[CHAPTER III.]
THE ENGLISH CANAL SYSTEM.
“Of famous cities we the founders know, But rivers, old as seas to which they go, Are nature’s bounty; ’tis of more renown, To make a river than to build a town.” —Waller.
The general circumstances under which artificial navigation came to be adopted in our own and other countries have already been set forth to a limited extent. We have now to consider the special circumstances that have led to the adoption of particular routes and particular means of transport, as well as to make some attempt to indicate the conditions under which canals may be used with advantage.
The routes that are provided by canal navigations are usually either local or national—local, when they only connect two inland centres; national, when they afford access from manufacturing or agricultural centres to the sea. In the earlier history of the canal system both of these ends were kept in view. It was just as important to bring raw materials from their place of production to the centres of consumption as to connect the centres of manufacture with the outer world.
About the middle of the last century, the cost of goods by road, between Manchester and Liverpool, was 40s. per ton; whilst, by the Mersey and Irwell route, the water rate was 12s. per ton. After the opening of the Bridgwater Canal the cost was reduced to 6s. per ton, and a better service was given than either of the previous routes had afforded.
Again, the cost of carriage on coal by pack-horse from Worsley to Manchester, which had been 6s. to 8s. per ton, was reduced to 2s. 6d. per ton on the same canal. In fact, the Duke bound himself not to exceed that freight, although the old Mersey and Irwell Company still held to their toll of 3s. 4d. for all the coal the Duke sent by their route.
The costs of transports throughout the country were on a similar scale, except where held in check by the river traders, who, whilst competing, had still an interest in high freights. From Manchester to Nottingham the charge was over 6l. per ton; to Leicester, over 8l., and so on. These rates were reduced to 2l. and 2l. 6s. 8d., respectively, after the opening of the Trent and Mersey Canal, which also reduced the cost of transport between Manchester and Hull to less than 2l., per ton, owing to the back-carriage secured from that port, together with the tide service of 80 miles up the Humber and the Trent.
The real commercial prosperity of England dates from this period of canal development and enterprise. Raw materials, manufactures, and produce, were easily transported at a reasonable cost between Liverpool, Manchester, Staffordshire, Nottingham, and places on the route to Hull and Northern Europe. These advantages were extended to the Severn route by the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal Act, which was obtained during the year 1766, and by the navigation of the Soar to Leicester.[40]
In 1761 it was estimated that the quantity of traffic carried between the two great cities of Lancashire—Manchester and Liverpool—was about 40 tons per week, or about 2000 tons a year. The cost of transport, as we have just seen, was upwards of 1s. per mile. It is calculated that the traffic now carried on between the two towns is not less than ten million tons, and the cost of transport is stated at from 3s. to 8s. per ton. But the present conditions of transport are nevertheless regarded as unsatisfactory, and hence the movement for the construction of the Ship Canal, which is expected to carry traffic for less than one-half of the amount charged by the railway companies.
When the public mind became fully alive to the importance of providing internal means of transport by water, there were not wanting those who were able to provide the ability and the experience necessary to execute the plans proposed. The history of the Bridgwater Navigation has been so fully related by Smiles,[41] that nothing which we could say here would materially enhance the interest of the story. For all practical purposes, this was the first great artificial waterway in England. It was, indeed, so remarkable a work for the time that we shall briefly recapitulate its history.