The Ambaca railway in Angola: history of a failed public-private partnership (1885-1914 and briefly onwards).

Abstract

In 1886, the Portuguese government signed a public-private partnership with a private company to build and operate a railway between Luanda and Ambaca in its overseas colony of Angola. It was expected that the partnership benefited both parties: it would provide Angola with a powerful tool of economic development and political appropriation and it would pay the private investment (stockholders and bondholders). However, soon the enterprise became a financial disaster with high     construction costs and feeble operational revenues, which forced the Portuguese state to intervene. In this paper, I will analyse the evolution of the Ambaca public-private partnership from a quantitative perspective, examining the figures of its financing, operation and State aid. I will add to the debate about the relationship between State and private initiative, through public-private partnerships in the specific context of the scramble for Africa and New Imperialism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. * En 1886, el gobierno portugues establecio una parceria publico-privada con una empresa privada para construir y operar un ferrocarril entre Luanda y Ambaca en su colonia ultramarina de Angola. Se esperaba que la parceria beneficiara a ambas partes: proporcionaria a Angola una poderosa herramienta de desarrollo economico y apropiacion politica y pagaria la inversion privada (accionistas y tenedores de bonos). Sin embargo, pronto la empresa se convirtio en un desastre financiero con altos costos de construccion e ingresos operacionales debiles, lo que obligo al estado portugues a intervenir. En este documento, analizare la evolucion de la parceria publico-privada de Ambaca desde una perspectiva cuantitativa, examinando las cifras de su financiamiento, operacion y ayuda estatal. Me sumare al debate sobre la relacion entre el Estado y la iniciativa privada, a traves de parcerias publico-privadas en el contexto especifico del scramble for Africa y el nuevo imperialismo de finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX.