Legislative regulation of railway finance in England - Tapa blanda

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ...in much confusion of the whole situation.40 The investor had no means of ascertaining whether or not the borrowing powers of a company had been exceeded, and consequently whether or not the securities offered by that company were worthless. They had to trust the railway returns made by the companies to the Board of Trade, but they had no means whereby to verify the accuracy of these returns.46 If these returns were made with strictness, they might in themselves form a good prevention against over-issue of securities, or at least give some valuable information. But these returns, besides not being always accurate, were not made until the end of each year and were not published by the Board of Trade until August or September of the year following. In the meantime the public had to depend upon such "miserable and imperfect" extracts therefrom as were given in the daily papers.47 Moreover, the acts of Parliament were sometimes in such a state of confusion that some of the railway companies themselves did not know what their borrowing powers were.48 Thus the position of the debenture-holders became exceedingly unsatisfactory. By the kind of false shield which had been thrown over the debentures through the limitation of borrowing powers, the public was led to believe that the debenture-holders had a protection which they really never had.49 « Evidence before Select Committee of 1864, p. 127. 4s Railway Times, June 25, 1864. 44 Marquess of Clanricarde in the House of Lords, Hansard, 190: 1972. « Hansard, 181: 338. 46 Railway Times, September 12, 1863. Being faced by such a serious situation, some people advocated that borrowing powers should be abolished altogether. They argued that "this Gordian knot, respecting which so much trouble is...