Belgian Investment in Tramways and Light Railways

Abstract

F oreign capital has been of paramount importance in the creation of urban infrastructures because of the magnitude of the investments involved, their technological complexity, and the management difficulties associated with such undertakings. This was especially true in the emerging field of electricity and other associated activities such as tramways. Investment was often motivated by a desire to open up new industrial markets, and certain countries began to concentrate on specific sectors. 1 German capital focused on electrical engineering, the French on urban gas lighting, and the Belgians on tram companies and light railways, in some cases acting as a bridgehead for German electrical groups. 2 Meanwhile the British concentrated on telegraph services, water supplies and tramways. 3 Hitherto, historical research has concentrated on individual borrower countries or on the specific field of electricity. 4 In this article the international investments made by Belgium are analysed both geographically and quantitatively, within the urban transport sector, a sector which has been little researched and in which Belgium played a leading role in several countries. 5 The article looks at the importance of foreign ownership in transport enterprises, a subject of ongoing debate in transport historiography. The hypothesis that the article puts forward is that the promotion of tramway enterprises abroad, via Belgian capital, is linked with the search for new markets for the steel and engineering industries. To this end new evidence will be provided which sheds light on this relationship. This contribution will help us to better understand the role of Belgian capital in promoting tramway networks throughout the world, the motives behind such investment and the mechanisms and strategies used. There are two clearly discernible stages with respect to the periods in which tram enterprises were set up abroad by Belgian firms. In the first of these periods, up to the First World War, the importance of tramway companies increased steadily, while the second, the inter-war period, was one of decline. The expansion of tramway networks and their electrification took place largely in the first stage. Once the basic networks were in place, the economic and political convulsions of the 1920s and 1930s led to the second stage. This article focuses on the first of these periods, which is more important from an historical perspective. Belgian investment in tramways and light railways 59 Belgian investment in tramways and light railways An international approach, 1892-1935

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