22. FRENCH RAILWAYS. Historical, 1823-59.— The principles underlying the pres ent system of railways in France will perhaps be made clearer by a brief account of the several phases that have preceded it.
The earliest experiment in railroading on French soil was a line between Andrezieux and Saint Etienne, intended solely for coal and freight and operated by horse traction. The grant for it was made in 1823 by a simple royal ordinance. It was a grant in perpetuity, with out subsidy or guarantee. About the same time grants were made on the same conditions for several other small lines.
In 1832 the first locomotive made its appear ance. This was on the line from Saint Etienne to Lyons, and thenceforward passenger service was added to freight traffic.
The government, divining the future im portance of the new mode of transportation, worked out a general scheme of trunk lines and submitted it to Parliament. The first debate brought out two contrary principles which were destined to clash frequently thereafter. Ac cording to the one principle the state ought to construct and operate the railways; the other principle was that of private enterprise. After some fruitless discussions several grants were made, but a financial crisis which followed forced the recipient companies to ask for a re vision of their contracts. The state had to assist them, and in 1840 it guaranteed to the Paris-Orleans Company, for 47 years, 4 per cent interest on a maximum capital of 40,000, 000 francs. This was the beginning of an ar rangement which afterward became general.
The law of 1842 decided on the creation of the trunk lines radiating from Paris to, respec tively, Lille and Belgium; Nancy and Strass burg; Lyons and Marseilles; the centre of France, Bourges and Toulouse; Tours, Bor deaux and Bayonne; Nantes; Rouen and Havre; and lastly from Bordeaux to Marseilles by Tou louse, and from Mulhouse to Lyons by Dijon.
The state undertook the acquisition of a part of the lands, the departments being re sponsible for the remainder. The state built at its own expense the embankments and other artificial works and the substructures of the stations. The companies had to furnish the permanent way and the working stock, which at the expiration of the grant were to be bought by the state at an expert valuation. The work was begun and pushed forward energetically, but in a short time a financial crisis precipitated by speculation endangered the existence of the companies. The Republican government of 1848 proposed repurchase, which was not ac cepted.
The empire from the first favored an amal gamation of the various companies, the large number of which was a cause of weakness and of inconvenience to the public. By a series of decrees it constituted the great corporations, unifying the conditions of their contracts and extending the duration of their grants to 99 years. In this way were founded the principal French systems, whose grants expire as fol lows: That of the Northern Company in 1950; of the Orleans in 1956; of the Southern in 1960; of the Eastern in 1954; of the Western in 1956; and of the Paris-Lyons-Mediterranean in 1958.
Feeling their position strengthened, the com panies accepted grants for secondary lines, to serve as feeders to the main lines, and from 1852 to 1857 more than 2,000,000,000 francs ($400,000,000) were expended, when a fresh financial crisis supervened.
At the end of 1858 the situation was as follows :