- established precedents of the nineteenth century. The
United States, for example, had adopted similar measures to encourage the building of transcontinental railways. To cite a single instance, Congress granted the promoters of the Union Pacific system a right-of-way through the public domain, twenty sections of land on each side of each mile of the railway, and a loan of bonds of the United States to an amount of fifty million dollars. Between 1850 and 1873 alone the Government transferred to the railways some thirty-five million acres of public lands, an area in excess of that of the State of New York.[51]
In certain other respects, however, the Bagdad Railway Convention was radical and far-reaching in its innovations. Worthy of first mention among its unusual provisions is the sweeping tax exemption granted the concessionaires by Article 8: "Manufactured material for the permanent way and materials, iron, wood, coal, engines, cars and coaches, and other stores necessary for the initial establishment as well as the enlargement and development of the railway and everything pertaining thereto which the concessionaires shall purchase in the empire or import from abroad shall be exempt from all domestic taxes and customs duties. The exemption from customs duties shall also be granted the coal necessary for the operation of the road, imported abroad by the concessionaires, until the gross receipts of the line and its branches reach 15,500 francs per kilometre. Likewise, during the entire period of the concession the land, capital, and revenue of the railway and everything appertaining thereto shall not be taxed; neither shall any stamp duty be charged on the present Convention or on the Specifications annexed thereto, the additional conventions, or any subsequent instruments; nor on the issue of Government bonds; nor on the amounts collected by the concessionaires on account of the guarantee for working expenses; nor shall any duty
