Easy communication lessens the time occupied in the transport; and a
saving of time lessens the distance, or our notion of distance. This
effects a saving of money: and a saving of money permits of a greater
employment of capital. The man who can only afford to keep one traveller
soliciting orders for his goods, will thus be enabled to keep two;
because the expense of travelling will be reduced a half. Or it may be,
he will find it more advantageous to employ the saving in the production
of a more delicate and desirable article in the way of his trade. The
increased traffic from place to place will give likewise an impulse to
business, which, in the present stagnant times, is most desirable. The
manufacturer in Scotland will find the London market more easily arrived
at: and the merchant in the metropolis will be able to get his orders
more rapidly given and executed. A conveyance which, in good management,
would be a weekly one, is, in bad management, a monthly one: and the
carrier is obliged to quadruple his charge for the transport. To meet
this charge the merchant has to add to the cost of the article, and so
on throughout the various gradations of mercantile transition, until the
consumer pays the necessarily increased price.
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