# How did a railway nearly topple Carol?

*1868 – 1880*

In September 1868 the Romanian state guaranteed 7.5% a year for 915 km of railway that did not exist. Twelve years later it bought them all back. Between the two signatures: a bankruptcy, a republic for a day, and an abdication that never came.

Marius Comper · 19 September 2026

## The concession map

Four sections, 915 kilometres promised by decree, from Roman to Vârciorova. The routes on the map are representative, drawn through the decree's towns.

Below the map, the guarantee ticks: 7.5% a year, paid by the state, trains or no trains. The counter starts from a reference sum of 1,000,000 gold lei — the real interest was levied on the bonds sold, which the sources never total.

### The four sections

- S1: Roman – Mărășești – Tecuci – Galați
- S2: Tecuci – Bârlad
- S3: Galați – Brăila – Buzău – Ploiești – Bucharest
- S4: Bucharest – Pitești – Slatina – Craiova – Vârciorova

### The guarantee ticks
75,000 gold lei a year, from the state · 7.5% × 1,000,000
Reference sum: 1,000,000 gold lei. The real interest was levied on the bonds sold, which the sources never total.

## The Concession

*1868 · 1868, the signature*

In 1866 Romania received its foreign prince and had almost no railways. The government said so openly: without quick, safe and cheap transport, the country could neither sell its grain nor build an industry. The first line, Bucharest–Giurgiu, had been entrusted to the Englishmen Barkley and Staniforth — 196,500 gold francs per kilometre, 13,775,000 gold lei in total, the result published in the Gazette on 7 April 1867.

Then came the great affair. By the law of 10 September 1868, the company represented by H. Strousberg received the three sections of the general network plan, and the decree of 21 September sealed it all: a 90-year concession, 915 kilometres in four sections — Roman–Mărășești–Tecuci–Galați, Tecuci–Bârlad, Galați–Brăila–Buzău–Ploiești–Bucharest, Bucharest–Pitești–Slatina–Craiova–Vârciorova. The state kept the right to buy the lines back after 30 years and guaranteed the bonds at 7.5% a year.

The mechanism deserves a second reading: the interest flowed from the budget whether the trains ran or not. That same year Parliament also voted the Offenheim concession — Roman–Pașcani–Suceava, with the branches to Iași and Botoșani — and by 1869 the conceded network counted about 1,378 km, at an average cost of 306,000 gold lei per kilometre.

> The lack of quick, safe and cheap transport is in this regard the biggest obstacle. Only the railways can today satisfy this requirement.
> — The Romanian government, Official Gazette, 17 August 1866 (as quoted in English)

*Meanwhile:* Also in 1868, the Lemberg–Cernăuți–Vicșani–Suceava line joined Vienna to Suceava — Eminescu rode it to university in the autumn of that year.

## The Bankruptcy

*1870 – 1875 · 1870–1875, the collapse*

The Vârciorova–Roman line was in full construction when the Franco-Prussian war broke out in 1870. The war shook the whole European market, and Strousberg's great enterprise rocked: soon after the outbreak of the war, payments ceased. So Professor Gheorghe Tașcă records the moment — dryly, like a balance sheet.

The details read like a novel of manners: Ambron, a former administrator of the House of Hohenzollern and the German government's commissioner to the company, risked 30 million in financial speculation and replaced them with worthless mortgages — the blow that bankrupted the entire affair. Shoddy workmanship and stalled sites did the rest, and the criticism reached as far as diplomatic complications.

In 1872 the company was forced into liquidation. Strousberg himself survived the panic of 1873, but in 1875 he was declared bankrupt — Hansemann and Bleichröder bought his railways for nothing — and in 1876, after a trial in Russia, he was expelled. He died in 1884, in Berlin, aged 60.

> The great enterprise of Stroussberg is rocked and, soon after the outbreak of the war they ceased payments.
> — Gheorghe Tașcă, as quoted in English (spelling as in the source)

*Meanwhile:* Romania did not enter the war of 1870–1871 — but the war entered Carol's reign.

## The Throne

*1870 – 1871 · 1870–1871, the brink*

Carol was a German prince on the throne of a francophile country, and distrust had smouldered since 1866. On 8 August 1870 the radical liberals tried to end it by force: at Ploiești, Alexandru Candiano-Popescu seized the prefecture and proclaimed the republic. The movement lasted less than 24 hours, and the liberal leaders were arrested.

The heavy blow came the following spring. On the evening and night of 22–23 March 1871, after hostile demonstrations, Carol prepared to abdicate. On 22 March he dismissed Ion Ghica's liberal government and called in the conservative Lascăr Catargiu — and the new cabinet persuaded him to stay. The conservatives then governed without interruption between 1871 and 1876, the longest government until then.

The railway bankruptcy had poured fuel on the fire: historians show how it set off the anti-German rhetoric of public life, tied to Bismarck's imperialism — Bismarck was mixed up in renegotiating the concession to Romania's disadvantage. How a Prussian prince had reached Bucharest five years earlier is told in the sister page carol-i-1866.

> After demonstrations on the evening and night of 22–23 March, Carol prepared to abdicate, but the formation of a new conservative cabinet under Lascăr Catargiu convinced him to stay.
> — Encyclopedia of World History, as quoted

*Meanwhile:* Candiano-Popescu was pardoned by the king, joined the army and, a major in 1877, took part in the assault on the Grivița redoubt on 30 August.

## The Buyback

*1873 – 1880 · 1873–1880, the bill*

With the throne saved, the bill remained. Petre P. Carp was sent as head of Romania's mission to the German Empire, where he stayed until April 1873: he negotiated further German credits for the railways and persuaded Bismarck not to cross over to the 'enemies of Romania', writing the troubles off as a short-lived liberal prank.

