was the grant to Ebenezer Zane, at Zanesville, Lancaster, and
Chillicothe in the Northwest Territory. These monopolies
sometimes were extremely profitable: a descendant of the owners
of the famous Ingles ferry across New River, on the Wilderness
Road to Kentucky, is responsible for the statement that in the
heyday of travel to the Southwest the privilege was worth from
$10,000 to $15,000 annually to the family. But as local
governments became more efficient, monopolies were abolished and
the collection of tolls was taken over by the authorities. The
awakening of inland trade is most clearly indicated everywhere by
the action of assemblies regarding the operation of ferries, and
in general, by the beginning of the eighteenth century, tolls and
ferries were being regulated by law.

But neither roads nor ferries were of themselves sufficient to
put a nation on wheels. The early polite society of the settled
neighborhoods traveled in horse litters, in sedan chairs, or on
horseback, the women seated on pillions or cushions behind the
saddle riders, while oxcarts and horse barrows brought to town
the produce of the outlying farms. Although carts and rude wagons
could be built entirely of wood, there could be no marked advance
in transportation until the development of mining in certain
localities reduced the price of iron. With the increase of travel
and trade, the old world coach and chaise and wain came into use,
and iron for tire and brace became an imperative necessity. The
connection between the production of iron and the care of
highways was recognized by legislation as early as 1732, when
Maryland excused men and slaves in the ironworks from labor on
the public roads, though by the middle of the century owners of
ironworks were obliged to detail one man out of every ten in