THE TRANSITION IN TRADE
Of the various causes which have operated to bring about the
comparative decay of the British canal system (for, as already shown,
there are sections that still retain a certain amount of vitality), the
most important are to be found in the great changes that have taken
place in the general conditions of trade, manufacture and commerce.
The tendency in almost every branch of business to-day is for the
trader to have small, or comparatively small, stocks of any particular
commodity, which he can replenish speedily at frequent intervals as
occasion requires. The advantages are obvious. A smaller amount of
capital is locked up in any one article; a larger variety of goods
can be dealt in; less accommodation is required for storage; and men
with limited means can enter on businesses which otherwise could be
undertaken only by individuals or companies possessed of considerable
resources. If a draper or a grocer at Plymouth finds one afternoon that
he has run short of a particular article, he need only telegraph to
the wholesale house with which he deals in London, and a fresh supply
will be delivered to him the following morning. A trader in London
who wanted something from Dublin, and telegraphed for it one day,
would expect as a matter of course to have it the next. What, again,
would a London shopkeeper be likely to say if, wanting to replenish
his limited stock with some Birmingham goods, he was informed by the
manufacturer:--"We are in receipt of your esteemed order, and are
sending the goods on by canal. You may hope to get them in about a
week"?
With a little wider margin in the matter of delivery, the
same principle applies to those trading in, or requiring, raw
materials--coal, steel, ironstone, bricks, and so on. Merchants,
manufacturers, and builders are no more anxious than the average
shopkeeper to keep on hand stocks unnecessarily large, and to have so
much money lying idle. They calculate the length of time that will be
required to get in more supplies when likely to be wanted, and they
work their business accordingly.
From this point of view the railway is far superior to the canal in two
respects, at least.
First, there is the question of speed. The value of this factor was
well recognised so far back as 1825, when, as I have told on page 25,
Mr Sandars related how speed and certainty of delivery were regarded as
"of the first importance," and constituted one of the leading reasons
for the desired introduction of railways. But speed and certainty of
delivery become absolutely essential when the margin in regard to
supplies on hand is habitually kept to a working minimum. The saving in
freight effected as between, on the one hand, waiting at least several
days, if not a full week, for goods by canal boat, and, on the other,
receiving them the following day by train, may be more than swallowed
up by the loss of profit or the loss of business in consequence of
the delay. If the railway transport be a little more costly than the
canal transport, the difference should be fully counterbalanced by the
possibility of a more rapid turnover, as well as the other advantages
of which I have spoken.
In cases, again, where it is not a matter of quickly replenishing
stocks but of effecting prompt delivery even of bulky goods, time may
be all-important. This fact is well illustrated in a contribution, from
Birmingham, published in the "Engineering Supplement" of _The Times_ of
February 14, 1906, in which it was said:--
"Makers of wheels, tires, axles, springs, and similar parts are busy.
Of late the South African colonies have been larger buyers, while
India and the Far Eastern markets, including China and Japan, South
America, and some other shipping markets are providing very good and
valuable indents. In all cases, it is especially remarked, very early
execution of contracts and urgent delivery is impressed by buyers. The
leading firms have learned a good deal of late from German, American,
Belgian, and other foreign competitors in the matter of rapid output.
By the improvement of plant, the laying down of new and costly machine
tools, and by other advances in methods of production, delivery is now
made of contracts of heavy tonnage within periods which not so long
ago would have been deemed by these same producers quite impossible.
In no branch of the engineering trades is this expedition more
apparent than in the constructional engineering department, such as
bridges, roofs, etc., also in steam boiler work."
Now where, in cases such as these, "urgent delivery is impressed by
buyers," and the utmost energy is probably being enforced on the
workers, is it likely that even the heavy goods so made would be
sent down to the port by the tediously slow process of canal boat,
taking, perhaps, as many days as even a goods train would take hours?
Alternatively, would the manufacturers run the risk of delaying urgent
work by having the raw materials delivered by canal boat in order to
effect a small saving on cost of transport?
