Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
popular in the sixteenth century, when merchants used them in large numbers,
and persisted as the primary means of transportation for the elite until the
nineteenth. However, land transportation prior to the Industrial Revolution
rarely operated at more than 10 miles per hour, a pace essentially unchanged
for two millennia. The needs of the early capitalist economy for a serviceable
circulation space were certainly not met by the deplorable road system of
seventeenth-century England. In 1639, for example, Charles I took four days
to ride 300 miles. Wheeled tra
c essentially ceased during the winter months,
when people were marooned in their villages. In seventeenth-century Britain,
following the Civil War, quasi-private interests rather than the national state
dominated road construction, and the quickening economy generated intense
interest in better long-distance roads capable of faster tra
c. In 1663, Charles
II authorized the
first turnpike, which was little more than a graded dirt road
extending from London to York and con
fi
fi
ned to government uses until the
establishment of the General Post O
ce later in his reign. British turnpikes
and canals were
financed through a series of local trusts and joint-stock com-
panies. Under the numerous Turnpike Acts, British roads became increasingly
well drained and surfaced, reducing the journey times among towns.
In Britain, toll roads or turnpikes were covered by a thicket of private
haulage or coach services, which served the rapidly growing urban system,
competing as much in speed as in price. The stagecoach advanced to its des-
tination in “stages,” at which fresh horses were provided, and its savings in
time were incremental but cumulative. For example, along the Edinburgh-
London route, transport speeds rose from 6 miles per hour during the 1750s
to 12 or more in the 1830s. Thus, from London to Bristol took 48 hours in
1754; 30 years later, it took only 16 hours (Landes 1983:240), but at the cost
of driving horses to death by exhaustion. In 1830, movement by coach
among Britain's major towns was four to
fi
five times faster than in 1750 (May
and Thrift 2001). As road networks expanded throughout eighteenth-century
Europe, the associated accessibility surfaces became distinctly urban in nature
(Figure 3.3), heavily favoring metropoles of capital accumulation that rapidly
were becoming the privileged spaces of the bourgeoisie.
Much of the impetus to the formation of road networks was the need for
an e
fi
cient national postal system. Modern postal systems, with their ability
to bind people in distant locations together, are a product of the letter-happy
Renaissance and Enlightenment. The widespread use of paper transformed
the postal service into an integral part of state-provided services, which were
originally designed to preserve state security. In 1464, Louis XI, inspired by
the Roman post (which was in turn modeled after that of Cyrus the Great in
Persia in 529
), established a network throughout France. England fol-
lowed suit in 1481. For Charles V, the post was essential to linking the centers
and peripheries of the Hapsburg and Holy Roman Empires. The Hapsburgs
established postal stations,
bc
fixed delivery times, intermeshed routes, and
continuous transport among their provinces by 1490, most of which was
organized by the Taxis family in the heritable position of imperial postmaster
fi
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