Book I: Chapter 3 - Page 2

till a long time after that those
improvements extend themselves to the inland parts of the country. A broad-wheeled waggon,
attended by two men, and drawn by eight horses, in about six weeks time, carries and brings
back between London and Edinburgh near four ton weight of goods. In about the same time a
ship navigated by six or eight men, and sailing between the ports of London and Leith,
frequently carries and brings back two hundred ton weight of goods. Six or eight men,
therefore, by the help of water-carriage, can carry and bring back, in the same time, the same
quantity of goods between London and Edinburgh as fifty broad-wheeled waggons, attended
by a hundred men, and drawn by four hundred horses. Upon two hundred tons of goods,
therefore, carried by the cheapest land-carriage from London to Edinburgh, there must be
charged the maintenance of a hundred men for three weeks, and both the maintenance and
what is nearly equal to maintenance the wear and tear of four hundred horses, as well as of
fifty great waggons. Whereas, upon the same quantity of goods carried by water, there is to be
charged only the maintenance of six or eight men, and the wear and tear of a ship of two
hundred tons burthen, together with the value of the superior risk, or the difference of the
insurance between land and water-carriage. Were there no other communication between
those two places, therefore, but by land-carriage, as no goods could be transported from the
one to the other, except such whose price was very considerable in proportion to their weight,
they could carry on but a small part of that commerce which at present subsists between them,
and consequently could give but a small part of that encouragement which they at present
mutually afford to each other's industry. There could be little or no commerce of any kind
between the distant parts of the world. What goods could bear the expense of land-carriage
between London and Calcutta ? Or if there were any so precious as to be able to support this
expense, with what safety could they be transported through the territories of so many
barbarous nations? Those two cities, however, at present carry on a very considerable
commerce with each other, and by mutually affording a market, give a good deal of
encouragement to each other's industry.

Since such, therefore, are the advantages of water-carriage, it is natural that the first
improvements of art and industry should be made where this conveniency opens the whole
world for a market to the produce of every sort of labour, and that they should always be
much later in extending themselves into the inland parts of the country. The inland parts of the
country can for a long time have no other market for the greater part of their goods, but the
country which lies round