Communications

Abstract

The publication of a prospectus advertising the intention to promote a company was the first stage in railway construction. A provisional committee would then have a Bill introduced in Parliament to create a company empowered to purchase land and contract for the construction of the line, and permitted to raise the necessary funds by issuing shares. In the case of the Liverpool and Manchester, the first line to be worked throughout by locomotives, the prospectus had to be something of a manifesto as well. Notice the ‘Manchester School’ economics and also the relatively local nature of the market to be catered for. The attention given to passenger traffic is also limited. In fact, half the line’s revenue was to come from this, and it was speed in passenger rather than freight transit that was to influence the promotion of most of the early railways. It is also interesting to note that Henry Booth, one of the scheme’s main promoters, was the uncle of Charles Booth the social investigator, and that Edward Pease, secretary to the Fabian Society and close associate of the Webbs, came from the Quaker family which built the Stockton and Darlington. The provincial commercial entrepreneurs were not invariably as dedicated to the pursuit of profits as their critics made out, and when the energy and originality of the provincial intellect was harnessed to a genuine social concern, its contribution would be very effective.