Introduction

This is a study of canal transport during the British Industrial Revolution. Focusing on Manchester, this book will provide the first detailed regional history of canals, their trade and their economic impact during the first Industrial Revolution. Manchester provides an ideal case study for analysing the interplay between canals, transport and industrialisation. Not only was Manchester the industrial and commercial hub of the British cotton industry and the most innovative and fastest-growing manufacturing centre, but the town was also a pioneer developer of the new transport systems that carried the escalating local, national and international commodity flows generated by this