Certainty of delivery might again be seriously affected in the case
of canal transport by delays arising either from scarcity of water
during dry seasons, or from frost in winter. The entire stoppage
of a canal system, from one or other of these causes, for weeks
together, especially on high levels, is no unusual occurrence, and the
inconvenience which would then result to traders who depended on the
canals is self-evident. In Holland, where most of the goods traffic
goes by the canals that spread as a perfect network throughout the
whole country, and link up each town with every other town, the advent
of a severe frost means that the whole body of traffic is suddenly
thrown on the railways, which then have more to get through than they
can manage. Here the problem arises: If waterways take traffic from the
railways during the greater part of the year, should the railways still
be expected to keep on hand sufficient rolling stock, etc., not only
for their normal conditions, but to meet all the demands made upon them
during such periods as their competitors cannot operate?
There is an idea in some quarters that stoppage from frost need not be
feared in this country because, under an improved system of waterways,
measures would be taken to keep the ice on the canals constantly
broken up. But even with this arrangement there comes a time, during a
prolonged frost, when the quantity of broken ice in the canal is so
great that navigation is stopped unless the ice itself is removed from
the water. Frost must, therefore, still be reckoned with as a serious
factor among the possibilities of delay in canal transport.
Secondly, there is the question of quantities. For the average trader
the railway truck is a much more convenient unit than the canal boat.
It takes just such amount as he may want to send or receive. For some
commodities the minimum load for which the lowest railway rate is
quoted is as little as 2 tons; but many a railway truck has been run
through to destination with a solitary consignment of not more than
half-a-ton. On the other hand, a vast proportion of the consignments
by rail are essentially of the "small" type. From the goods depôt at
Curzon Street, Birmingham, a total of 1,615 tons dealt with, over a
certain period, represented 6,110 consignments and 51,114 packages,
the average weight per consignment being 5 cwts. 1 qr. 4 lbs., and
the average weight per package, 2 qrs. 14 lbs. At the Liverpool goods
depôts of the London and North-Western Railway, a total weight of 3,895
tons handled consisted of 5,049 consignments and 79,513 packages, the
average weight per consignment being 15 cwts. 1 qr. 20 lbs., and the
average weight per package 3 qrs. 26 lbs. From the depôt at Broad
Street, London, 906 tons represented 6,201 consignments and 23,067
packages, with an average weight per consignment of 2 cwts. 3 qrs. 19
lbs., and per package, 3 qrs. 4 lbs.; and so on with other important
centres of traffic.
There is little room for doubt that a substantial proportion of these
consignments and packages consisted partly of goods required by traders
either to replenish their stocks, or, as in the case of tailors
and dressmakers, to enable them to execute particular orders; and
partly of commodities purchased from traders, and on their way to the
customers. In regard to the latter class of goods, it is a matter of
common knowledge that there has been an increasing tendency of late
years to eliminate the middleman, and establish direct trading between
producer and consumer. Just as the small shopkeeper will purchase from
the manufacturer, and avoid the wholesale dealer, so, also, there are
individual householders and others who eliminate even the shopkeeper,
and deal direct with advertising manufacturers willing to supply to
them the same quantities as could be obtained from a retail trader.
For trades and businesses conducted on these lines, the railway--taking
and delivering promptly consignments great or small, penetrating to
every part of the country, and supplemented by its own commodious
warehouses, in which goods can be stored as desired by the trader
pending delivery or shipment--is a far more convenient mode of
transport than the canal boat; and to the railway the perfect
revolution that has been brought about in the general trade of this
country is mainly due. Business has been simplified, subdivided, and
brought within the reach of "small" men to an extent that, but for the
railway, would have been impossible; and it is difficult to imagine
that traders in general will forego all these advantages now, and
revert once more to the canal boat, merely for the sake of a saving in
freight which, in the long run, might be no saving at all.
Here it may be replied by my critics that there is no idea of reviving
canals in the interests of the general trader, and that all that is
sought is to provide a cheaper form of transport for those heavier
or bulkier minerals or commodities which, it is said, can be carried
better and more economically by water than by rail.
