With a little wider margin in the matter of delivery, the same principle applies to those trading in, or requiring, raw materials--coal, steel, ironstone, bricks, and so on. Merchants, manufacturers, and builders are no more anxious than the average shopkeeper to keep on hand stocks unnecessarily large, and to have so much money lying idle. They calculate the length of time that will be required to get in more supplies when likely to be wanted, and they work their business accordingly. From this point of view the railway is far superior to the canal in two respects, at least. First, there is the question of speed. The value of this factor was well recognised so far back as 1825, when, as I have told on page 25, Mr Sandars related how speed and certainty of delivery were regarded as "of the first importance," and constituted one of the leading reasons for the desired introduction of railways. But speed and certainty of delivery become absolutely essential when the margin in regard to supplies on hand is habitually kept to a working minimum. The saving in freight effected as between, on the one hand, waiting at least several days, if not a full week, for goods by canal boat, and, on the other, receiving them the following day by train, may be more than swallowed up by the loss of profit or the loss of business in consequence of the delay. If the railway transport be a little more costly than the canal transport, the difference should be fully counterbalanced by the possibility of a more rapid turnover, as well as the other advantages of which I have spoken. In cases, again, where it is not a matter of quickly replenishing stocks but of effecting prompt delivery even of bulky goods, time may be all-important. This fact is well illustrated in a contribution, from Birmingham, published in the "Engineering Supplement" of _The Times_ of February 14, 1906, in which it was said:-- "Makers of wheels, tires, axles, springs, and similar parts are busy. Of late the South African colonies have been larger buyers, while India and the Far Eastern markets, including China and Japan, South America, and some other shipping markets are providing very good and valuable indents. In all cases, it is especially remarked, very early execution of contracts and urgent delivery is impressed by buyers. The leading firms have learned a good deal of late from German, American, Belgian, and other foreign competitors in the matter of rapid output. By the improvement of plant, the laying down of new and costly machine tools, and by other advances in methods of production, delivery is now made of contracts of heavy tonnage within periods which not so long ago would have been deemed by these same producers quite impossible. In no branch of the engineering trades is this expedition more apparent than in the constructional engineering department, such as bridges, roofs, etc., also in steam boiler work."