UDK: 625.1(09)

Yuriy Iv. Petrov - Candidate of Historical Sciences, docent, associate professor of the department ‘Customs Law and Organization of the Customs Affairs’ of the Law Institute of the Russian University of Transport

Abstract. In Russia of the middle of the XIX-th century the active development of railway transport formed a firm conviction among the public and the government in the necessity to revise approaches to administration in the industry. The current paper has shown that the railway construction was actually funded by the government for many years, but at the same time, the administration of the entire railway business was practically uncontrolled by private entrepreneurs. The current paper has analyzed the steps aimed at finding a rational balance in the railway administration between individuals and the government in the second half of the XIX-th century. There has been presented a position of such prominent foreign representatives of the science of financial law as K. Rau, A. Wagner, P. Leroy-Beaulieu, who categorically spoke out for the ownership of the railways to the treasury, as well as the scientists and specialists of the railway business in Russia. A comparative analysis of approaches to the construction and government of railways in England, Belgium and France, as well as the accumulated, albeit small, experience in Russia made it possible to conclude that a wise policy in the railway business had to be recognized as one in which governemet administration was combined with the private, but due to necessity and usefulness at a given time.

Keywords: history; railways; private and government administration; S. Yu. Witte; railway buyout.

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