Across the Borders explores the transnational history of railway economics in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is the first systematic historical investigation into the world-wide system of railway financing, providing a wide introduction to how financiers, governments and entrepreneurs in Europe managed to face the challenges of constructing and maintaining a railway network that met national and international needs. With contributions from authors from 19 countries, the volume is truly an 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 Gÿnter 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, Bÿlent 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