An introduction to the industrial history of England

Front matter

Cornell University Library

An introduction to the industrial histor

1 GO I nno a(^ i ~i"i i -WW ~~

Preface

The present volume has been planned and written with a view to the needs of college classes beginning work in economic history. For this reason matters have been included that do not lie strictly within the field of industrial history, notably the chapters dealing with agrarian questions. These problems could hardly be deemed essential to the understanding of the development of industry in the Uteral sense, but such material is ordinarily included in the introductory coxu-ses in economic history even if the covuse is described as "industrial history." This slight inconsistency in nomenclature tends to create some confusion between the scope of the term "industrial history" and "economic history" in general. It is not, of com-se, serious, but it is perhaps better that these terms should be used with some care in the titles of books. Strictly speaking, industrial history is of no more than coordinate importance with agrarian history and commercial history, though the problems of these phases of economic history are relatively more difficult and iU-suited to the capacities of an elementary class. The emphasis currently laid upon industrial history is thus thoroughly justified upon pedagogical grounds, but it would be unfortunate to aUow the expediency of this course to obscure the just proportions between the different phases of the general field.

The space devoted to the first three chapters may seem disproportionate to some, but it is beheved that the text of the chapters will sufiiciently explain their place in the book. If it should be desired to confine attention more exclusively to England, it would not be necessary for a class to read the first two chapters, though the characterization of the forms of industrial organization (pp. 4-17) should in that case be presented by the teacher. It is beheved that these chapters will prove particularly useful in courses given with especial reference to work in sociology and economics as distinct vi PREFACE

from purely descriptive history. The slight departure from the narrowly nationahstic point of view that usually dominates the writiag of economic history makes the present volmne a comprehensive survey of the general problems of industrial history.

The references for reading in connection with the text represent personal experience with classes, and it is beheved that no books are reconunended for use with classes that are not within the compass of ordinary students. An attempt has been made to suggest reading along the line of all the varied interests presented by the subject, so that each student may have opportunity to give expression to his personal tastes. It is hoped that the critical references will be especially useful to graduate students: pains have been taken to make the Usts sufficiently inclusive to bring the student in touch with all the critical studies of primary importance, and, as most of the works contain bibliographies, it would not be difficult to get in touch with the literature on each subject.

In addition to the obHgations to writers which are acknowledged in the text or in the notes, the author is greatly indebted to his colleagues at Cornell University, most especially to Professor A. A. Young, without whose encouragement and advice this book would not have been written. Professor W. F. Willcox, Professor C. H. Hull, and Mr. R. A, Campbell have given me the benefit of their advice on many points which involved some departure from conventional views. I wish also to express my obligations to Professor E. F. Gay, whose teaching was instnmiental in the formulation of the problems that have since then claimed my best attention. While it is not my intention to imply that he is in any way responsible for views expressed in the present volume, my work has been a direct outcome of the stimulus of his teaching. I am also indebted to Miss Louise L. Lamphier for stenographic assistance in the preparation of the manuscript of several chapters.

Abbott Payson Usher

Cornell University

September 5, 1919

Chapter I

I. Socialists and indtistrial history: Concentration of attention on the forms of industrial organization — The socialistic characterization of typical forms: household industry, craft industry, the factory system — Criticism of the interpretation of the history of antiquity by historians 1

II. Typical forms of industrial organization: Undiversified household industry distinguished by the absence of specialized skill — Probably a more primitive form than is usually assumed — Artificiality of the classification of industry in the patriarchal household with slaves as "household" industry — Craft industry distingviished by specialized skill, its presence indicated most clearly by the existence of distinguishable crafts in a given locality — Wage-work and craft-work not distinct stages in evolution — Disintegration of the process of manufacture by the development of crafts — The "putting-out system" a means of integration — Various terms used to describe this form of organization — The essence of the system lay in the ownership of materials by capitalists: in early forms, raw materials only; in later forms, all the instruments of production — Work was done in the home subject to no supervision — The factory distinguished by disciplined coordination — Concentration of operatives was a means to this end rather than an end in itself — The factory, as a form, antedates the Industrial Revolution — Administrative definitions of "factories" have been artificial — Diflaculty of classifying the "sweat-shop" 3

