I was thinking about the pumatic pipe packet switching networks such as the one implemented under Paris a long time ago and it occured to me that they were replaced by electronic packet swiching networks for sending information, but that they would still make a good way of transfering goods.

 

For example dried rice could be loaded into a tube in India and next week it would be in England. The longer the pipe the easyer it would be to get a low enough presure at one end to move the tube.

You got one things backwards: the longer the pipe, the more pressure drop there would be, the harder it is to move things pneumatically.

I think I was thinking about how much easyer it would be to suck into a long tube at first to pull something at the end along than a short tube at first, although yes, you would have to suck for longer to get to the same negative presure.