Edition of Founding edition
Business · Early Victorian Britain
The Railway Mania: Speculators Run Mad Upon New Lines
Scrip of schemes not yet surveyed changes hands at fabulous premiums; the Bank raises its rate and prudent men take alarm.
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LONDON, October 18, 1845. — Never has the Exchange witnessed such a fever. Prospectuses for railways to every market town in the kingdom, and to many places that are scarcely towns at all, crowd the columns of the public prints. Above twelve hundred projects are said to be before the country, requiring a capital that exceeds the whole circulating wealth of the nation.
Clergymen, widows and half-pay officers subscribe for shares upon a deposit of a few shillings, in the confident expectation of selling at a profit before the calls fall due. Mr. Hudson, the Railway King, is everywhere courted as the magician of the age.
The Directors of the Bank of England have this week raised the rate of discount, and the effect upon the share lists has been immediate and severe. It is whispered that the Board of Trade cannot possibly examine the plans deposited before the thirtieth of November.
That the iron road will transform the commerce of England no sensible person doubts. Whether those who now buy its promises at any price will live to share in that transformation is quite another question.
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