COMPANY. SHARE. PRICE. DIVIDEND. £ s. d. £ s. d. £ s. d. Ashton and Oldham 97 18 0 310 0 0 5 0 0 Barnsley 160 0 0 340 0 0 12 0 0 Grand Junction 100 0 0 296 0 0 10 0 0 Glamorganshire 172 13 4 280 0 0 13 12 8 Grantham 150 0 0 190 0 0 10 0 0 Leicester 140 0 0 390 0 0 14 0 0 Monmouthshire 100 0 0 245 0 0 10 0 0 Melton Mowbray 100 0 0 255 0 0 11 0 0 Mersey and Irwell -- 1000 0 0 35 0 0 Neath 100 0 0 400 0 0 15 0 0 Shrewsbury 125 0 0 206 0 0 10 0 0 Stourbridge 145 0 0 220 0 0 10 10 0 Stroudwater 150 0 0 450 0 0 31 10 0 Trent and Mersey (half share) 100 0 0 2300 0 0 75 0 0* Warwick and Birmingham 100 0 0 320 0 0 11 0 0 Warwick and Knapton 100 0 0 280 0 0 11 0 0 * And bonus. These figures, it will be seen, are given for years when the "canal mania"--at its height between 1791 and 1794--had long been over, and they suggest, therefore, _bona fide_ market values based on business done and dividends paid. High as they are, it is doubtful if they tell the whole story. I have mentioned on page 218 that in their petition to the House of Commons against the proposed railway, or tramway, between Merthyr and Cardiff, the Glamorganshire Canal Company represented that they were restrained by their Act from paying more than a "moderate" dividend. The dividend they were authorised to pay was one of eight per cent; but there is a tradition in South Wales that the company, after checking effectively the threatened railway competition, attained to phenomenal prosperity, and resorted to an ingenious expedient as a means of deriving further pecuniary advantage from the waterway without exceeding the statutory limitation in regard to the dividend to be paid. This expedient took the form of a suspension of all tolls for a large part of every year, the use of the canal being free to the public for {239}the period so arranged. In some years, it is said, no tolls were paid for six months at a time. This practice was found preferable, for certain members of the managing committee--ironmasters or large traders in the district--to a reduction of tolls to be in force throughout the year, their practice being to keep back their own consignments, whenever possible, till the free period, which they could fix to suit their convenience. When the principal shareholders were