1756
Page 6 of 23.
Introduction page ii.
cheap, free, and easy. Hereby the heavy Burden, which Land-carriage lays upon many of the Necessaries of Lufe, may be prevented, more especially on heavy Goods, such as Corn, Salt, Coals, &c. and upon all the Materials of Manufactures, such as Ores, Metals, Cotton, Hemp, Flax, Wool, Oils, Dying-wares, &c. together with Materials for Building, such as Stones, Bricks, Tiles, Lime, and Timber, and also upon all manufactured Goods, either for ourown Use or for Exportation, all Groceries, Ironmongeries, Wrought-utensils, Hops, Wines, and many other Articles, too tedious to mention, that are oppressed with the Expence of Land-carriage; such Things will find a greater Demand, and a larger Consumption, when this Inconvenience is removed.
Moreover, when the Carriage of Goods is rendered much cheaper in any particular District than it was before, there is not only an Increase of all the Articles formerly brought to that Place to be consumed, together with an Increase of all the Articles there raised or manufactured; but also there is an Addition of many Articles on both Sides, which were never thought of before, and could never have been interchanged, had it not been for this Cheapness or Reduction of the Price of Carriage: So that, in fact, every new Method of Communication, if cheaper and easier than the former, is the opening of a New Trade, and the giving a still further Progress to Human Industry.
What is it that has made the United provinces the Grand Mart for the Continent of Europe? What has more apparently contributed to raise them to almost the highest Pitch, as a trading People, than those numerous Canals and Inland navigations by which they do not only convey all Kinds of Merchandise and Manufactures from Town to Town within themselves, but, by opening a Communication to many large Rivers, extend their Commerce to most of the Chief Cities and Countries in Europe?
The French, (as I am informed) being sensible of this Advantage, have of late greatly increased their Inland Navigations, and are still giving all possible Encouragement to Undertakings of this Nature.
Sir William Petty computes that the Charge of Land-carriage in England amounts to 300,000l. per Annum; and I think he might have fixed it still much higher. Hence the great Benefit of Inland Navigations evidently appears, and the Increase of them is not only advantageous to particular Places or Individuals, but may be accounted National also. And,
