Page "Alfred Escher" Paragraph 18

The large amounts of capital involved in constructing railways posed new challenges to the rail companies.

The capital had to be raised outside Switzerland because there were no institutions within the country able to make money available in the huge quantities required.

This dependence on foreign lenders resulted in those lenders seeking to influence the growth and development of the Swiss rail companies.

Alfred Escher did not like this state of affairs.

In 1856 he succeeded in establishing a new bank, Schweizerische Kreditanstalt ( now known as Credit Suisse ), primarily for the purpose of securing financing for his own rail company, the Swiss Northeastern Railway.

Increasingly, however, Escher ’ s bank financed other public and private sector endeavours too, thereby developing into an important lender for the Swiss economy and the founding institution of the Zurich ’ s financial centre.