RAILWAYS AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN ENGLAND AND WALES 1840–1870.

The article focuses on the railways and economic growth in England and Wales. The article refers from the book "New Economic History," by Gary Hawke written in and about the United Kingdom. Several chapters in the book are devoted to the developments of input and output measures, and these are used to compute an index of total factor productivity for the years 1840-1890. The pricing policy of railroads is studied, estimates of the iron-demand generated in construction calculated, the cyclical impact of railroad expenditures described, and possible benefits external to the railroad users discussed. The heart of the book is the calculation of the social savings generated by British railroads over the period 1840-1870, with particular attention paid to the year 1865. The savings in resources attributable to shifting from one mode to another then depends upon the elasticity of the demand for transport services, the cost per ton-mile of shipping by non-railroad means (canals, roads, etc.) and the cost per ton-mile of shipping by railroads.