Cost of Steam-towing.—On the Willebroeck Canal, which runs north from Brussels past Willebroeck and enters the river Rupel opposite Boom, all boats, except steamers, are towed by a steam tug working on a chain. The length of the canal is 28 kilom. = 17½ miles, divided into five levels; and the locks are large enough to take in six or seven boats at a time, along with their tug. The towing is done by a company, from whose scale of charges and year’s balance-sheet a recent writer has calculated 0·078 penny per ton per mile as the price paid for towing, the total annual traffic amounting to about 15,400,000 ton-miles. But if the actual dividends were reduced to the rate of four per cent., which prevails for Belgian Government securities, and if certain economies were effected which are believed to be practicable, the charge for towing might be brought down to 0·047 penny per ton per mile, including empties.[253]
The 110-ton boats in general use by the carriers on the Willebroeck Canal make weekly the double journey from Brussels to Antwerp and back. The distance by the canal, the Rupel, and the Scheldt, is 45 × 2 = 90 kilom. = 56 miles there and back. The boatman gets 70 francs = 56s. per week for himself and his boat. With a full load both ways, this would give 7 millimes per tonne-kilom. = 0·109 penny per ton per mile. When the Charleroi Canal is enlarged, a large traffic right through from Charleroi to Antwerp is anticipated, a distance of 120 kilom. = 75 miles. A single journey per week would then bring the cost down to 5·2 millimes = 0·081 penny. German estimates by Dr. Meitzen range from 4·8 to 6·4 millimes = 0·075 to 0·100 penny; whence 5 millimes per tonne-kilom. = 0·078 penny per ton per mile has been calculated as the cost of boats and boatmen, with a full load both ways, travelling 17 kilom. or 11 miles per day, including all stoppages.
After all, however, there is no case of cheap transport rates abroad that is more remarkable than the rate of sixpence per ton charged for the transport of salt on the river Weaver, between Northwich and the Mersey—a distance of thirty-six miles. This corresponds to an average of ·17d. per ton per mile.
In 1888, 265 vessels were trading on the river Weaver, not including canal boats, 65 of these being steamers. These made an average of 25 trips per day, carrying a gross tonnage of 1,300,000 tons per annum, chiefly salt. The rates charged vary from a penny per ton for cinders and gravel, to a shilling per ton for white salt—rock salt, which is the staple, being charged sixpence per ton. No charge is made for dock dues, and vessels are towed up the Mersey free of cost.
Sea-transport.—There is, of course, no system of transport that is so cheap as that of ocean carrying. The rates of freight now ruling for ocean transport, low though they be, are not by any means a true criterion of the actual charges involved. Thus, it appears that at a recent date, a large quantity of grain was carried between European and United States ports for 10s. per ton, or ·04d. per ton per mile. Between Newcastle-on-Tyne and German ports, coal cargoes have been carried rather largely for about 4s. 10d. or ·12d. per ton per mile. Between North Sea and Baltic ports freights have ruled over considerable periods at 5s. per ton, or between ·04d. and ·08d. per ton per mile. The daily expenses of a large steamer may be taken at about sixpence per ton register, and as such a steamer will run from 190 to 250 miles per day, the actual cost of transport will probably not exceed ·03d. per ton per mile, which, however, will be increased by port stoppages, and other inevitable circumstances to ·05d. Mr. Bailey has ascertained that the transport of a cargo of 2360 tons of cargo, in an ordinary steamer, allowing for interest, depreciation, insurance, fuel, wages, and food, was only one penny per forty miles of journey.[254] This figure seems, no doubt, to be exceptionally low, but of course much would depend upon the condition of the steamer and the character of the cargo. The Erie Canal charges for sea transport are only 1⁄18 penny per ton per mile, as compared with ¼ penny on the canal. This may, perhaps, be accepted as the measure of the differences in the cost of transport, and, if so, it would mean that the cost of working canal traffic is about four and a half times that of working such traffic on the sea. This figure is verified by many others, which are worthy of consideration. On lakes like Erie, Ontario, and Superior, the traffic costs more to work than on the sea, but less than it costs on canals. The Erie Canal charge for lake transport is 1⁄9d. per ton per mile, being twice the amount charged for sea transport
Theoretically, there is no sound reason why a modern steamship on a sufficiently large tide-level canal should not transport traffic almost at the same rate as it can do on the ocean. The resistance on the canal would be less than that usually met with at sea, but, on the other hand, the dangers of steaming too quickly compel a slow rate of speed. The actual cost of transport at sea has been variously put at from 0·03 to 0·07 per ton per mile. This does not probably include interest on capital and wear and tear, although the steamers in the Transatlantic trade were content over a long period to accept rates of freight which averaged no more than 0·04d. per ton per mile. If this rate of freight were possible on inland waterways for our heavy traffic, it would make a wonderful difference in the total cost of transport in the United Kingdom. In 1888, there were 200 millions of tons of minerals carried in the United Kingdom alone. The total receipts from this traffic amounted to rather over 16 millions sterling, which, taking an average of a penny per ton all round, would be equivalent to 3700 millions of ton miles. If this enormous traffic were carried by canal, as it possibly might be (or at least the greater part of it) for ·25d. per ton per mile, there would be a possible gain to the trade of the country of 7¾ millions sterling per annum.
