Railways in the Victorian Economy

Bibliographic Data

ID23403123
AuthorsMark Casson (0000-0003-2907-6538, corresponding author)
Year2009
Pages30-57
Publication date2009-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeCHAPTER
VenueThe world's first railway system (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherOxford University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199213979.003.0002
OpenAlexW2487152921
ISBN9780199213979
LanguageEN
Citations received11

This chapter argues that Victorian Britain was not so committed to laissez faire as some historians have suggested. Although railways were privately promoted they needed to be authorized individually by Local & Personal Acts of Parliament. Railways were only one of a number of innovative types of project promoted in Victorian Britain; others included ports and harbours, and gas, electricity, and water schemes. Railways connected mining and manufacturing districts to ports, and connected major towns and cities to London. Together with ocean shipping, they formed a crucial part of the steam-powered inter-modal international system of transport on which the British Empire was based.

Business · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Electricity · Empire · Parliament · Political science · Engineering · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · History · Law

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