The fact is that carriage by road being quicker, more reliable and less subject to loss or damage,
it possesses advantage to which businessmen often attach a considerable value. However, it may
well be that a saving induces the merchant to use a canal; he can buy warehouses and increase
his floating capital in order to have a sufficient supply of goods on hand to protect himself against
slowness and irregularity of the canal, and if all told the saving in transport gives him a cost
advantage, he will decide in favour of the new route