In France the condition of things is different.[79] Although there is no taxation on merchandise traffic, the payment in respect of passenger and grande vitesse traffic, which is added to and levied with, the railway charges, is heavy, and amounted in the year to £4,683,937.
The other taxes paid by the railway companies themselves, or by the holders of shares, &c., amounted to £1,490,415, making together a total for the year of £6,174,352.[80]
Such are a few of the differences in the position and rights of English and Continental railways, and those who depreciate the former should explain whether they wish to adopt all the practices of foreign lines—the features unfavourable to traders as well as the advantages, slow transit, very limited liability for loss of goods or damages to them, and exemption from fiscal burthens which English railways bear—and how the cost of working, especially in the item of wages, can be reduced.
SECTION XIV.
HIGH RATES AND THEIR EFFECT ON TRADE.
It is not uncommon to attribute much of the existing depression of trade to rates charged by railways. Before the Royal Commission which lately investigated the subject, many statements to that effect were made. Against their accuracy there is a strong presumption in the fact that trade has been in recent years depressed elsewhere, and in countries supposed to enjoy lower rates than exist here. When particulars of the exact nature of these complaints are furnished—which is seldom done—it is found for the most part that there is no real connection of cause and effect between railway charges and depression in trade; that the latter revives or declines independently of the former; that for the most part, the evils complained of are beyond the power of railway companies to remove; and that the complaints are contradictory. Two of the forms which these complaints have taken may be noted. One is the statement that[81] differential rates operate in favour of the foreign producer, and that works are being removed from inland to seaboard towns to save carriage.[82] Obviously this grievance could be wholly abated only by free carriage; producers on the sea coast, near points of shipment, inevitably possess certain advantages. These again could only be materially reduced by differential rates somewhat lessening the inland producer’s geographical disadvantages; and to this remedy the persons loudest in their complaints most strongly object. Another form which such complaints take may be noted. The following extract is from a paper sent in by the Mining Association of Great Britain to the Royal Commission on Trade:—
“The heavy trades of coal and iron are also unduly burdened by the high rates and tolls charged by the Railway Companies. They are slowly but surely killing the trade of the country by their high charges and by the preference given to foreign countries.”[83]
Charges against Railway Companies are, generally, of a vague character. But this statement is sufficiently definite to make it possible to test its accuracy by comparing the rates charged for conveying the articles referred to, viz., iron and coal, to some of the chief ports in this country, with the corresponding rates of other neighbouring countries. The following is a comparison of a few of the rates charged for coal and iron in England with those to Belgian and German Ports:—