III. Commerce and industry: The degree of industrial specialization is determined by the extent of the market — The market is subject to social as weU as to territorial limitations; social hmitations especially important in the early period — Industrial specialization concerned in large measure with the wants of the wealthy — The Industrial Revolution resulted in the breaking-down of the social limitations of the market and the standardization of both production and consumption — The expansion of the market in the earher periods was primarily territorial; best indicated by the growth of geographical knowledge 18

Chapter II

I. The dawn of history not to be identified with the beginnings of social organization: early life dominated by the city — The beginnings of viii CONTENTS

industrial history not coincident with the first stages of any schematic or logical arrangement of forms of industrial organization — The city life of antiquity: its social elements; the mass of urban population — Distinctive features of city life in the middle ages and in modern times — SimUarities in industrial organization in antiquity and the middle ages 24

II. Egypt: Ambiguity of pictorial evidence — A list of crafts from the Twelfth Dynasty — Other indications of the number of crafts — Status of artisans 30

III. Mesopotamia: Economic conditions in the early period — References to artisans in the Code of Hammurabi — The temples as business houses — DifBculty of classifying their industrial operations — Apprenticeship and craft organization — Distinctions necessary between forms of organization and the scale of industrial life . . 34

IV. Greece: Various interpretations of the economic development of the Greeks in the semi-historic period — Commerce usually the basis of highly specialized industry — Leaf's conception of the Trojan War — Correlation of the view with the industrial history of Greece

— Economic mechanism not a measure of artistic accomplishment

— Comparison of economic conditions in antiquity with eighteenthcentury Prussia — The degree of industrial speciahzation in the sixth century b.c. — Rapid growth in the fifth and fourth centuries

— The "factory system" — Socialistic interpretations — Slavery in antiquity 38

V. Rome and Constantinople: Roman collegia — The list of crafts — Crafts at Constantinople — Evidences of craft gilds .... 47

Chapter III Crafts And Craft Gilds In Medieval France

I. Roman influences in Gaul — Probable degree of survivals in the organization of industry — Basic crafts persisted — Conditions on the great estates, the "gyneceum" — Lists of the craftsmen gathered around monastic establishments: Saint Riquier, in the ninth century; Saint Vincent at Le Mans, in the eleventh century — Difficulties of classifying industrial aggregations of partially unfree artisans . . 52

n. The rise of the "Third Estate'': its importance in social and economic history — The prosperity of France indicated by the growth of population: estimates for Paris, 1292 and 1328; Prance in 1328 — Nature of the evidence of industrial specialization — Three groups of crafts: merchandizing crafts; crafts occupied with purely local concerns; crafts concerned with export industry — List of crafts at Paris late in the eleventh century — Numbers in the different occupational groups at Paris in 1292 and 1300 — Classification of crafts according to the numbers of craftsmen registered on the tax-rolls — The dis-

CONTENTS ix

integration of industry — Relations between producers and consumers: not happily described as direct contact — Necessity of recognizing the social stratification of the market — Beginnings of capitalistic control of the industrial process — Wage-earners, but no wage-earning class — Crafts whose members were regularly employed by other crafts 57

m. Members of the specialized iudustrial household — Apprentices and apprenticeship — Journeymen and masters — Conditions of becoming a master in the early period — The free craft: a purely spontaneous growth — The sworn craft or gild, a privileged body created by authority — The transition from the free craft to the gild at Paris — The wardens of the gild — Essentially administrative functions of the gilds at Paris — Special conditions affecting the growth of crafts closely associated with the Royal Household — History of the carpenters — Craft statutes as evidence — The more usual regulations — Early Parisian regulations of apprenticeship — Position of the iourneyman — Ease of becoming a master — The master-piece not required in the early period — Inspection of goods and processes of production 72

Chapter IV

I. Early estimates of population based upon nimibers of families, or property-holders — Uncertainty as to the proportion of the total population to those enumerated — Omissions — Importance of ascertaining the general movement of population — Estimates for England and for Prance — One hundred persons per square mile probably normal density of population for Europe prior to the Industrial Revolution— England relatively under-populated — Relativity of the conception of normal density: influence of rice culture in India, of the Industrial Revolution in Europe . , 87

IL Estimates of Seebohm and Gasquet for the population of England prior to the Black Death — The subsidy rolls — Figures for five counties compared with the figures for 1377 — Changes in the relative density of population — The westward movement — Its significance . 92

TTT- Size of villages in Derby and Essex in 1086 — Population of towns in 1377 — Essentially riiral population indicated by the evidence from the Subsidy Rolls — The growth of London 102

