“ Wherever the division of labor and the localization of industry have reached a high degree of development transportation necessarily attains a correspondingly high development. The rise of industry on a great scale and the creation of efficient means of transportation mutually condition each other.
More than a thousand years before our era Phœnician ships were trading in the Mediterranean, and later along the shores of the same sea the Greek cities built up their colonial and trade system. ”

“ The discovery of America made them profitable, and helped to shift the centre of trade from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, from the Italian cities to the Portuguese, the Spanish, and the Dutch. The growth of colonial empires, based essentially on transportation, marks a most important era in the world's economic history. ”

“ Rome was relatively late in developing maritime traffic, but by the time of the Empire an extensive commercial system had arisen, bringing to Rome the raw produce of Sicily and North Africa, and extending westward even beyond Gibraltar. ”

“ Before the introduction of iron ships American builders were greatly favored by the cheapness of native timber, and for this and other reasons American shipping was dominant in the world's carrying trade. ”

“ In England little effective action was taken by the central Government, and, despite many ‘Turnpike Acts’ (granting rights to levy tolls in return for maintaining roads) the English highways remained poor throughout the eighteenth century, till the efficient road-making methods of McAdam (1756-1836) and Telford made possible the great improvements of the nineteenth. ”

“ The tonnage engaged in foreign traffic was 667,000 in 1800; and, though somewhat set back by the War of 1812, it rose to 1,439,000 in 1850 and 2,497,000 in 1861. This was its maximum. The coasting trade has continued to rise from 1,177,000 in 1840 to 2,645,000 in 1860 and 4,859,000 in 1902, including vessels of all sizes. But foreign shipping had fallen to 1,314,000 in 1880, and in 1902 was but 873,000 tons. While in 1860 63 per cent. of the imports and exports of the United States was carried in American vessels, in 1870 the percentage was only 33.1 ”