Now this argument implies the admission that canal resuscitation, on
a national basis, or at the risk more or less of the community, is
to be effected, not for the general trader, but for certain special
classes of traders. As a matter of fact, however, such canal traffic
as exists to-day is by no means limited to heavy or bulky articles. In
their earlier days canal companies simply provided a water-road, as
it were, along which goods could be taken by other persons on payment
of certain tolls. To enable them to meet better the competition of
the railways, Parliament granted to the canal companies, in 1846,
the right to become common carriers as well, and, though only a very
small proportion of them took advantage of this concession, those that
did are indebted in part to the transport of general merchandise for
such degree of prosperity as they have retained. The separate firms
of canal carriers ("by-traders") have adopted a like policy, and,
notwithstanding the changes in trade of which I have spoken, a good
deal of general merchandise does go by canal to or from places that
happen to be situated in the immediate vicinity of the waterways. It is
extremely probable that if some of the canals which have survived had
depended entirely on the transport of heavy or bulky commodities, their
financial condition to-day would have been even worse than it really is.
But let us look somewhat more closely into this theory that canals are
better adapted than railways for the transport of minerals or heavy
merchandise, calling for the payment of a low freight. At the first
glance such a commodity as coal would claim special attention from this
point of view; yet here one soon learns that not only have the railways
secured the great bulk of this traffic in fair and open competition
with the canals, but there is no probability of the latter taking it
away from them again to any appreciable extent.
Some interesting facts in this connection were mentioned by the late
Sir James Allport in the evidence he gave before the Select Committee
on Canals in 1883. Not a yard, he said, of the series of waterways
between London and Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, part of Staffordshire,
Warwickshire and Leicestershire--counties which included some of the
best coal districts in England for supplying the metropolis--was owned
by railway companies, yet the amount of coal carried by canal to London
had steadily declined, while that by rail had enormously increased.
To prove this assertion, he took the year 1852 as one when there was
practically no competition on the part of the railways with the canals
for the transport of coal, and he compared therewith the year 1882,
giving for each the total amount of coal received by canal and railway
respectively, as follows:--
1852 1882
Received by canal 33,000 tons 7,900 tons
" " railway 317,000 " 6,546,000 "
The figures quoted by Sir James Allport were taken from the official
returns in respect to the dues formerly levied by the City of London
and the late Metropolitan Board of Works on all coal coming within
the Metropolitan Police Area, representing a total of 700 square
miles; though at an earlier period the district in which the dues were
enforced was that included in a 20-mile radius. The dues were abolished
in 1889, and since then the statistics in question have no longer been
compiled. But the returns for 1889 show that the imports of coal, by
railway and by canal respectively, into the Metropolitan Police Area
for that year were as follows:--
BY RAILWAY
Tons. Cwts.
Midland 2,647,554 0
London and North-Western 1,735,067 13
Great Northern 1,360,205 0
Great Eastern 1,077,504 13
Great Western 940,829 0
London and South-Western 81,311 2
South-Eastern 27,776 18
------------------
Total by Railway 7,870,248 6
------------------
BY CANAL
Grand Junction 12,601 15
----------------------
Difference 7,857,646 11
----------------------
If, therefore, the independent canal companies, having a waterway from
the colliery district of the Midlands and the North through to London
(without, as already stated, any section thereof being controlled by
railway companies), had improved their canals, and doubled, trebled,
or even quadrupled the quantity of coal they carried in 1889, their
total would still have been insignificant as compared with the quantity
conveyed by rail.
[Illustration: "FROM PIT TO PORT."
(Prospect Pit, Wigan Coal and Iron Company. Raised to the surface,
the coal is emptied on to a mechanical shaker, which grades it into
various sizes--lumps, cobbles, nuts, and slack. These sizes then each
pass along a picking belt--so that impurities can be removed--and fall
into the railway trucks placed at the end ready to receive them. The
coal can thus be taken direct from the mouth of the pit to any port or
town in Great Britain.)
[_To face page 82._
]
The reasons for this transition in the London coal trade (and the
same general principle applies elsewhere) can be readily stated. They
are to be found in the facilities conferred by the railway companies,
and the great changes that, as the direct result thereof, have taken
place in the coal trade itself. Not only are most of the collieries in
communication with the railways, but the coal waggons are generally
so arranged alongside the mouth of each pit that the coal, as raised,
can be tipped into them direct from the screens. Coal trains, thus
made up, are next brought to certain sidings in the neighbourhood of
London, where the waggons await the orders of the coal merchants to
whom they have been consigned. At Willesden, for example, there is
special accommodation for 2,000 coal waggons, and the sidings are
generally full. Liberal provision of a like character has also been
made in London by the Midland, the Great Northern, and other railway
companies in touch with the colliery districts. An intimation as to the
arrival of the consignments is sent by the railway company to the coal
merchant, who, in London, is allowed three "free" days at these coal
sidings in which to give instructions where the coal is to be sent.
