Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

This is the first history of the British railway system written from a modern economic perspective. It uses conterfactual analysis to construct an alternative network to represent the most efficient alternative rail network that could have been constructed given what was known at the time - the first time this has been done.

Excerpt from The British Railway System: Outlines of Its Early Development to the Year 1844 During this period the lines forming the nucleus of all our great systems (except the Great Northern) were opened wholly or in part, and by the end of it the main outlines of our system as we know it to-day were settled for better or worse. In the year 1844 Parliament passed a most important Act which, inter alia, empowered the State at any time after the lapse of 21 years from the passing of any Act for a new railway, reckoning from the year 1844 inclusive, to purchase such railway, at a price equivalent to 25 years' purchase of the annual divisible profits of such railway, reckoning these divisible profits by the average of the last 3 years before the notice to purchase is given. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.