UDK: 656.2:902

Yury 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. The current paper has considered the government's new intention in the 1860s towards to develop private railway entrepreneurship issuing concessions to the railway companies. There has been shown that this fact contributed to the rapid enrichment and the emergence of oligarchs in Russia in the 19th century, and that this caused the ‘railroad fever’. There has been considered the role of the government railway fund, the goals of its establishment, sources of formation and directions of use. There has been shown the role of the first Minister of Railways P. P. Melnikov in the fight against abuses in the railway, the government's awareness of the main mistakes in the concession policy and its concrete solutions of this problem.

Keywords: history; concessions; railway legislation; ‘Railway kings’; railway societies; P. P. Melnikov.

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