Abstract
This chapter focuses on the revolution in transport. At the same time as railways and steamships were being developed, many people were suffering from the structural upheavals that industrialization had induced. Everything that was evil and ugly was being attributed by some contemporaries as being the result of the new machines which were forcing people to work in factories and to live in the squalid industrial towns. By reducing distances and increasing trade, the development of railways and steamships demonstrated that machines could be beneficial for everyone. Railways in Britain were a consequence of economic growth rather than a cause, and came into being to meet a need rather than to create a demand. The Government did not build railways in Britain, and they were not built to any kind of plan, though Parliamentary approval was needed for the construction of new lines, and many regulations were passed laying down how they were to be run.
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