is also proportionately less; thus a single horse hauls a cargo of 100 tons, whereas a load of 250 to 300 tons only requires two horses.
But the economy does not stop at haulage—it is also assisted by the lesser cost of plant. A railway train loaded with 220 tons costs for the locomotive and trucks £3,360. A steam barge to carry the same quantity will cost £1,600, and this barge is frequently used to tow three other barges of 260 tons capacity, costing £1000 each. Thus it can readily be seen that the economy of transport by water is assisted both by the increase of traffic and the lesser cost of plant.
Rapid increase of English transport.The inland transport of England is rapidly increasing, and already it is over six times what it was fifty years ago; the goal to be attempted is the moving of this enormous traffic with greater economy than is at present practised, and this would inevitably tend to the increased prosperity of the nation. In the commercial world there is no question of greater importance than the cost of transit. Other things being equal, the nation possessing the cheapest means of conveyance must gain the day in the struggle for industrial supremacy.
The rapid increase in commerce of the Nineteenth, and the still more rapid increase already experienced in the Twentieth Century, must be met, in this country, by a corresponding increase in facility of transport, in order
