Editing Canal (section)

===Middle Ages===
[[File:Thal Canal.JPG|thumb|Thal Canal, [[Punjab, Pakistan]]]]
In the [[Middle Ages]], water transport was several times cheaper and faster than transport overland. Overland transport by [[animal power|animal drawn]] conveyances was used around settled areas, but unimproved roads required pack animal trains, usually of [[mule]]s to carry any degree of mass, and while a mule could carry an eighth ton,<ref name="WorksOfMan"/> it also needed teamsters to tend it and one man could only tend perhaps five mules,<ref name="WorksOfMan"/> meaning overland [[bulk transport]] was also expensive, as men expect compensation in the form of wages, room and board. This was because long-haul roads were unpaved, more often than not too narrow for carts, much less wagons, and in poor condition, wending their way through forests, marshy or muddy quagmires as often as unimproved but dry footing. In that era, as today, greater cargoes, especially bulk goods and [[raw material]]s, could be transported by ship far more economically than by land; in the pre-railroad days of the industrial revolution, water transport was the gold standard of fast transportation. The first artificial canal in Western Europe was the [[Fossa Carolina]] built at the end of the 8th century under personal supervision of [[Charlemagne]].

In Britain, the ''[[Glastonbury Canal (medieval)|Glastonbury Canal]]&nbsp;'' is believed to be the first post-Roman canal and was built in the middle of the 10th century to link the [[River Brue]] at Northover<ref>specifically from ({{Coord|51.1384|N|2.7358|W|display=inline|region:GB-SOM_type:landmark|format=dms|name=Start point at River Brue}}), Start point at River Brue</ref> with [[Glastonbury Abbey]], a distance of about {{convert|1.75|km|yd|-2}}.<ref>Details text and data with cites from [[Glastonbury Canal (medieval)]].</ref> Its initial purpose is believed to be the transport of building stone for the abbey, but later it was used for delivering produce, including grain, wine and fish, from the abbey's outlying properties. It remained in use until at least the 14th century, but possibly as late as the mid-16th century.<ref name=Gathercole>{{Cite book|last=Gathercole |first=Clare |title=An archaeological assessment of Glastonbury |publisher=Somerset County Council |location=Taunton |year=2003 |series=English Heritage Extensive Urban Survey |pages=19–20 |url=http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/hes/downloads/EUS_GlastonburyText.pdf |access-date=2 February 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110715230717/http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/archives/hes/downloads/EUS_GlastonburyText.pdf |archive-date=15 July 2011 }}</ref><br />More lasting and of more economic impact were canals like the [[Naviglio Grande]] built between 1127 and 1257 to connect [[Milan]] with the river [[Ticino (river)|Ticino]]. The Naviglio Grande is the most important of the [[Lombardy|lombard]] "[[navigli]]"<ref>{{Harvnb|Calvert|1963|p=.}}</ref> and the oldest functioning canal in Europe.<br />Later, canals were built in the [[Netherlands]] and [[Flanders]] to drain the [[polder]]s and assist transportation of goods and people.

Canal building was revived in this age because of commercial expansion from the 12th century. River navigations were improved progressively by the use of single, or [[flash lock]]s. Taking boats through these used large amounts of water leading to conflicts with [[watermill]] owners and to correct this, the [[Pound lock|pound]] or chamber lock first appeared, in the 10th century in China and in Europe in 1373 in [[Vreeswijk]], Netherlands.<ref>{{Citation | title = The International Canal Monuments List | url = http://www.icomos.org/studies/canals.pdf| access-date = 8 October 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130810162849/http://www.icomos.org/studies/canals.pdf | archive-date = 10 August 2013 | url-status = dead }}</ref> Another important development was the [[mitre gate]], which was, it is presumed, introduced in Italy by Bertola da Novate in the 16th century. This allowed wider gates and also removed the height restriction of [[guillotine lock]]s.

To break out of the limitations caused by river valleys, the first [[summit level canal]]s were developed with the [[Grand Canal (China)|Grand Canal of China]] in 581–617 AD whilst in Europe the first, also using single locks, was the [[Stecknitz Canal]] in Germany in 1398.