Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/232

  horses pass, both gig and saddle-horses, also coaches, and not one took the least notice of it. 



you considered the effect which will be produced upon British agriculture, by substituting, on common roads, Steam Carriages for Carriages drawn by horses?—I have.

What do you conceive that effect would be?—I think it would produce very beneficial effects upon agriculture.

State your reasons for believing that agriculture will be benefited by substituting inanimate for animal power, consuming the produce of the soil?—I conceive that agriculture is prosperous in proportion as the quantity of produce brought to market exceeds the quantity expended in bringing it there. If Steam Carriages be employed instead of Carriages drawn by horses, it will be because that mode of conveyance is found the cheapest. Cheapening the carriage of the produce of the soil must necessarily diminish the quantity of produce expended in bringing a given quantity to market, and will therefore increase the net surplus, which net surplus constitutes the encouragement to agriculture. For example, if it requires the expenditure of two hundred quarters of corn to raise four hundred, and the expenditure of one hundred more on carriage, to bring the four hundred to market, then the net surplus will be one hundred.—If, by the substitution of Steam Carriages, you can bring the same quantity to market, with an expenditure of fifty quarters, then your net surplus is increased from one hundred to one hundred and fifty quarters; and consequently, either the farmer's profit 