Not all of these benefits would flow from removing head-office duplication and overlapping operations such as mines and the railways linking them to ports.
We learn of gunboats bound for America that change direction to head toward Asia and of international trade being affected by the simultaneous disruption of the flow of cotton from the South and the flow of tea from China.
Earlier this week the former head of the HBOS mortgage bank, Sir James Crosby, recommended that the government take direct action to stimulate the flow of mortgage funds to the UK banking industry.