# Water-Carriage

## Definition

Transportation of goods by water using ships and boats, which significantly reduces the cost and increases the speed of moving commodities compared to land-carriage. Water-carriage enables a much broader market extent by making distant trade economically feasible.

## Source Chapter

Book I, Chapter 3

## Context

Smith uses water-carriage as a key example to demonstrate how transportation technology affects market extent. He contrasts the efficiency of ships (two hundred tons carried by six or eight men) with land transport (the same quantity requiring fifty waggons, a hundred men, and four hundred horses), showing how water-carriage opens up extensive markets.

## Economic Domain

Exchange

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