Pierwsza francusko-polska koncesja kolejowa z 1924 roku. Przyczynek do relacji finansowo-gospodarczych Polski i Francji po I wojnie światowej
The First Franco-Polish Railway Concession of 1924. A Contribution to the Financial and Economic Relations between Poland and France after the First World War

Summary/Abstract: In 1924, Poland granted a Polish-French consortium a concession to construct a railway network that formed part of the future coal mainline. Since French companies struggled to obtain financing in Paris, the Poles first modified the concession, and in 1928 cancelled it. Behind the project’s failure were not only difficulties with securing loans in France but also a lack of support from the French authorities. This situation resulted from France’s economic troubles, which proved more important than the political significance of its involvement in constructing the railway in Poland. The fate of the concession is also part of a broader change in the Polish government’s approach to foreign capital and France itself after the 1926 May Coup. When, in 1925, Poles wanted to modify the concession, they consulted the French before taking a decision, the results of which were beneficial to both parties. In 1927–28, the authorities in Warsaw presented their interlocutors with faits accomplis and ignored diplomatic protests. The case of the concession shows that, although the actions of the French in Poland are described in the literature as imperialist, even within the framework of asymmetrical Polish-French relations, the weaker party (Poland) had room for manoeuvre, and the success of the ventures of French companies on occasion depended on decisions taken in Warsaw.

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