The conclusion at which I arrive in regard to the Birmingham Canal system is that it cannot be directly included in any scheme of cross-country waterways from river to river; that by reason alike of elevation, water supply, and the existence of a vast amount of valuable property immediately alongside, any general widening of the present system of canals in the district is altogether impracticable; that, within the scope of their unavoidable limitations, those particular canals already afford every reasonable facility to the real requirements of the local traders; that, instead of their having been "strangled" by the railways, they have been kept alive and in operation solely and entirely because of the heavy expenditure upon them by the London and North-Western Railway Company, following on conditions which must inevitably have led to collapse (with serious disadvantages to the traders dependent on them for transport) if the control had remained with an independent but impoverished canal company; and that very little, if anything, more—with due regard both for what is practical, and for the avoidance of any waste of public money—could be done than is already being done, even if State or municipal authorities made the costly experiment of trying what they could do for them with their own 'prentice hands.
CHAPTER VI
THE TRANSITION IN TRADE
Of the various causes which have operated to bring about the comparative decay of the British canal system (for, as already shown, there are sections that still retain a certain amount of vitality), the most important are to be found in the great changes that have taken place in the general conditions of trade, manufacture and commerce.
The tendency in almost every branch of business to-day is for the trader to have small, or comparatively small, stocks of any particular commodity, which he can replenish speedily at frequent intervals as occasion requires. The advantages are obvious. A smaller amount of capital is locked up in any one article; a larger variety of goods can be dealt in; less accommodation is required for storage; and men with limited means can enter on businesses which otherwise could be undertaken only by individuals or companies possessed of considerable resources. If a draper or a grocer at Plymouth finds one afternoon that he has run short of a particular article, he need only telegraph to the wholesale house with which he deals in London, and a fresh supply will be delivered to him the following morning. A trader in London who wanted something from Dublin, and telegraphed for it one day, would expect as a matter of course to have it the next. What, again, would a London shopkeeper be likely to say if, wanting to replenish his limited stock with some Birmingham goods, he was informed by the manufacturer:—"We are in receipt of your esteemed order, and are sending the goods on by canal. You may hope to get them in about a week"?
With a little wider margin in the matter of delivery, the same principle applies to those trading in, or requiring, raw materials—coal, steel, ironstone, bricks, and so on. Merchants, manufacturers, and builders are no more anxious than the average shopkeeper to keep on hand stocks unnecessarily large, and to have so much money lying idle. They calculate the length of time that will be required to get in more supplies when likely to be wanted, and they work their business accordingly.
From this point of view the railway is far superior to the canal in two respects, at least.
First, there is the question of speed. The value of this factor was well recognised so far back as 1825, when, as I have told on page [25], Mr Sandars related how speed and certainty of delivery were regarded as "of the first importance," and constituted one of the leading reasons for the desired introduction of railways. But speed and certainty of delivery become absolutely essential when the margin in regard to supplies on hand is habitually kept to a working minimum. The saving in freight effected as between, on the one hand, waiting at least several days, if not a full week, for goods by canal boat, and, on the other, receiving them the following day by train, may be more than swallowed up by the loss of profit or the loss of business in consequence of the delay. If the railway transport be a little more costly than the canal transport, the difference should be fully counterbalanced by the possibility of a more rapid turnover, as well as the other advantages of which I have spoken.
In cases, again, where it is not a matter of quickly replenishing stocks but of effecting prompt delivery even of bulky goods, time may be all-important. This fact is well illustrated in a contribution, from Birmingham, published in the "Engineering Supplement" of The Times of February 14, 1906, in which it was said:—