After three days he is charged the very modest sum of 6d. per day per
truck. Assuming that the coal merchant gives directions, either within
the three days or later, for a dozen trucks, containing particular
qualities of coal, to be sent to different parts of London, north,
south, east and west, those dozen trucks will have to be picked out
from the one or two thousand on the sidings, shunted, and coupled on
to trains going through to the stated destination. This represents in
itself a considerable amount of work, and special staffs have to be
kept on duty for the purpose.
Then, at no fewer than one hundred and thirty-five railway stations in
London and the suburbs thereof, the railway companies have provided
coal depôts on such vacant land as may be available close to the local
sidings, and here a certain amount of space is allotted to the use
of coal merchants. For this accommodation no charge whatever is made
in London, though a small rent has to be paid in the provinces. The
London coal merchant gets so many feet, or yards, allotted to him
on the railway property; he puts up a board with his name, or that
of his firm; he stores on the said space the coal for which he has
no immediate sale; and he sends his men there to fetch from day to
day just such quantities as he wants in order to execute the orders
received. With free accommodation such as this at half a dozen, or even
a score, of suburban railway stations, all that the coal merchant of
to-day requires in addition is a diminutive little office immediately
adjoining each railway station, where orders can be received, and
whence instructions can be sent. Not only, also, do the railway
companies provide him with a local coal depôt which serves his every
purpose, but, after allowing him three "free" days on the great coal
sidings, to which the waggons first come, they give him, on the local
sidings, another seven "free" days in which to arrange his business.
He thus gets ten clear days altogether, before any charge is made for
demurrage, and, if then he is still awaiting orders, he has only to
have the coal removed from the trucks on to the depôt, or "wharf" as
it is technically called, so escaping any payment beyond the ordinary
railway rate, in which all these privileges and advantages are included.
If canal transport were substituted for rail transport, the coal would
first have to be taken from the mouth of the pit to the canal, and,
inasmuch as comparatively few collieries (except in certain districts)
have canals immediately adjoining, the coal would have to go by rail to
the canal, unless the expense were incurred of cutting a branch of the
canal to the colliery--a much more costly business, especially where
locks are necessary, than laying a railway siding. At the canal the
coal would be tipped from the railway truck into the canal boat,[8]
which would take it to the canal terminus, or to some wharf or basin on
the canal banks. There the coal would be thrown up from the boat into
the wharf (in itself a more laborious and more expensive operation than
that of shovelling it down, or into sacks on the same level, from a
railway waggon), and from the wharf it would have to be carted, perhaps
several miles, to final destination.
Under this arrangement the coal would receive much more handling--and
each handling means so much additional slack and depreciation in value;
a week would have to be allowed for a journey now possible in a day;
the coal dealers would have to provide their own depôts and pay more
for cartage, and they would have to order particular kinds of coal by
the boat load instead of by the waggon load.
This last necessity would alone suffice to render the scheme abortive.
Some years ago when there was so much discussion as to the use of a
larger size of railway waggon, efforts were made to induce the coal
interests to adopt this policy. But the 8-ton truck was so convenient
a unit, and suited so well the essentially retail nature of the coal
trade to-day, that as a rule the coal merchants would have nothing to
do with trucks even of 15 or 20 tons. Much less, therefore, would they
be inclined to favour barge loads of 200 or 250 tons.
Exceptions might be made in the case of gas works, or of factories
already situated alongside the banks of canals which have direct
communication with collieries. In the Black Country considerable
quantities of coal thus go by canal from the collieries to the many
local ironworks, etc., which, as I have shown, are still actively
served by the Birmingham Canal system. But these exceptions can
hardly be offered as an adequate reason for the nationalisation of
British canals. The general conditions, and especially the nature of
the coal trade transition, will be better realised from some figures
mentioned by the chairman of the London and North-Western Railway
Company, Lord Stalbridge, at the half-yearly meeting in February 1903.