The ending came in 1880. The law of 29 January bought back the railways of the Shareholders' Company — 921 km of working single track, rolling stock and installations included — and on 11/23 April the Princely Directorate of the Romanian Railways was founded: today's CFR initials date from then. On 1 December the workshops of Bucharest, Galați and Turnu Severin passed into state hands.

Xenopol the historian called the buyback a good deal: the country's main artery of communication had passed into its hands. From the law of 1868 to the law of 1880, 12 years elapsed — and on 1 July 1882, with the other lines bought back too, Romania's network was fully unified.

> The redemption had made the country a good deal, putting in our hands the main communication artery of the country.
> — A. D. Xenopol, as quoted in English

*Meanwhile:* On 10 May 1877 Romania declared its independence, voted by Parliament and promulgated by Carol.

## The concession audit

Five questions from the file: the guarantee, the term, the network, the payments and the ending. Choose, then check against the sources.

### The guarantee
The interest the state paid every year was:
- a) 7.5% a year
- b) 2.5% a year
**What actually happened:** 7.5% a year, guaranteed by the state to the bondholders — trains or no trains.

### The term
The Strousberg concession was granted for:
- a) 30 years
- b) 90 years
**What actually happened:** 90 years, redeemable after 30: the state signed the guarantee for nearly a century.

### The network
The decree promised a network of:
- a) 915 km
- b) 306 km
**What actually happened:** 915 km in four sections; 306,000 was the average cost in gold lei per kilometre, not the length.

### The payments
After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war:
- a) payments ceased
- b) the line was finished
**What actually happened:** Payments ceased, soon after the outbreak of the 1870 war — so Tașcă notes.

### The ending
The affair ended when:
- a) the state bought the lines back
- b) the concession ran 90 years
**What actually happened:** The state bought the lines back in 1880 — 921 km in operation — and founded CFR.

## The affair in six numbers

- **915** — kilometres promised by decree
- **90** — years of concession on paper
- **7.5** — state-guaranteed interest, per year
- **4** — sections in the decree
- **921** — kilometres bought back in 1880
- **12** — from law to buyback

## Three things people get wrong

### 'The foreigners robbed us'
The paper was Romanian: the law of 10 September 1868 and the 7.5% guarantee were the state's signature, not a highway robbery. The scandal came afterwards — when the guarantee fell due, and a private bankruptcy became public debt.

### 'Carol abdicated in 1871'
He did not abdicate. He prepared to do so on the evening and night of 22–23 March 1871, but Lascăr Catargiu's new conservative cabinet persuaded him to stay — and the conservatives governed until 1876.

### 'The Strousberg lines never ran'
False: in 1880 the state bought back 921 km in operation, rolling stock and installations included, and on 1 July 1882 Romania's network was unified. Xenopol was right: the main artery of communication had passed into the country's hands.

## Sources and method

The story follows the 1868 law and decree, the CFR chronology and the press of the day, with dates checked in the cited histories. Where the sources proved unreachable — the price per kilometre, a particular 1871 insolvency date, Bismarck's letters — the page claims nothing: the gaps are logged as undocumented in SOURCES.md.

The era's Romanian dates are Old Style, 12 days behind the New Style; the page gives them as the sources give them. The concessionaire's name appears in documents as 'Strussberg' too — the person is Bethel Henry Strousberg.

All six images are public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, with the licence verified on each file. The era's anti-German and antisemitic rhetoric is described through historians, never reproduced.

### The map
- [National Library: the decree of 21 September 1868, 915 km, four sections](https://oldsite.bibnat.ro/dyn-doc/5%20REPERE%20ISTORICE%20%C3%8EN%20DEZVOLTAREA%20C%C4%82ILOR%20FERATE%20ROM%C3%82NE.pdf)

### The Concession
- [Vorovenci 2013: 90 years, 7.5% guaranteed, Barkley–Staniforth](http://anale.steconomiceuoradea.ro/volume/2013/n2/070.pdf)
- [CFR chronology: the law of 10 September 1868, Offenheim, 1,378 km](http://transira.ro/bb3/download/file.php?id=138261)

### The Bankruptcy
- [Vorovenci 2013 after Tașcă: payments cease in 1870; Ambron, 30 million](http://anale.steconomiceuoradea.ro/volume/2013/n2/070.pdf)
- [Strousberg: the 1872 liquidation, the 1875 bankruptcy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethel_Henry_Strousberg)
- [Strousberg: stalled works, death in 1884](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethel_Henry_Strousberg)

### The Throne
- [Carol I: 8 August 1870, under 24 hours](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_I_of_Romania)
- [Carol I: 22 March 1871, the Catargiu government 1871–1876](https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_I_al_Rom%C3%A2niei)
- [Sorescu: the bankruptcy and Bismarck's renegotiation](https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/fdkn-136763?language=en)

### The Buyback
- [Carp: the Berlin mission until April 1873, Bismarck calmed](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petre_P._Carp)
- [CFR chronology: 29 January 1880, CFR on 11/23 April, 921 km, 1 July 1882](http://transira.ro/bb3/download/file.php?id=138261)

### The audit
- [The audit figures: 7.5%, 90 years, 915 km, 1870, 1880](http://anale.steconomiceuoradea.ro/volume/2013/n2/070.pdf)

### The six plates
- [The plates: Strousberg, Carol, Bismarck, Ghimpele, Ciulinul, Reșița](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bethel_Henry_Strousberg.jpg)