An examination of the literature on inland transport in Britain in the early modern period might lead one to believe that the most important method of conveying goods was by road. In the last twenty years there has been a plethora of articles on the role of road transport, including important pieces by John Chartres, Gerard L. Turnbull, Michael J. Freeman and, most recently, Dorian Gerhold. The effect of this research has been to disprove the idea that road travel was at best difficult, and at worst, in winter, near impossible, when mud, inclines, potholes and other hazards prevented mobility. It is now clear that there was a network of carriers, for both short-distance local travel and long distances, which provided regular and reasonably reliable journey times for a range of commodities. Road transport grew in significance over the period. Coastal shipping was equally important, however, and the aim of this paper is to highlight its role in the transport developments which preceded the coming of the railways.

The pendulum has swung too far in one direction, and the bias in the literature in favour of road transport might be mistaken as a sign of the relative unimportance of coastal shipping. This essay sets out to correct that impression. It isolates economic variables relevant to transport and reassesses the relative importance of coastal shipping in light of those factors. Material is drawn chiefly from secondary sources. Little primary research has been done since T.S. Willan wrote his masterpiece over fifty years ago, which is a la-mentable reflection on the neglect of the coasting trade. Thus, a further aim of this review is to indicate some areas where further research might be profitable. Chartres, Turnbull and others have shown that road transport was a normal method of moving goods as early as the sixteenth century and that its importance increased with Britain's economic growth. By the eighteenth century there existed a reasonably well-integrated network of carriers capable of moving significant quantities of freight. The price of the service was not in all cases the only, or even the most important, consideration in choosing a transport mode. Sometimes speed, reliability of arrival time or regularity of service was of more importance to customers. There is no simple rule as to how prices, speed or reliability compared between different transport modes.