RAILWAYS AND STEAMERS 813 
ton, by railway 10/8. By canal, goods took 20 hours, by + 
railway 2 hours.” ’ 
None of the other improvements of the nineteenth century 
awakened so much foreboding as was roused by the railways 
at first, and in no other case has the boon to the public been a id 
so immediate and obvious. The profits of the Liverpool and the public 
Manchester Railway were so large that the market price of #*%: 
the shares doubled; and the development of traffic was such 
that the waggons, which had carried goods for long distances 
before, might have been absorbed in the subsidiary employ- 
ment of taking goods to and from the stations. The loss 
involved, in superseding the old methods of transport by a 
new one, was comparatively slight, and a wonderful stimulus 
was given to business of every kind. Under the new Poor 
Law the labourer was much more free to migrate, and the 
railway gave him facilities to transfer his labour to the 
districts where it was most wanted. The saving of time 
and money was a boon to the capitalist, and the rapidity 
of transit by rail rendered it possible to fetch fruit, dairy 
produce, fish and other perishable goods, from long distances, 
to markets in London and other large towns. All classes in 
the community, both producers and consumers, have derived 
some economic advantage from increased facilities for inter- 
communication. 
The introduction of railways has also served to accelerate but it 
some of the changes which were already at work in English ee 
aconomic life. The effect of the factory system had been to Be 
soncentrate industry in certain localities, where power or Zngland. 
materials were easily obtainable. Manufacturing on a large 
scale, with much division of labour, became more feasible 
when there were better means of distributing the goods and 
finding a market in the most distant parts of the country. 
This concentration of labour in factories has had a correspond- 
ing effect on rural districts; there has been an increased 
differentiation between town and country, and diminished 
scope for the employment of the village artisan, or for the 
tradesman who catered, in market towns, for a rural neigh- 
bourhood. The introduction of railways has given an immense 
1 Leone Levi, op. cit. 198.