Page:Indian Journal of Economics Volume 2.djvu/24

 16 H. STANLEY JEVON$ such emporium, which has been a trading centre or generations past, has great prestige, and a kind of good-will arising purely from the long-established habits, of up-country dealers journeying thither to make their purchases and of petty merchants resorting there to dispose of raw sqmh a centre are assets. It is an be put into the with such an produce. also one advantage nost direct emporium, The of credit its to facilities of most important any district to communication possible and conseqnently the streams of traffic for a distance of at least 150 miles in every direction should be directed such a town. This principle is attended to in India, because interests of railway owners primarily by the often or even really, conflict with it. A owned or worked by upon no means immediate apparently, main line company, for of railway a example, wants by its branches to' direct traffic down the main line, ignoring the fact that it nay be providing an exceedingly roundabout route nearest mnporium. Again, a native state or a board will desire to keep a. branch, which it has financed thereby to the district wholly or as much as possible within its borders, or to feed traffic to its principal town, ignoring the interests of the producers and consumers 'of its agricultural territory who would gain much by having the shortest connection with the nears. st great emporium. 6. Political and Fiscal Barriers.--Customs duties are barriers against trade, which always seegs to avoid them. This is equally true whether the dty be on import or export, whether levied at ports or on internal trade, and whether protective in characer or intended for revenue for purposes in lnany countries, the alignment been modified, or made completely it would otherwise have been, only. Consequently, of railways has different to what because the frontier of