Then
the gross revenue was 1,186,000 and now it has reached 15,960,000 pounds.
When I say _now_, I refer to 1913, the year prior to the war, as since
then, owing to Government control, non-division of through traffic and
curtailment of accounts, the actual receipts earned by individual
companies are not published, and, indeed, are not known.
Eighteen hundred and fifty-one was a period of anxiety to the Midland and
to railway companies generally. Financial depression had succeeded a
time of wild excitement, and the Midland dividend had fallen from seven
to two per cent.! It was the year of the great Exhibition, which Lord
Cholmondeley considered _the_ event of modern times and many
over-sanguine people expected it to inaugurate a universal peace. On the
other hand Carlyle uttered fierce denunciations against it. It certainly
excited far more interest than has any exhibition since. Then, nothing
of the kind had ever before been seen. Railway expectations ran high;
immense traffic receipts, sorely needed, ought to have swelled the
coffers of the companies. But no! vast numbers of people certainly
travelled to London, but a mad competition, as foolish almost as the
preceding _mania_, set in, and passenger fares were again and again
reduced, till expected profits disappeared and loss and disappointment
were the only result.
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