Canals, coal and regional growth during the industrial revolution

… the great expence [sic] of land carriage will ever deprive us of many useful and desirable articles, particularly mines and minerals, which must lie dormant in the bowels of the earth, to the great loss of the landowner and the public, unless some more cheap and expeditious way of carriage be opened to the internal parts of the country. ¹
… there can be no doubt that a greater extension of our distant navigation has arisen from a system which has, in effect, converted the internal parts of our island into coasts. ¹