For most of their history lighthouses were not a public service but a pri trade. A lic from t crown all an ow to col a sm charge fr every ves that pas the light, and the charge paid for the tower, the oil and the keeper who lived there. Masters who had never needed the light paid all the same, which made the arrangement profitable and detested at once. Governments bought the licences back only once shipping had outgrown the private toll.

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