The Revolution in Communications
H. L. Beales · 2024
“ The expense of making and maintaining the public roads in any country,” wrote Adam Smith, “must evidently increase with the annual produce of the land and labour of that country, or with the quantity and weight of the goods which it becomes necessary to fetch and carry upon these roads.” The actual road-problem in the eighteenth century was greater than increasing use and costs: it was these complicated by lack of engineering skill, by unwise legislation, and by the defects of local government. River improvement, on which large sums were spent in the first half of the century, had made an important contribution to economic progress, but as the century wore on it became increasingly clear that more was being asked of our means of internal communication than they were designed to bear. Road deterioration became evident, and river transport stayed costly. The economic unification of the country was retarded and the growth of business handicapped.