Peruvian Corporation

On 20 March 1890 the Peruvian Corporation Ltd was registered under the Companies Act, with a Board of Directors of ten members under the Chairmanship of Sir Alfred Dent. G A Ollard, of Smiles and Co Solicitors, was Manager in London, and T E Webb was Secretary, with Clinton Dawkins as the first representative in Peru. The Corporation was founded to cancel the Peruvian external debt and to release the Government of Peru from loans it had taken out through bondholders in 1869, 1870 and 1872, to finance railway construction. On 20 June 1907 the Government made a new contract with the Corporation whereby the Corporation was to construct three railway lines by September 1908. In return, the life of the concession was extended for a further 17 years. After these lines had been built, the Peruvian Corporation practically ceased building additional mileage, and subsequent construction was undertaken almost entirely by the Peruvian Government. By an agreement of 1928 the railways became the absolute property of the Corporation, subject to the surrender by the Corporation of their right to export guano, and the remaining annual payments due from the Government, and to the Corporation's making a payment of £247,000. A new arrangement was prepared in 1955, whereby a company incorporated in Canada as the 'Peruvian Transport Corporation Ltd' would acquire and hold all the outstanding share capital of the Peruvian Corporation Ltd. The Peruvian National Railways (Empresa Nacional de Ferrocarriles del Peru - ENAFER) were formed in September 1972, and taken over by the Government in December of that year.