INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS 539 
“Tn Consequence of all this, the Demand for the Produce A.D. 1689 
of the Lands is increased; the Lands themselves advance i 
proportionably both in their annual Value, and in the 
Number of Years-purchase for which they are sold, ac- 
cording to such Value. Nor does there appear to have 
arisen even any local Injury to particular Estates by this 
Change of Circumstances; though if there did, they ought 
to submit to it from the greater Advantage resulting to the 
Publick ; but they are yet more valuable as their Situation 
is nearer to the trading Towns, and as the Number of 
Inhabitants in such Towns is enlarged by the Increase of 
Trade. 
“There never was a more astonishing Revolution ac- to cary 
complished in the internal System of any Country than rn 
has been within the Compass of a few years in that of 
England. The Carriage of Grain, Coals, Merchandize, etc., 
is in general conducted with little more than balf the 
Number of Horses with which it formerly was. Journies 
of Business are performed with more than double Expedition. 
Improvements in Agriculture keep pace with those of Trade. 
Everything wears the Face of Dispatch; every Article of our 
Produce becomes more valuable; and the Hinge, upon which 
all these Movements turn, is the Reformation which has been 
made in our Publick Roads.” 
There is ample evidence to confirm this account of in the 
the improvements. It may be inferred from the increas- Comerally 
ing practice of keeping carriages; hackney carriages were 
brought down from London to ply between Cambridge and 
Stourbridge Fair?; and it could hardly have been worth 
while to bring these vehicles for a few days, if the roads 
had been everywhere of a very defective character. It is not 
always easy to judge how far the existence of internal trade 
implied that good roads were available. Corn was usually 
taken in bags on horses, though waggons were also used®, and 
bulky goods were conveyed as far as possible by water; but 
\ Homer, An Enquiry into the Means of Preserving the Publick Roads 
vo (1748), 1. 97. 8 1b. 229; Arthur Young, Farmer's Letters, 190. 
+ Manchester goods were brought to Stourbridge Fair in horse packs; similar 
poods were taken from Essex to London in waggons. Defoe’s Tour. 1. 94, 118.