A Study Of Turnpike Trust Of 18th Century In England

Road development has an important impact on a country's political,social and economic activities.The turnpike trust is the main body of road governance in 18th-century England.The trustee(local elites),based on the trust and authorization of the client(parliament),serves the beneficiary(all the people)with respect to the property(toll)granted by the client.The establishment of turnpike trust institutions must be authorized by legislation of the parliament.The term of validity of the authorization is 21 years,which can be extended upon expiration.The purpose is to protect the public interest,not the nonprofit.This paper aims to expound and analyze the structure and function of the turnpike trust in the 18th-century,and explore the influence brought by the trust.This paper consists of five parts.The first part summarizes the basic situation of the turnpike trust.First,the predecessor and legal origins of turnpike trust are traced back.Secondly,it describes the two stages of its development and according to the spread of turnpike and the development of the scale of trust to discuss the evolution of turnpike trust.The second part summarizes the personnel composition of turnpike trust.The turnpike trust is the responsibility of the trustee,who hires professional technicians--clerk,treasurer,surveyor—to carry out its decisions.They are responsible for the daily operation of the trust,and supervise the toll collectors and road builders.Trustees,technical professionals and staff do most of the trust's work and hire outside contractors in the event of time-consuming,professional projects.The third part expounds the financial situation of turnpike trust.Limited by materials,it simply discusses the income source and expenditure,among which the income source is special.The orgnization collects tolls of passer,mortgage the tolls to raise fund,what this decided its and original management main body is different.The fourth part analyzes the function of turnpike trust,whose main function is road repair.Repair methods were inherited from the parish surveyors in the early days,and innovations emerged in the late years.Among them,the road repair techniques of McAdam and Telford are the most representative.The fifth part discusses the influence of turnpike trust.Based on the data,this paper discusses the reduction of transportation cost and the increase of road investment.