Chapter V

I. Persistence of superficial aspects of village life — Aristocracy and the village — Primitive land tenures an e}:pression of economic needs 109

X CONTENTS

II. Scattered farms and villages: Modes of settlement: scattered farms; the enclosed village; the open-field village — Field arrangements of a typical open-field village — Methods of agriculture — Divisions of the fields into strips — Village organization — Racial explanations of these three modes of settlement — Economic interpretations suggested by Siberian conditions — The economic factors underlying a transition from individual farms to the open-field village — Complexity of conditions in Europe before and during the great migrations 112

m. The common people and the magnates: Aristocracy ultimately the predominant force in medieval rural organization — Relation of a landed aristocracy to the village — Possibihty of a survival of the rural organization of the Roman period — Factors in the natural growth of an aristocracy — Influence of the Norman Conquest — Proportions of the different classes as shown by Domesday Book — The manor as an administrative and legal conception — Divergent types revealed by the Domesday Survey 120

rV. The organisation of the manor in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries: The general aspect of a manor — Week works and boon days — Services rendered by crofters — The officers of the manor — Village officials — Destruction of the economic independence of the manor by the development of local markets — Stages in this proc-

V. The end of villeinage in England: The influence of commutation of labor services upon tenure — Complexity of motives underlying commutation — Chronology of the movemeijt — The new yeomanry of England 131

Chapter VI

I. Schmoller's conception of the "town economy" — An unduly literal interpretation of the sources — FormaUsm and legal fictions — Enfranchisement of trade by means of special privileges — Medieval trade territorially extensive but of relatively small volume — Its needs not inadequately met by the complex legal status of trade and traders I34

II. Fairs and the Law Merchant: Fairs and markets — Some fairs especially important for wholesale and for foreign trade — European cycles of fairs — Possible fair cycle in England — Essential and ancillary business at the fairs — Tariffs, tolls, and "free trade" — Enfranchisement conferred by the charters was legal rather than fiscal

— Pie-powder comts: their procedure and the Law Merchant — Special franchises of continental merchants in England .... t37

ni. Associations of merchants: Organization of resident aUen merchants

— Origins of the Teutonic Hanse — Activities of the Hansards —

CONTENTS xi

The Steelyard — Privileges of the Hanse — The Carta Meroatoria — Purveyance, or prise — Struggle to maintain the privileges granted by the Carta Mercatoria — Decline of the Hansards — Merchants of the Staple — Purpose of the Staple — Its location — Origin of the company — Control of the trade in wool — Rise of the Merchant Adventurers — The cloth trade — Struggle with the Hansards . . 146

IV. Township and borough: Distinction between the legal and the economic aspects of urban life — Differentiation between urban and rural Ufe — Military factors in the growth of boroughs — Administrative factors — Economic and legal developments in the thirteenth century — Significance of the late emergence of incorporated towns in connection with SchmoUer's theory — The Gild Merchant — Political decentralization and cosmopolitanism 158

Chapter VII

I. The word "gild" — Three types of gild — French terminology — Brentano's theory — Probably no fraternal element in the craft gild, no direct connection with the modern trade union 165

' II. Religious gilds: References to rehgious gilds at an early date; little information until 1389 — Functions and membership of rehgious gilds — Officers, rules, and customs 168

m. The GUd Merchant: Religious elements in the'gild merchant — Relations with the crafts; craft gilds — GUd merchant and municipality — Essential privileges — Non-resident membership — The sharing of purchases — Officers and meetings 171

rV. The Craft gilds: Religious gilds composed of members of a single craft

— Crafts chartered by the King — Crafts deriving their authority from the municipality — Crafts at Norwich in 1415 .... 176

V. Relation of different types of gild to each other: The gild merchant most powerful when the other types were relatively less prominent

— Rehgious gilds developed contemporaneously with other craft organizations — Confusion of functions and aims — Associations of crafts for ceremonial observances — Occupational statistics — Predominance of small crafts — Craft gilds probably a less conspicuous feature of social Ufe than religious gilds 181

VI. The religious gUds and the crown : The gilds and the Statute of Mortmain — Acquisition of charters from the King — The grant to the Tailors of SaUsbury — Confiscation of gild property in 1547 — Not directly a cause of the decline of the craft gilds — Wage-earners and employers — Companies formed by the employing classes . . . 187