Notwithstanding the heavy coal traffic--in the aggregate--the average
consignment of coal, he showed, on the London and North-Western Railway
is only 17-1/2 tons, and over 80 per cent. of the total quantity
carried represents consignments of less than 20 tons, the actual
weights ranging from lots of 2 tons 14 cwts. to close upon 1,000 tons
for shipment.
"But," the reader may say, "if coal is taken in 1,000-ton lots to a
port for shipment, surely canal transport could be resorted to here!"
This course is adopted on the Aire and Calder Navigation, which is very
favourably situated, and goes over almost perfectly level ground. The
average conditions of coal shipment in the United Kingdom are, however,
much better met by the special facilities which rail transport offers.
Of the way in which coal is loaded into railway trucks direct from the
colliery screens I have already spoken; but, in respect to steam coal,
it should be added that anthracite is sold in about twelve different
sizes, and that one colliery will make three or four of these sizes,
each dropped into separate trucks under the aforesaid screens. The
output of an anthracite colliery would be from 200 to 300 tons a day,
in the three or four sizes, as stated, this total being equal to from
20 to 30 truck-loads. An order received by a coal factor for 2,000 or
3,000 tons of a particular size would, therefore, have to be made up
with coal from a number of different collieries.
The coal, however, is not actually sold at the collieries. It is
sent down to the port, and there it stands about for weeks, and
sometimes for months, awaiting sale or the arrival of vessels. It must
necessarily be on the spot, so that orders can be executed with the
utmost expedition, and delays to shipping avoided. Consequently it is
necessary that ample accommodation should be provided at the port for
what may be described as the coal-in-waiting. At Newport, for example,
where about 4,000,000 tons of coal are shipped in the course of the
year (independently of "bunkers,") there are 50 miles of coal sidings,
capable of accommodating from 40,000 to 50,000 tons of coal sent there
for shipment. A record number of loaded coal trucks actually on these
sidings at any one time is 3,716. The daily average is 2,800.
Now assume that the coal for shipment from Newport had been brought
there by canal boat. To begin with, it would have been first loaded,
by means of the colliery screens, into railway trucks, taken in these
to the canal, and then tipped into the boats. This would mean further
breakage, and, in the case of steam coal especially, a depreciation in
value. But suppose that the coal had duly arrived at the port in the
canal boats, where would it be stored for those weeks and months to
await sale or vessels? Space for miles of sidings on land can easily be
found; but the water area in a canal or dock in which barges can wait
is limited, and, in the case of Newport at least, it would hardly be
equal to the equivalent of 3,000 truck-loads of coal.
There comes next the important matter of detail as to the way in which
coal brought to a port is to be shipped. Nothing could be simpler and
more expeditious than the practice generally adopted in the case of
rail-borne coal. When a given quantity of coal is to be despatched, the
vessel is brought alongside a hydraulic coal-tip, such as that shown
in the illustration facing this page, and the loaded coal trucks are
placed in succession underneath the tip. Raised one by one to the level
of the shoot, the trucks are there inclined to such an angle that the
entire contents fall on to the shoot, and thence into the hold of the
ship. Brought to the horizontal again, the empty truck passes on to a
viaduct, down which it goes, by gravitation, back to the sidings, the
place it has vacated on the tip being at once taken by another loaded
truck.
[Illustration: THE SHIPPING OF COAL: HYDRAULIC TIP ON G.W.R., SWANSEA.
(The loaded truck is hoisted to level of shoot, and is there inclined
to necessary angle to "tip" the coal, which falls from shoot into hold
of vessel. Empty truck passes by gravitation along viaduct, on left,
to sidings.)
[_To face page 88._
]
Substitute coal barges for coal trucks, and how will the loading then
be accomplished? Under any possible circumstances it would take longer
to put a series of canal barges alongside a vessel in the dock than
to place a series of coal trucks under the tip on shore. Nor could
the canal barge itself be raised to the level of a shoot, and have
its contents tipped bodily into the collier. What was done in the
South Wales district by one colliery some years ago was to load up a
barge with iron tubs, or boxes, filled with coal, and placed in pairs
from end to end. In dock one of these would be lifted out of the
barge by a crane, and lowered into the hold, where the bottom would
be knocked out, the emptied tub being then replaced in the barge by
the crane, and the next one to it raised in turn. But, apart from the
other considerations already presented, this system of shipment was
found more costly than the direct tipping of railway trucks, and was
consequently abandoned.
