Nor is the practice recently introduced in the interest of railway companies. In the Act authorising the very first railway on which steam was used, the Stockton and Darlington, the principle is recognised. The tolls upon the coal shipped on board any vessel for export were fixed at one halfpenny per ton per mile, while the toll on all other coal was 4d. per ton per mile. Each of the special export rates has been made, it may be truly said, at the instance of some manufacturer or shipper who would be injured by their withdrawal. In granting such terms, railway companies have endeavoured to satisfy the urgent demands of customers. And if the rate to one intermediate place is fair and reasonable in itself, is it any substantial grievance that it is higher than the rate on goods for shipment?[15]
[15] The rate for the carriage of flour from Minneapolis for consumption at Milwaukee or Chicago is one-third higher than the rate for flour for shipment.
Special import rates have been much more attacked; but when the principle is fairly carried out, they are no less defensible than export rates. Most of the objections to them come, it will be found, from persons who believe that they have a vested interest in certain produce and trades; often they are assailed by the very persons who are the defenders of reduced export rates. The majority of special import rates naturally arise out of sea competition. The existence of the import rates for fresh meat and provisions from Liverpool and Bristol to London, which have been especially condemned, is due, not, as is assumed, to the arbitrary action of companies, but to the demands and necessities of traders. Those who are interested in the trade of Liverpool, the great seat of the American trade, and in the steamers sailing between America and Liverpool, desire to compete with the direct sea communication with London, or with other ports near to it. In like manner the shipping companies and others who are interested in the trade of Southampton claim special rates and facilities in favour of that port. Naturally they wish that a part of the traffic should go _viâ_ Southampton; and a compliance with their wish benefits the public.
Special import rates are not charged on foreign goods merely because they are foreign; the chief, though not the only, explanation of their existence, is the desire of steamboat companies and merchants that a part of the goods consumed in other places may be carried through the port in which they are interested, instead of the goods being all sent through ports nearer to or direct to the ultimate destination. The railways have, in fact, complied with urgent local demands.