VII. The Statute of Apprentices: Purposes of the statute — Distinctions between the various crafts — ObUgation to follow some calling — The wage-fixing clauses ^ . 191 xii CONTENTS

Chapter VIII

I. Development of technique in the woolen industry — Tj^es of wool and of woolen fabrics — Fundamental processes of the woolen and worsted industries — Characteristic features of woolens and worsteds

— Growth of the worsted industry in England 195

II. The division of labor in the woolen industry — Growth of specialization of tasks — Subordination of dyeing and fulling — Proportions of workers in the worsted industry — Acquisition of capitalistic control by the mercantile class — Spinning not a specialized occupation in the modern sense — Relation of industry to agriculture . . . 201

III. Geography of the woolen industries — Effect of the diffusion of industry upon the towns — The Weaver's Act — Anti-capitalistic purpose of the statute — Importance of the exemptions — Changes in the industries after 1550 209

rV. The scale of manufacture: 1395-96 — The putting-out system at Colchester — The larger and the smaller masters — Importance of the putting-out system about 1450 — Descriptions of the system in the late sixteenth century — Divergent forms — Persistence of these conditions until the early nineteenth century — Sporadic tendencies toward the factory system 215

Chapter IX The Enclosure Movement And Land Reform

I. The meaning of "enclosure" — It3^tegt_mKH)-aEri""^t,iira1 mptliodf)

— The Midland system — Change in the characteristic^sizeofjfaEms

— Social c6nsequSrfic^tJftheictenge"^^^SegTiieM oLthesejclianges — ContintntyoF'the" enclosure movement — Uncertainty of purpose in the early Btai»es; ■'."■. — .' . 225

II. Enclosure of waste — Legal problems involved in. enclosure of the opefrfidds — Rights -of- comffibh' pasture — Enclosure by agreemrat -— "The duty of a "stewarS — ^;^riy enclosures JJartialrr, Creation of precedents for enclosure by act of Parliament — Theory of the""Ehcl6sure Acts — Dangers to smalF prqgrietors.r:r-. Lord Thurlow's criticism of Parliardeiit'ary procedure — Essential difficulties in determining questions of right and title — The problem of common pastures — Social consequences of enclosuig them — Protests at the close of the eighteenth century 232

ni. Early attempts to correct the mistakes of the Enclosure Acts — Allotments and small holdings — Experiments of landowners with allotments — Early legislation — The Act of 1882 — Need of compulsion — The Act of 1887 — The small-holdings movement — Peasant proprietorship — Defects of the Act of 1892 — The Act of 1907 240

CONTENTS xiii

Chapter X

Origin of the phrase "Industrial Revolution" — Social importance of the period compared with other transition periods — Early consciousness of the social transformation among English writers — DifiBculty of characterizing the movement — Identification of the movement with the great inventions an error — Toynbee's emphasis upon the rise of the laissez-faire poUcy — SociaUstic emphasis upon capitalism and the rise of the factory system — Inadequacy of any single formula — Relative independence of the causative factors underlying the changes in the textile and in the metal trades — Genesis of the new cotton industry — The fuel problem and the metal trades — Probable rank of various industrial groups in 1700 — Effect of the Industrial Revolution upon the rank of different groups . . . 247

Statistics of industrial groupings: England in 1851; Prussia in 1855; British India in 1901 — These figures probably indicative of conditions that had long prevailed — Statistics for the early twentieth century reveal the full influence of the Industrial Revolution — Change in the relative importance in industry and agriculture — Tables for British India in 1901; Prance in 1866; the German Empire in 1895 and 1907; France, in 1901 and 1906; England and Wales in 1811, 1821, 1891, and 1901 — Primary factors in industrial location in the old and in the new order — Humidity and cotton spinning — Mineral deposits — Problems of commercial availabihty — Influence of the Industrial Revolution upon population — Gregory King's forecast, 1693 — Actual growth of population in England . . . 257

Chronoloigy of the Industrial Revolution: Stages in the development of inventions — Significance to the individual inventor of the technical equipment of society — Invention in the larger sense a social accomplishment 271

