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George Hudson: The Railway King
How aggressive infrastructure financing opened up new property markets—and led to spectacular ruin.
George Hudson was the driving financial force behind the massive expansion of the UK railway network in the 1840s. By aggressively raising capital and amalgamating small lines, he created a unified network.
Hudson's railways instantly created entirely new property markets, turning remote towns into commuter hubs and driving massive land value uplifts. However, his empire was built on creative accounting and Ponzi-like financial structures, ending in one of the most spectacular crashes in corporate history. It remains a stark lesson in the dangers of over-leveraging infrastructure finance.