Competition, the economists' recipe for cheap and efficient service, had given no defence to the inhabitants of the capital. The London water companies, with whom Chadwick was presently to be at open war, had soon perceived that it would be more to their profit if instead of cutting each other's throats they got together in a gentleman's agreement to cut the throats of their customers. There had been first a period of wild competition, when two or three sets of pipes were driven through the wealthier districts, and gangs of rival pipelayers fought in the street, Then folloed a reflective interval while the companies licked their wounds. And finally came a compact between he nine companies to partition in London, and subject Londoners to a nine-headed monopoly [L 57].

He insisted, in the first place, that all arrangements for drainage and road construction must for the sake of efficiency and economy be brought together into a single public service. [...] Secondly the supply of water should be entrusted to "the most eligible local administrative body". Finaly, the appointment of full-time district officers, charged with the duty of hunting out the physical causes of disease in the houses of the poor[356; L58]. See also Administration