There was an abundance of horses in the country, for at the close of the war an unusual number of horses, bred for the army, were thrown upon the market.

Then a tax had been levied upon carriages, which sent a large number of jaunting-cars out of employment.
The roads of Ireland were on the whole good, being at that time quite equal, if not superior, to most of those in England.

The facts of the abundant horses, the good roads, the number of unemployed outside cars, were generally known; but until Bianconi took the enterprise in hand, there was no person of thought, or spirit, or capital in the country, who put these three things together horses, roads, and cars and dreamt of remedying the great public inconvenience.
It was left for our young Italian carver and gilder, a struggling man of small capital, to take up the enterprise, and show what could be done by prudent action and persevering energy.

Though the car system originally "grew out of his back," Bianconi had long been turning the subject over in his mind.

His idea was, that we should never despise small interests, nor neglect the wants of poor people.