Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
regions at acceptable costs.
25
Improvement of transport thus was of the essence, and
this set in earliest and most thorough in Britain, where the
'
preceded and accelerated the industrial revolution. Road transport was improved
and accelerated by means of the turnpike trusts, joint stock companies, frequently
made up of local notables who were given concessions to manage and improve
certain roads for
'
transport revolution
xed periods of time. In exchange the companies received the road
tolls to cover their expenses and make some pro
t. And water transport was
improved by shortening existing rivers and by cutting new canals, again funded and
managed by joint-stock companies.
26
The aggregate effect of these measures was
more complete economic integration: by signi
cantly cutting transport costs parts
of the country hitherto too far from the London market were opened up to the
demand pull of the capital. At the same time this also enabled London producers
and retailers to
nd consumers in parts of the country hitherto not really accessible.
In France, the growth of Paris (some 500,000 inhabitants by 1700), prevented the
development of any major town in an orbit of approximately 100 km. The insatiable
demand of such a large city absorbed all possible food surpluses within that region,
the
and a particular division of labour, specialized on organizing the
food supply of Paris, emerged: several villages in the vicinity of Paris had spe-
cialized on bread-baking, the village of Gonesse counted 160 bakers by 1600. As in
London a ring of market gardeners had developed around the capital producing fruit
and vegetables for the Parisian tables, peaches in Montreuil and cherries in
Montmorency, both towns which today form part of Greater Paris, but were at
13 km from Paris within half a day from the fruit markets of the capital.
27
For meat provision the large cities of Europe increasingly came to rely on an
international long-distance trade with cattle, which was reared on the thinly pop-
ulated grazing grounds of Eastern and Northern Europe, particularly in Hungary,
Poland and Denmark, from where large herds of oxen were driven each year to the
centers of consumption. By 1600 this long-distance cattle trade was one of the most
signi
'
Ile-de-France
'
ows, its value was about half as large as the international
grain trade.
28
As a downside to improved nutrition at least for more well-to-do
urban dwellers this large-scale migration of cattle also promoted a corresponding
mobility of microbes and cattle diseases which threatened to spread across the
whole European stock of animals.
29
cant commodity
25
Reed (
1996
).
26
Reed, London; Bagwell (
1988
).
27
Jacquart (
1996
).
28
Blanchard (
1986
).
29
See measures by public authorities in North Germany to check the spread of cattle diseases
while still allowing the trade with healthy animals from Denmark to the centres of consumption in
South Germany: H
ΓΌ
nninger (
2011
).
