The nineteenth century Communications

The nineteenth century witnessed other changes, which, though not caused primarily by British instigation, assisted in the growth of the commerce that Britain was dedicated to promoting. Transportation by land and water and communication between widely separated areas became speedy and cheap. In 1869, the two coasts of the United States were linked by a transcontinental railroad, and railway construction in Argentina, Australia, and India soon proceeded at a rapid pace. Agricultural surpluses produced hundreds of miles inland could be moved to seaboard rapidly and cheaply. Between 1866 and 1895, the first transatlantic submarine cable was laid and the telephone and wireless introduced. International correspondence became inexpensive and reliable when the Universal Postal Union was founded in 1874.

Such communications greatly assisted the growth of trade and naturally that of the country whose overseas commerce was already the largest. Britain's commercial supremacy, however, was completed with the introduction of the steamship.