12 Role of State in Railway Construction and Operation from 1830s to 1920s in Interaction with Development of Economic Thought in Czech Lands The topic of this study is historical analysis of the construction of the Czech railway network and the role of the state in its development in comparison with economic thought of the time. The aim of this study is to present relations between the development of theoretical economic foundations and the actual railway construction in the Czech lands from

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... e middle of the 19 th to the beginning of the 20 th century. During this time, the railway network was constructed in the shape it functions until these days. The topic is examined as a historical sequence of interactions between actual railway construction and operation and economic opinions regarding the role of the state in construction and running of railways. The history of the relationship between the state and the railway went through a few periods differing in the approach of the state to ownership and operation. We can trace the private beginnings from the 1830s, to first state railways from 1841 to 1848, to privatization and indirect state subsidies, to the victorious definite idea of solely state railways in the last third of the 19 th century. The study follows detailed discussions of the era together with connections to economic thought of the era.