Chapter XI

THE EAST INDIA. COMPANY AND THE VESTED INTERESTS

The English and Dutch Companies for trade with the East Indies — The novelty of Indian cottons — Development of the trade — Limitation of the expansion of English trade in the Spice Islands — Establishments on the continent of India — Distress in the woolen and silk industries — Agitation for protection — The Act of 1696-97, to prohibit the wearing of East Indian goods — Contrast between the French and English pohcies of protection — Relation of the commercial issue to party poUtics in England — The East India Company the focus of discussions of commercial policy throughout the seventeenth century — Thomas Mun's defense of the Company — The place of the balance-of-trade doctrine in the controversy — Nejdv CONTENTS

gotiations of 1713 with Prance — Complexity of the political issue — The Calico Act of 1721 — Exceptions made in favor of the existing cotton industry — Discrepancy between the expectations of the woolen manufacturers and the results of the protective legislation 276

Chapter XII

I. The relation of invention to the rise of the cotton industry — The process of spinning — Carding machines — Continuous and intermittent processes of spinning — The throstle, its limitations — Grades of yarn — Wyatt's claims as an inventor — Probable relations between Wyatt and Paul — Paul's spinning patent of 1758 — Commercial ventures of Wyatt and Paul — Generality of interest in the problem of mechanical spinning — Arkwright's early career — Work on the spinning machine — The patent suits — The jenny — Crompton's mule; its accomplishments, immediately and ultimately; its influence upon the industry — Development of the power-loom . . 287

II. The expansion of the cotton industry: Statistics of consumption of raw cotton — Values of merchandise exported — Values of goods consumed at home and of exports compared with similar statistics of woolens and Unens — Relative importance of the different branches of the textile manufacture — The influence of the spinning inventions upon the costs of yarn, 1779-1882 — Comparison of labor costs of mule spinning with labor costs in India 302

Chapter XIII

I. A new fuel and a new furnace; The change of fuel not an adequate index of the character of the transformation of the metal trades — Substitution of the indirect for the direct process — Malleable iron, cast iron, steel — Persistence of the direct process due to mechanical Umitations — Unsatisfactory results of the direct process — Types of furnace — Transformation of the high bloomery furnace into the modern blast furnace — Dudley's experiments — The Darbys at Colebrookdale — Perfection of a coke-burning furnace — Need of blast — Smeaton's blast pump 314

II. James Watt and the steam engine: The Newcomen engine — Watt's training and profession — Scientific study of heat and the Newcomen engine — His inspiration — Change in the character of the engine as result of Watt's condensing chamber — Mechanical difficulties encountered in building engines — Causes of these diflSculties — Importance of the development of the lathe — The shde rest . . 324

III. The metallurgical problems of the iron industry: Difficulty of eliminating carbon — The reverberatory furnace — Onions' description of

CONTENTS XV

his method of puddling — Uncertainty of the nature of Cort's contribution — Development of the rolling mill — New products . . 329

rV. Sir Henry Bessemer: Special significance of his career — Early training and inventions — The bronze powder scheme — Necessity for secrecy — The capacity of maohine-mdkers tested by the mode of awarding contracts for the machines — Importance of the achievement indicated by their success in executing the contracts — Further experimentation — Genesis of the steel project — Original pmrpose

— Decarburization by means of a blast of air — Development of the converter — Announcement of the new process — Disappointments— Importance of non-phosphorus-bearing ore? — The Thomas and Gilchrist patent — Its influence upon the geography of the European iron industry 334

Chapter XIV

I. The definition of a factory: The factory presumed by early writers to be dependent upon machinery — Aggregation of workers and factory discipline — Irksomeness of disciphne — Early experimentation with the factory system — Reasons for tiip 1atj> rlpyp^fipTripnt — Factories without machinery 346

II. Legal obstacles to the establishment of the factory system: Elizabethan legislation — Breakdown of the system of apprenticeship — The knit stocking industry — Troubles in the West Riding — The attempt to apply the Statute of Apprentices — The Woolen Inquiry and the Export of 1806 352

m. The rise and progress of the factory system: The earliest factories — Development of factories in the cotton industry at the close of the eighteenth century — Conditions in the woolen industry — Factories and the factory population in 1816 — Abnormal proportion of women and children — Probable explanation — Changes in the worsted industry — Pauper apprenticeship — Attempts at regulation — Likelihood of misjudging the progress of the factory system

— Proportions of the industrial population in factories at various dates — The occupational returns of 1901 355

IV. Artisans and machinery : Influence of the transition upon the workers less certain than frequently supposed — Little evidence of hardship among skilled artisans — Importance of the introduction of unskilled labor in the textile trades — Varioiis causes of distress — Machinery an emancipating force 363

