The Belgian Investments in Mass Transit of the Cities in Russian Empire at the End of the XIXth and at the Beginning of the XXth Centuries

• Main Authors: Ilya V. Shpakov, Yelena D. Mikhailova, Nataliya N. Koroteeva
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sochi State University 2015-12-01
• Series: Bylye Gody
• Subjects: foreign investments; Belgian capital; horsecar; tram; public transport; joint stock company; concession
• Online Access: http://bg.sutr.ru/journals_n/1449044708.pdf

The article deals with the process of realization of long-term investment in the city transport projects of the Russian Empire at the end of the XIX and the beginning of the XX centuries. The authors analyze the reasons for the attractiveness of the Russian transport sector for the Belgian companies, the main stages of their integration into the economy of the Russian Empire, examine the legal and operational features of the transport activities of joint stock companies with foreign borrowed capital. There is also analysis of the volumes of the invested funds, description of the authorized capital size and the transport companies’ securities. On the basis of the comparison of the annual profit interest, the article explains the relatively small presence of the empire companies with Russian capital in the urban transport market. Analyzing the annual financial results of the joint stock Belgian transport companies, the authors fix a number of loss-making companies in the provincial towns. The article presents an attempt to explain this phenomenon on the basis of the problems in urban transportation in several cities. Examining the peculiarities of doing transport business in the cities, the article reflects the aspirations of the owners of corporations to maximize their profits at the expense of the quality of transport service. At the beginning of the XX century such companies’ policy led to the negative assessment of the way of solving transport problems of cities at the expense of foreign capital state by the Russian Empire. The authors come to the conclusion that trying to find the most appropriate solution of the question, the empire authorities offered the city transport companies to build their own resources by attracting loans in the state banks and to use of the funds from the bond issues.