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How the First French Railways Were Planned

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Arthur L. Dunham
Arthur L. Dunham
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
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Extract

France is often described as the country that planned its network of railroads with the greatest care, wisely arranging for private construction and operation under control of the Government. She deserves criticism, it has been said, only because it took ten years to make these excellent arrangements. Yet most of the writers who have painted this rather attractive picture have not looked beyond the well-known books of Audiganne and Kaufmann, studies based chiefly upon collections of French statutes and legislative debates as well as the best known contemporary newspapers and literary reviews. Little attention has been paid to the Corps des ponts et chaussées, whose activities were far more important than the speeches of its director in the Chambers. Little concern has been given to the vital problem of obtaining the very large amounts of capital that were needed, or to the influence of the serious depression that began in 1837.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , May 1941 , pp. 12 - 25
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1941

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References

1 Audiganne, Armand, Les Chemins de fer aujourd'hui et dans cent ans ches tons les peuples; Économie financière et industrielle, politique et morale des voies ferrées (Paris, 1858)Google Scholar.

de Kaufmann, Richard, La Politique française en matière de chetnin de fer (Paris, 1900)Google Scholar.

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3 Audiganne, I, 336.

4 Wallon, 62, 73–75; Audiganne, I, 365–372.

5 Journal des économistes, XVI, 381; and Napoléon Chaix, Annuaire officiel des chemins de fer, 18.

6 Chaix, 99, and Audiganne, I, 375–376.

7 Legoyt, Alfred: Le Livre des chemins de fer construits, en construction, et projetés ou statistique générate de ces voies de communication en France et à l'étranger (Paris, 1845), 145–147Google Scholar.

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15 Audiganne, I. 387.

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