The Transport Revolution from 1770

Bagwell notes that in the eighteenth century; wind and the horse were used for power. "It was an essential characteristic of the transport revolution of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries that by the application of capital and new technologies to river improvement and the construction of artificial cuts or canals the horse was employed to maximum advantage in the movement of goods."(1) A pack horse could carry between 2-3 hundredweight; a heavy wagon and team of horses on a soft road could pull a ton, on a macadamized road, two tons; in coalfields a horse wagon on iron rails could pull 8 tons; on a river tow path,30 tons; and on a canal tow path, a stunning 50 tons. Industries which mostly benefited from improved canal transportation were those found the furthest from the sea. Birmingham had its coal, pig iron, and limestone. The potteries industry found its market and in South Wales and canals made the iron trade possible. Bagwell's treatise alludes to the primacy of canals over the railroads when he says, "the British railway system came into being through the efforts of the first generation of engineers to meet the needs of the rapidly expanding mining and textile industries."(76) He recognizes the valuable experience of canal builders who were the first generation of engineers. This is an acknowledgement of the importance of canals to the Industrial Revolution. Further he states that "contrary to the original expectation, the opening of Britain's early railways had a more immediate impact on the pattern of passenger travel than it did on goods traffic."(95) Until the railroad came along passenger travel and comfort were minimal but, as some claim, if the rails were so important to industrialization, why did passengers give steam powered locomotion its initial boost instead of cargo hauling?