As things are at present, the trader who desires to make use of canal navigation in Great Britain is compelled to deal with a number of small companies, every one of which has its own rate of toll, and none of which is disposed to give too much facility to the others. Thus, a trader desiring to send iron-work from London to Liverpool, or vice versâ by canal, would have to deal with no fewer than six canals, who charge tolls varying from 2d. to 1s. 9d. per ton[255] to Preston Brook within 20 miles of Liverpool. If, however, the traffic is to be carried 20 miles further, it has to be transhipped into larger craft, and carried on the Bridgwater Canal, the owners of which charge 7s. 6d. per ton, or more by 2s. 4d. than the other six companies charge for the whole of the distance of 220¼ miles over which they have carried the goods. It is not, therefore, surprising that the canals compare unfavourably with railways, instead of being more favourable to the trader. For the transport of iron-work, the canal companies now make a charge of 20s. or more per ton between London and Liverpool,[256] which is at the rate of over a penny per ton per mile. This is not only a prohibitory rate, but it is one that is quite unjustifiable. The actual cost of transport, including all charges, is seldom, as we have seen, more than three-tenths of a penny on English waterways. In the case of steam colliers it has been given as 0·15d.; in the case of steam barges on the river Lea, it is 0·33d.; and on the French canals it is 0·38d.[257] In the case of ocean steam navigation, the cost of transport is so much lower that an ocean steamer often conveys cargo across the Atlantic for about one half the price at which cargo is carried from London to Liverpool by canal, although the distance in the former case is about seventeen times that in the latter. In Germany again, where much more effectual use is made of the inland waterways than in England, the rate varies from ·18 to ·48 of a penny per ton per mile.[258] Hence, it is not surprising that in Germany “for valuable goods a preference is shown for water over railway transport.” There, we are told, that “artificial waterways carry the mass of cheap goods for two-thirds of the regular railway tariff, and valuable goods for one-third or two-thirds of this tariff.[259] It is the same in other continental countries.
At present, our canal traders are paying four times the amount they require to do for the carriage of their heavy goods between our largest centres of population. The case of the traffic between London and Liverpool is only typical of the trade of the country generally. Between the Lancashire coalfield and the metropolis, the railway charge for transport is about 7s. per ton. By the canal it should, as we have seen, be brought, with a profit of 25 per cent. to the transportation agency, for a fraction over 2s. 6d.; and when we consider that the metropolis now receives about eight million tons of coal annually by railway, this difference should exercise a sensible influence on the trade of that part of the kingdom.
The great secret of cheap transportation is to handle and carry large quantities. It is this, and this only, that has enabled the United States to achieve such remarkably cheap transport, both on railways and canals—on land and on water. In 1850 the capacity of the trains which carried grain from Chicago to New York was only twenty-five cars or waggons, carrying eight tons each, or a total train-load of about 200 tons. It is now, however, no uncommon thing to see train loads of 1000 to 1200 tons between Buffalo and New York. In 1850 the largest craft employed for transporting traffic on the lakes and rivers between Chicago and New York did not exceed 600 tons, whereas now the maximum is not less than 3000 tons.[260] In both cases the maximum load has been increased to five times as much as it was in 1850.
Mr. Conder[261] has pointed out that a feature of prime importance in which the economy of transport by canal differs from that by railway, is the incidence of the expenses of maintenance. The cost of railway maintenance, as soon as anything like an adequate amount of traffic is brought on a line, is remarkably steady, rising and falling, to a certain extent, with the increase or diminution of the volume of transport. On canals, the fixed expenses demand, in any case, a certain cost, and this cost is very little increased by a large increase of traffic. The annual cost of maintenance in the Suez Canal was actually less from 1876 to 1881 than it had been from 1871 to 1876. But the traffic had considerably more than doubled, so that the cost of maintenance per ton per mile fell from 0·35d. to 0·134d.