or otherwise to 

 the extent of ^200 or so per car. Many allied trades are 

 likewise doing a good business in the supply of accessories. 



Allowing, next, for the employment given to drivers, re- 

 pairers and others, and for the sum total (if it could only be 

 estimated) of the amount distributed annually by motorists 

 among hotel proprietors and town and country tradespeople, 

 the circulation of money that is directly due to motoring and 

 motor-traction must be prodigious. As far back as 1906 it 

 was estimated that motor drivers alone in this country were 

 receiving over ^5,000,000 a year in wages, that the wages 

 paid to men employed in the manufacture of cars and acces- 

 sories amounted to nearly ^10,000,000 a year, and that the 

 total number of drivers and others concerned in motoring was 

 about 230,000. But much has happened since 1906, and if 

 these figures accurately represent the position then, they 

 would have to be greatly increased to represent the position 

 to-day. 



Thus we see that automobilism using the word in its 

 widest application has not only brought about some remark- 

 able changes in our conditions of inland transport and com- 

 munication but is itself rapidly developing into still another 

 of our national industries, even if it should not have done so 

 already. 



Tube railways are an outcome of various attempts to solve 

 a problem in urban transport that more especially applies to 

 London. 



When railways were first brought to the Metropolis the 

 prejudice against them was so strong, and the lack of foresight 

 as to the purpose they would eventually serve was so pro- 

 nounced, that in 1846 limits were set up, on what were then 

 the outskirts of London, within which the lines were not to 

 come. The whole of the central area was to be left free from 

 railways, the view of a Royal Commission which considered 

 the subject in the year stated being that, as the proportion 



