[The text of this pamphlet is preceded by several pages of historical context, or what the author believes is historical context, discussing the history of canals on Golarion.]

So great has been the effect which these Canals, and the trade to which they have given birth, have had on our industry, population, and resources, that in many instances they have entirely changed the appearances of the country through which they pass, which I am confident will be the case between here and the Arcadian Ocean, whenever our intended navigation is put in execution. The reasons of this change are sufficiently obvious: As consumers, by means of Canals, we are enabled to import more cheaply; as producers, we export with greater facility. Do the materials of a manufacturer lie dispersed? Canals unite them, and at the same time supply the persons employed with every necessary at the cheapest rate: And the landowner, whether we consider the surface of the soil, or the mines in its bowels, necessarily finds his advantage from new markets, and from having a cheaper carriage both for his productions and his manure. To the cheapness of conveyance, compared with land-carriage, may be added the advantages attendant on an easy and secure communication with the different parts of the country, during the tempestuous months of winter, and in times of war.

Canals and navigable rivers, by diminishing the expence of carriage, put the remote parts of the country more upon a level with those in the neighbourhood of large towns; they are, on that account, the greatest of all improvements: They encourage the cultivation of the remote parts, which are always the most extensive circle of the country; and thereby rents are much improved: They are advantageous to towns, by breaking up the monopoly of the country in their neighbourhood: And they are advantageous to all parts of the country; for, though they introduce some rival commodities, they open many new markets for their produce.

When a navigable Canal has been once made, the management of it becomes quite simple and easy; and with respect to the making, it is reducible to strict rule and method: It may be contracted for with undertakers at so much per mile, and so much per lock: Such undertakings, therefore, may be, and accordingly frequently are, very successfully managed by Abadaran shared-companies. Lighters and barges, which are used on a navigable Canal, pay toll in proportion to their weight or their tonnage; they pay for maintaining those public works in proportion to the wear and tear which they occasion: A more equitable way of maintaining such works cannot be found; for the tax or toll, though advanced by the carrier, is finally paid by the consumer. In short, all Canals may be considered as roads of a certain kind, where one horse can do the labour of 30 or 40 on the modern roads with modern carriages, and where none need fear the assault of an Owlbear. Bad roads, and a shortage of those who can communicate between distant parts of a country, occasion a kind of sterility in a country, and render most things much dearer and scarcer than they would otherwise be; but even the best of roads are not one-tenth part the value of Canals, where the face of the country will admit of them: The latter, upon a small scale, I have seen executed, in some flat countries, at much less expence per mile than some turnpike roads, and frequently kept in repair at one-tenth part of the expence. Canals which are the property of a company of subscribers, will be constantly kept in repair, for their own interest obliges them to it; if not, the navigation ceases, with their profit as well as principal. 

With respect to the profit of new Canals to the subscribers, it is astonishing: In one of the first executed Canals in Maheto, the proprietors draw, at this moment, about 250 gold per cent. per annum on the shares originally subscribed, that is to say, for every 100 gold originally subscribed, is drawn an annual income of 250 gold. The profits of the Central Canal of Oppara, and many other Canals in that kingdom, are immense; which are frequently the occasion of rival Canals amongst them, and have caused a reduction in the profits of others. But attempts of this kind can never succeed in opposing that projected between Westcrown and the Arcadian Ocean; as Nature seems to have pointed out one general line only, wherein there is any apparent practicability of its passing without enormous expences; great part of this line possesses greater advantages by being nearer the inhabited towns and humble vallies, than a person from Osirion of elevated ideas, who has lately written thereon, seems to think: For, let me add, that however specious it may appear on paper, to carry a Canal over hills and dales, at an enormous expence, and thereby disdainfully rejecting six miles of navigation, which Nature has already bountifully given us at this end of the line, I presume I shall make it appear, in my Report, that his arguments are futile.