ABSTRACT
IN his book on the British Gas Industry (52) Philip Chantler points out that its structure would have been entirely different had the individual consumer been able to buy the gas “ex works” and to take it away in containers. The fact that such a form of delivery was impossible, and that an elaborate system of underground pipes was required to solve the specific problem of carrying gas to the consumer created the set of circumstances which resulted in the establishment of local monopoly and, as its concomitant, public regulation. An American textbook on Public Utilities goes one step further. There it is stated:—
“In water, gas and electric current the delivery of the commodity produced is an integral part of its production, and it is of a sort which makes a simplified system of distribution by far the most economical.” (53)
