Transport in Nineteenth-Century Brazil -- Railroad policy, finance, and expansion -- The direct gains from railroad freight services -- Railroad passenger benefits -- Railroads and Brazilian economic structure -- Dividing the surplus : subsidies, regulation, and profits

Nineteenth-century Brazil’s constitutional monarchy credibly committed to repay sovereign debt, borrowing repeatedly in international and domestic capital markets without default. Yet it failed to lay the institutional foundations that private financial markets needed to thrive. This study...