THE TRADE OF PLYMOUTH. 387 
the world by land is from west to east, whilst the rivers which 
have hollowed out the deep valleys, and have indeed formed our 
harbour, depositing the mud for our best anchorage in the process, 
run from the hills north to south. Railways therefore cannot 
run along the valleys to us, but must be taken across them. They - 
cannot be constructed so that the course of a valley would offer 
facilities to a line, but they must be conducted across numerous 
valleys which form obstructions. We must content ourselves with 
the reflection that the same natural forces which have formed for 
us our harbour, and given us access seaward, have also formed 
obstacles to our access landward. The two railway companies 
which have at last carried their competing lines to Plymouth, in a 
timid, hesitating, roundabout sort of fashion, looking, it would 
seem, anywhere for their traffic except where only it is to be 
found—that is, where the harbour, the population, and the enter- 
prise are—have attempted to go round the hilly districts without 
succeeding in avoiding the hills, and our trade is thus limited to 
their limited capacity for carrying it. 
The trade of Plymouth and its industries would no doubt have 
been enormously developed beyond their present condition, if rail- 
way communication had been supplied at all adequate to the 
requirements of the port when it was supplied to other districts 
more favoured by railway companies. In some cases the advent of 
a railway has been the cause of unexpected prosperity. In the 
case of Plymouth, the natural advantages of the port have com- 
pelled, as if reluctantly, a laggard railway communication to be 
slowly projected by two great companies, who seem to have been 
competing with one another how best to avoid the obligation of 
carrying the traffic of a magnificent harbour, with a population of 
150,000. ‘To view the splendid harbour from the Hoe, and to 
walk from there to the railway station, is a descent indeed from 
pride to humiliation. 
Such is the condition, as I have described it, of the communica- 
tions between Plymouth and the outer world, by sea and by land, 
on which its trade and its industries depend. 
The trade of Plymouth to be well understood, like everything 
else, must be analysed and examined in detail; and I hope the 
process will not prove a very tedious one. The trade of Plymouth 
therefore for this purpose may be divided into, 
lst. Import trade. 
