The Privatization of Roads and Highways - Ludwig von Mises Institute

146 The Privatization of Roads and Highways
From the perspective of history, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion
that private turnpikes were the norm. For example, in the
view of Shorey Peterson:
But history shows, if two notable instances establish a rule, that
when highways come to play a major part in transportation, the
view of them in strict collective terms breaks down both in theory
and in practice. This was true in the 18th and early 19th centuries
when the growing commerce of the Industrial Revolution
turned to the public roads for accelerated and cheapened movement.
The local governments were unable to take care of the
traffic; and turnpike trusts of a quasi-private nature were set up
to exploit the discoveries of Telford and McAdam on a business
basis. Toll gates might seem offensive by customary usage, but
there was effective logic in the idea that highway service, unlike
other basic government activities, might be developed by ordinary
investment standards and financed by specific beneficiaries,
rather than the general public. 65
If every dirt track, muddy path, narrow passageway, and
winding route were counted, of course, the actual mileage of
public highways was far in excess of the turnpikes. Jackman, citing
two historical reports, calculates that in 1820,
out of a total length of about 125,000 miles of road, only a little
over 20,000 miles, or roughly, one-sixth of the whole, was turnpike;
and even by 1838 there was only 22,000 miles of turnpike,
while the amount of ordinary highway was computed as not
less than 104,770 miles. 66
Longmans, Green, 1922), pp. 155–59, toll roads, or turnpikes, were in operation
as early as 1662 and 1670 but did not achieve a modest frequency until
1691. The earliest historical example on record, however, seems to be much
earlier: “Authority seems to have been given in 1267 to levy a toll in
Gloucestershire Manor” (ibid., p. 157).
65Peterson, “The Highway from the Point of View of the Economist,” pp.
192–23.
66Jackman, The Development of Transportation in Modern England, p. 234.
The two reports he cites are “Report from the Committee of the House of