Across the Borders Financing the World's Railways in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

Until now we have only had relatively narrow economic studies comparing investments in railways with investments in other fields of individual economies. 'Across the Borders' not only opens the door for fundamental new insights into a trans-national view of railway history, but also contributes to a breakthrough in the wider study of the subject, providing the first extensive historical investigation of the worldwide system of railway financing. This book provides a wide introduction to how financiers, governments and entrepreneurs in Europe managed to face the challenges of constructing and maintaining an integrated railway network, both in their own countries and their colonies. This volume offers analysis from a selection of experts exploring the trans-national investment policies of railway construction based on numerous historical case-studies. The chapters provide insight into the international opportunities that existed for railway financing, from the perspective of economic, social, transport and railway history. With contributions from authors from 19 countries the volume is a truly international work that will be of interest to academic researchers, museum staff, archivists, and anyone who has an interest in the history and development of railways.

Contents: Preface; Introduction: across the borders, Ralf Roth and Günter Dinhobl; Part I Individual Across-Border Investors: Making tracks: promoting the Rothschild Archive as a source of railway history, Melanie Aspey; The Pereires' international strategy for railway construction in the 1850s and 1860s, Christophe Bouneau; Raffaele de Ferrari, Duke of Galliera, an investor of European stature, Michèle Merger; Difficulties of international railway investments in Germany: the example of the 'railway king' Bethel Henry Strousberg, 1855-1875, Ralf Roth; Leon Sapieha - a prince and a railway entrepreneur, Ihor Zhaloba; Economic investors and railway advertising: the influence of photography in the railway in modern French and Spanish painting in the second half of the 19th century, Rocio Robles Tardio. Part II Cross-Border Investments in Europe: Spanish society of secondary railways: the failure of a major international project to create an additional railway network in Spain, Francisco de los Cobos Arteaga and Tomás Martínez Vara; British and French investments in the Belgian railway sector during the 19th century, Frans Buelens, Julien van den Broeck and Hans Willems; Railway investments in Italy during the 19th century, Daniela Felisini; The French investors in Portuguese railways from 1855 to 1884: 3 cases, Magda Pinheiro; The Dutch as investors in railways at home and abroad, Augustus J. Veenendaal. Part III From Europe into the World: Oversea Investments: European investment in American railways, Augustus J. Veenendaal; European investments in the Ottoman railways, 1850-1914, Bülent Bilmez; Sustained British investment in overseas railways, 1830-1914: the imperial dream, engineers' assurances or an 'investment hungry public'?, Diane K. Drummond; John Chapman and the promotion of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, 1842-1850, Ian J. Kerr; French finance and railway construction in Northern China, 1895-1905, Robert Lee; The establishment of railway

Ralf Roth teaches History at the faculty for philosophy and history at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University of Frankfurt, Germany, and Günter Dinhobl is in the Research & Development Division at Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB-Infrasttruktur Bau AG), Austria