IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ehsrev/v62y2009i1p128-152.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Turnpike trusts and property income: new evidence on the effects of transport improvements and legislation in eighteenth‐century England1

Author

Listed:
  • DAN BOGART

Abstract

Numerous Acts of Parliament changed the financing of transport infrastructure in eighteenth‐century England. This paper examines the economic effects of turnpike acts, which greatly improved road infrastructure by introducing tolls. It shows that turnpike trusts increased property income in local areas by at least 20 per cent. The findings shed light on why local property owners promoted and managed turnpikes. They also show that turnpike trusts accounted for at least 20 per cent of the total growth in real land rents between 1690 and 1815, and added at least 1.65 per cent to national income in 1815.

Suggested Citation

  • Dan Bogart, 2009. "Turnpike trusts and property income: new evidence on the effects of transport improvements and legislation in eighteenth‐century England1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(1), pages 128-152, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:62:y:2009:i:1:p:128-152
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2008.00434.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2008.00434.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1468-0289.2008.00434.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Klein, Daniel B, 1990. "The Voluntary Provision of Public Goods? The Turnpike Companies of Early America," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 28(4), pages 788-812, October.
    2. Bogart, Dan, 2005. "Did Turnpike Trusts Increase Transportation Investment in Eighteenth-Century England?," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 65(2), pages 439-468, June.
    3. Turner,M. E. & Beckett,J. V. & Afton,B., 1997. "Agricultural Rent in England, 1690–1914," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521450539, September.
    4. Clark, Gregory, 2002. "Land rental values and the agrarian economy: England and Wales, 1500–1914," European Review of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 6(3), pages 281-308, December.
    5. Bogart, Dan, 2005. "Turnpike trusts and the transportation revolution in 18th century England," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 479-508, October.
    6. Dorian Gerhold, 1996. "Productivity change in road transport before and after turnpiking, 1690-1840," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 49(3), pages 491-515, August.
    7. Allen, Robert C., 1992. "Enclosure and the Yeoman: The Agricultural Development of the South Midlands 1450-1850," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198282969.
    8. E.H. Hunt & S.J. Pam, 2001. "Managerial failure in late Victorian Britain?: Land use and English agriculture[The author]," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 54(2), pages 240-266, May.
    9. Clark, Gregory, 1998. "Commons Sense: Common Property Rights, Efficiency, and Institutional Change," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 58(1), pages 73-102, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Redding, Stephen J. & Turner, Matthew A., 2015. "Transportation Costs and the Spatial Organization of Economic Activity," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 1339-1398, Elsevier.
    2. Remi Jedwab & Alexander Moradi, 2016. "The Permanent Effects of Transportation Revolutions in Poor Countries: Evidence from Africa," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 98(2), pages 268-284, May.
    3. Tim Leunig, 2010. "Social Savings," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 775-800, December.
    4. Cannon, Edmund & Brunt, Liam, 2013. "Integration in the English wheat market 1770-1820," CEPR Discussion Papers 9504, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    5. Chen, Jiandong & Yu, Jie & Shen, Zhiyang & Song, Malin & Zhou, Ziqi, 2023. "Debt financing and maintenance expenditure: Theory and evidence on government-operated toll roads in China," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 47(1).
    6. Dan Bogart, 2008. "Competition and Commitment: the Supply and Enforcement of Rights to Improve Roads and Rivers in England, 1600-1750," Working Papers 070817, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    7. Dan Bogart, 2011. "Did the Glorious Revolution contribute to the transport revolution? Evidence from investment in roads and rivers," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(4), pages 1073-1112, November.
    8. Bogart, Dan, 2007. "Neighbors, networks, and the development of transport systems: Explaining the diffusion of turnpike trusts in eighteenth-century England," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 238-262, March.
    9. Dan Bogart, 2012. "Profiting from Public Works: Financial Returns to Infrastructure and Investment Strategies during Britain's Industrial Revolution," Working Papers 121304, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dan Bogart & Gary Richardson, 2011. "Property Rights and Parliament in Industrializing Britain," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 54(2), pages 241-274.
    2. Dan Bogart, 2011. "Did the Glorious Revolution contribute to the transport revolution? Evidence from investment in roads and rivers," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 64(4), pages 1073-1112, November.
    3. Dan Bogart, 2013. "The Transportation Revolution in Industrializing Britain: A Survey," Working Papers 121306, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    4. Brunt, Liam & Cannon, Edmund, 2013. "Integration in the English wheat market 1770-1820," Discussion Paper Series in Economics 12/2013, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Economics.
    5. Bogart, Dan & Lefors, Michael & Satchell, A.E.M., 2019. "Canal carriers and creative destruction in English transport," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 1-24.
    6. Bogart, Dan, 2007. "Neighbors, networks, and the development of transport systems: Explaining the diffusion of turnpike trusts in eighteenth-century England," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 238-262, March.
    7. Mark Koyama, 2012. "Prosecution Associations in Industrial Revolution England: Private Providers of Public Goods?," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(1), pages 95-130.
    8. Bekar, Cliff T. & Reed, Clyde G., 2003. "Open fields, risk, and land divisibility," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 308-325, July.
    9. Joel Mokyr & Hans-Joachim Voth, 2012. "Understanding Growth in Europe, 1700–1870: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Economic Sociology, National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 13(5), pages 57-102.
    10. Mats Olsson & Fredrik Bergenfeldt & Patrick Svensson, 2011. "Wagons at work: a transport revolution in the age of agrarian transition in Sweden?," Working Papers 11018, Economic History Society.
    11. Kopsidis, Michael & Wolf, Nikolaus, 2012. "Agricultural Productivity Across Prussia During the Industrial Revolution: A Thünen Perspective," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 72(3), pages 634-670, August.
    12. Broadberry, Stephen & de Pleijt, Alexandra M., 2021. "Capital and Economic Growth in Britain, 1270-1870: Preliminary findings," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 546, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    13. Dorian Gerhold, 2014. "The development of stage coaching and the impact of turnpike roads, 1653–1840," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(3), pages 818-845, August.
    14. Joel Mokyr & John V. C. Nye, 2007. "Distributional Coalitions, the Industrial Revolution, and the Origins of Economic Growth in Britain," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 74(1), pages 50-70, July.
    15. Robert C. Allen, 2008. "A Review of Gregory Clark's A Farewell to Alms: A Brief Economic History of the World," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 46(4), pages 946-973, December.
    16. Allen, Robert C., 2009. "Engels' pause: Technical change, capital accumulation, and inequality in the british industrial revolution," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 418-435, October.
    17. Dan Bogart & Gary Richardson, 2006. "Law and economic development in England: new evidence from acts of Parliament, 1510-1850," Working Papers 6018, Economic History Society.
    18. Guido Alfani & Hector García Montero, 2022. "Wealth inequality in pre‐industrial England: A long‐term view (late thirteenth to sixteenth centuries)," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 75(4), pages 1314-1348, November.
    19. Dan Bogart, 2012. "Profiting from Public Works: Financial Returns to Infrastructure and Investment Strategies during Britain's Industrial Revolution," Working Papers 121304, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    20. Bryon Carson, 2021. "Alain Bertaud, Order Without Design: How markets shape cities. Cambridge, MA: MIT press, 2018. Xiv + 419 pages. USD 40.00 (cloth)," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 34(4), pages 517-522, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:62:y:2009:i:1:p:128-152. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ehsukea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.