Inland Waterways

Abstract

The improvement of rivers and the construction of canals was an important feature of transport development during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. While waterway improvements occurred in previous centuries, particularly in the Dutch economy, there was a concentration of activity into these two centuries. It was seen in the previous chapter that the coming of the railways caused a shift in the pattern of road services rather than their catastrophic decline. Similarly, the railway did not spell the collapse of waterway services in most countries and in some areas it was followed by an increase in waterborne traffic.