Although, therefore, in theory coal would appear to be an ideal
commodity for transport by canal, in actual practice it is found
that rail transport is both more convenient and more economical, and
certainly much better adapted to the exigences of present day trade in
general, in the case alike of domestic coal and of coal for shipment.
Whether or not the country would be warranted in going to a heavy
expense for canal resuscitation for the special benefit of a limited
number of traders having works or factories alongside canal banks is a
wholly different question.
I take next the case of raw cotton as another bulky commodity carried
in substantial quantities. At one time it was the custom in the
Lancashire spinning trade for considerable supplies to be bought in
Liverpool, taken to destination by canal, and stored in the mills for
use as required. A certain proportion is still handled in this way;
but the Lancashire spinners who now store their cotton are extremely
few in number, and represent the exception rather than the rule. It is
found much more convenient to receive from Liverpool from day to day
by rail the exact number of bales required to meet immediate wants.
The order can be sent, if necessary, by post, telegraph, or telephone,
and the cotton may be expected at the mill next day, or as desired. If
barge-loads of cotton were received at one time, capital would at least
have to be sunk in providing warehousing accommodation, and the spinner
thinks he can make better use of his money.
The day-by-day arrangement is thus both a convenience and a saving to
the trader; though it has one disadvantage from a railway standpoint,
for cotton consignments by rail are, as a rule, so small that there is
difficulty in making up a "paying load" for particular destinations. As
the further result of the agitation a few years ago for the use of a
larger type of railway waggons, experiments have been made at Liverpool
with large trucks for the conveyance especially of raw cotton. But,
owing to the day-by-day policy of the spinners, it is no easy matter
to make up a 20-ton truck of cotton for many of the places to which
consignments are sent, and the shortage in the load represents so
much dead weight. Consignments ordered forward by rail must, however,
be despatched wholly, or at any rate in part, on day of receipt. Any
keeping of them back, with the idea of thus making up a better load for
the railway truck, would involve the risk of a complaint, if not of a
claim, against the railway company, on the ground that the mill had had
to stop work owing to delay in the arrival of the cotton.
If the spinners would only adopt a two- or three-days-together policy,
it would be a great advantage to the railways; but even this might
involve the provision of storage accommodation at the mills, and they
accordingly prefer the existing arrangement. What hope could there be,
therefore, except under very special circumstances, that they would be
willing to change their procedure, and receive their raw cotton in bulk
by canal boat?
Passing on to other heavy commodities carried in large quantities, such
as bricks, stone, drain-pipes, manure, or road-making materials, it
is found, in practice, that unless both the place whence these things
are despatched and the place where they are actually wanted are close
to a waterway, it is generally more convenient and more economical to
send by rail. The railway truck is not only (once more) a better unit
in regard to quantity, but, as in the case of domestic coal, it can go
to any railway station, and can often be brought miles nearer to the
actual destination than if the articles or materials in question are
forwarded by water; while the addition to the canal toll of the cost of
cartage at either end, or both, may swell the total to the full amount
of the railway rate, or leave so small a margin that conveyance by
rail, in view of the other advantages offered, is naturally preferred.
Here we have further reasons why commodities that seem to be specially
adapted for transport by canal so often go by rail instead.
There are manufacturers, again, who, if executing a large shipping
order, would rather consign the goods, as they are ready, to a railway
warehouse at the port, there to await shipment, than occupy valuable
space with them on their own premises. Assuming that it might be
possible and of advantage to forward to destination by canal boat, they
would still prefer to send off 25 or 30 tons at a time, in a narrow
boat (and 25 to 30 tons would represent a big lot in most industries),
rather than keep everything back (with the incidental result of
blocking up the factory) until, in order to save a little on the
freight, they could fill up a barge of 200 or 300 tons.
So the moral of this part of my story is that, even if the canals of
the country were thoroughly revived, and made available for large
craft, there could not be any really great resort to them unless there
were, also, brought about a change in the whole basis of our general
trading conditions.