HISTORY OF TRANSPORT Early Inland and Ocean Transport.—Where rivers were available, as in China and Egypt, rafts and boats were used in the early stages of civilization, and it was natural that canals extending or connecting river channels should be dug. The Phoenicians, Greeks and Romans were able to navigate the ocean in vessels equipped with sails and with one to three banks of oars; and it was by means of these craft, that they established and maintained their colonies. The Roman armies and their equipment and supplies were transported to Carthage or Gaul in these boats. The early civilizations developed in river regions with special opportunities of production and transport, and about the Mediterranean, an inland sea providing a navigable highway. Rome built up and maintained a far-reaching empire by military power, by an efficient system of law and administration and by building roads. Without her system of roads, she could not have governed her empire. When the Roman power was overthrown, and road building ceased in Britain, Gaul and Mediterranean lands, economic, social and political life became local. In course of time a feudal society developed that prevailed for centuries. The forces that brought about the change from the feudal to a national organization of society were many, but the improvements in facilities of transport by sea and land were potent factors.
The mariner's compass, though the properties of the lodestone were known in China and India long before they were in Europe, did not have much influence in the East because the Orientals were not maritime people; but in Europe 'from the 14th century on, mariners could sail by the compass whither they would, and by the end of the 15th century the sailing vessel had carried men to America and around Africa to India. The world was known to be a sphere and the new continent of America had been dis covered. The services rendered by the sailing vessel from the 15th to the 19th century in the discovery, settlement and develop ment of new lands, are well known. It is, indeed, remarkable that these slow-going craft of only 8o to 30o tons' capacity could have so influenced the world's history. The largest of the three
vessels in which Columbus made the voyage that resulted in the discovery of America, the "Santa Maria," was a decked ship of zoo tons; the "Pinta" and the "Nina" were caravels of 5o and 4o tons respectively. It took from Aug. 3 to Oct. 12, ten weeks, to make the passage via the Canary islands to Watling's island in the Bahamas. The sailing vessel provided a transport unit and facility appropriate to the commercial requirements of the 17th and 18th centuries. Trade, still in large part barter, was in small quantities, and the ships were in most instances operated by the merchants in the conduct of their business. Traders could advantageously send the small vessels of that day to shallow harbours as well as to deep ones. The common carrier, as distinct from the merchant, operating vessels over fixed routes did not become general until the 19th century.
Road and Canal Building in the 17th and 18th Centuries. —France was the leader among European countries in developing a modernized inland transport system. The work was begun in 1597 by Sully, who made a start with the task of creating a national system of roads surfaced with broken stone. The great road-builder of France, however, was Colbert, who became comptroller of France in 1661. By enforcing the feudal system of compulsory labour of all able-bodied peasants he brought about the surfacing of 15,000m. of road. The roads thus built were not scientifically constructed and maintained. In 1775, Tresaquet, by making provision for drainage of the roadway, began the construction of better roads and he substituted a continuing force of paid workers in place of the intermittent labour under the corvee system. Two Scotsmen however, Thomas Telford (1757-1834) and John Loudon MacAdam (1756-1836) were the first to build roads according to the scientific methods that have been followed to the present day, emphasizing the necessity of providing a well-drained roadway.