Nor is there necessarily a "monopoly" simply because a particular district is served by a single railway. If the Great Eastern did not take people to East-coast resorts at reasonable rates, or if the Great Western charged excessive fares for the journey to Cornwall, holiday-makers would, in each case, go elsewhere. If either company, or any other company, sought to get too much for carrying milk to London, milk {289}would be obtained by the metropolitan dealers from other districts, instead; and so on with most other commodities. Indirect competition, on sound economic lines, may, therefore, still exist even when a railway company is, after many amalgamations, in the possession of an apparent monopoly. The law of supply and demand will still regulate both prices and charges. When, on the other hand, an attempt is made to enforce an artificial and non-economic competition by Act of Parliament, the inevitable result is that the companies concerned find it to their advantage to combine, or to agree, rather than to compete in rates and fares under conditions that would not only be mutually disadvantageous, but confer no lasting benefit on the public they seek to serve. How the ultimate result of railway policy, as here described, has been to bring about the creation of great systems out of small ones may be seen from the following typical examples, showing in each case the number of lesser companies absorbed, leased or worked as the result of amalgamations, of leases in perpetuity, or otherwise; though the figures do not include railways which have been vested in two or more companies jointly:-- COMPANIES NAME OF COMPANY. LENGTH OF LINE.[45] AMALGAMATED Miles. OR LINES LEASED. Great Central 753 15 Great Eastern 1133 26 Great Northern 856 22 Great Western 2993 115 Lancashire and Yorkshire 589 14 London and North-Western 1966 59 London and South-Western 964 40 London, Brighton and South Coast 454 19 Midland 1531 35 North-Eastern 1728 41 South-Eastern and Chatham 629 29 Caledonian 1074 41 North British 1363 45 Great Northern of Ireland 560 14 Great Southern and Western (Ireland) 1121 19