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- Title
Canals, coal and regional growth during the industrial revolution.
- Authors
Turnbull, Gerard
- Abstract
The article discusses roles of canals and coals in regional growth during industrial revolution in Great Britain. By the middle of the eighteenth century, the impact of canals was heavily local and regional. Regrettably the literature about canals tends to project them largely in national terms. It concentrates on the linking of the major rivers and ports; access to London and major inland towns; and the ease of movement of long-distance, especially merchandize, traffic. Coal is the only industry for which a sustained analysis of the redistributive effects on production of changes in transport costs the cracking open of local monopolies can at present be undertaken. According to M.W. Flinn the real price of coal remained stable throughout these years, and perhaps even fell a little. In so far as canals relocated the production of coal in favour of lower-cost sites, they brought major benefit to the national economy, even if this was initially expressed primarily at a regional level.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; ECONOMIC conditions in Great Britain; CANALS; COAL; INDUSTRIAL revolution; TRADE regulation
- Publication
Economic History Review, 1987, Vol 40, Issue 4, p537
- ISSN
0013-0117
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2596392