Abstract:
The pages of Economic History are filled with accounts of far reaching, and often abrupt, dislocations in the relative rates of economic development between one area and another; of communities and towns expanding or decaying; of economic activity waxing and waning; and, in a large proportion of cases,these dislocations may be traced back to their origin in some sudden burst of scientific improvement in the techniques of transportation. An increase in the size of merchant vessels, made possible by improvements in the science of ship building, necessitates greater depths of water, encourages the development of new harbours, and frequently leads to the slow at stagnation of well established ports, e.g. the shifting of the centre of gravity of shipping activity in the Severn from Bristol to Avonmouth, and the similar movement from Yarra River to Port Melbourne. In a apace of little more than fifty years, railways altered the economic face of the world when, for example, the opening up of the Middle West of North America by rail changed not only the degree of specialisation in that area but also the whole pattern of English agriculture. The invention of the internal combustion engine and the evolution of the motor car have revolutionised town planning, have helped to break down the barriers between town and country, and have extended markets until they overlap each other with a consequent expansion of some localised industries and the decline of others. Air transport is in the process of changing world economic trends at the present time in a manner which, though not yet so obvious; is likely in the long run to be as fundamental.