Chapter XV

I. The wage-fixing clauses of the Statute of Apprentices — Uncertainty of the extent of their application — Journeymen's organizations in xvi CONTENTS

London: 1667 and 1696 — Weavers' clubs in the West of England about 1727 — Webb's interpretation of the Act of 1756 — Evidence of collective bargaining — The Spitalfields riots — "Subscription societies" — The Spitalfields Act: 1773 — Mode of administration — Later history of the act — Wages regulated according to the price of bread — The ribbon manufacture at Coventry — The big purl time — The list of 1813 — Organizations of the weavers to resist depression of wages — Difficulty of enforcing the list of 1816 — Petition for an extension of the Spitalfields Act — Repeal of the act — Wage lists at Coventry 367

II. The Combination Laws: Difficulty of estimating the importance of the Combination Laws of 1799 and 1800 — Not generally enforced — Probable purpose of the Act of 1799 — The conception of status — The Act of 1800 — The doctrine of conspiracy 377

III. The Laws of 1824 and 1825 : Francis Place — Beginning of the agitation for repeal of the Combination Laws — Contact with Hume and M'CuUoch — The Committee of 1824 — Preparation of the text of the acts — Anticipations of Place — Immediate results of repeal — The Committee of 1826 — Differences between the Acts of 1824 and 1825 — New importance given to the doctrine of conspiracy — Difficulties of unionists — The Act of 1871; a satisfactory but legally ambiguous position 380

Chapter XVI The Protection Of Health And Welfare By The

STATE

L Obstacles to reform and the reformers: New social problems and the unref ormed constitution — Difficulty of creating a central administration in a Parhamentary system — The ideal of local self-government — Development of the agitations for social regulation and for free trade — A. A. Cooper, the seventh Earl of Shaftesbury — Edwin Chadwick 3g7

II. Sanitation: Sewers and methods of removing waste in the early nineteenth century — Conditions in the poorer districts: Liverpool — Chadwick's conception of the modern system — Investigations by the Poor Law Commissioners — The PubUc Health Act of 1848 — Failure of the first Board of Health — Accomplishments of the period 1854r-71 — The legislation of 1871 — Unfortunate policy in the departmental organization of the Local Government Board — The Ministry of Health Act: 1919 395

III. Housing: Importance of housing to public health — Shaftesbury's act — The Torrens Act: 1868 — The Cross Act: 1875 — Subsequent development of the building code — Relative failure of the reconstructive aspects of this legislation — The new housing problem . 403

IV. Factory legislation: Unwillingness of Parliament to legislate di-

CONTENTS xvii

rectly with reference to adult men except in " dangerous trades" — Laissez-faire doctrines unimportant in the history of factory legislation — Necessity of correlation between the spread of the factory system and the development of factory legislation — Nature of opposition to factory legislation in Parliament — Acts prior to 1833 — The agitation begun ia 1831 — The Act of 1833 — Regulation of hours — Extension of the factory code to other industries by the Acts of 1867 and 1878 — Unsatisfactory character of the statistics collected by the factory inspectors — Dangerous trades . . . 407

V. The relief of destitution: The Elizabethan Poor Law — The Law of Settlement: 1662 — Increase in the amount of destitution in the late eighteenth century — Causes — Depression following the Napoleonic Wars — Abandonment of Cholesbury to the poor — The mixed workhouse and out-relief — Abuse of the Poor Law by landlords and farmers — Chadwick's proposals — Inadequacy of the Poor Law of 1834 — The Royal Commission of 1909 . . . .415

VI. Social insurance: Relation of instance to the reUef of destitution — Variety of contingencies to be met — Possibilities of shifting the burden of providing for disabiUty — Insurance a superior form of provision for distress — Liability of employers under the common law — The Compensation Act — HostiUty of workingmen's organizations — Insurance against sickness and disability — Unemployment — Old Age — Probable accomplishments of this legislation .... 422

Chapter XVII

I. Early private tram lines — Lines projected by canal companies as conmion carriers — Richard Trevithick and the non-condensing engine — Steam-driven coaches on the highways — Development of t the tram lines by the collieries in the Newcastle field — George Stephenson — Relation of northern experiments with the locomotive to Trevithick's work — Stephenson's experiments with the resistances created by grades — The Stockton and Darlington Railway — Examination of different methods of steam traction by the promoters of the Liverpool and Manchester project — Stephenson's plan for the line — The locomotive contest — The "Rocket" . . 431