Instituições e Caminhos-de-ferro Ministério das Obras Públicas, Parlamento e Associação dos Engenheiros Civis Portugueses ) : (1852-1899)

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Portugal opted for a policy of investment in public works, especially the railway. The Ministry of Public Works was created to manage this policy, being the sole administrator of the rail business. An advisory body was instituted in the ministry, having to be heard in respect to all public works. Its opinion was especially important in railway concessions by decree. Whenever parliament was heard, the Public Works commissions had great importance because they were required to prepare the text that would be discussed. The Portuguese Association of Civil Engineers was founded in 1870 in response to budget cuts and it was intended as a channel for the discussion and dissemination of issues related to engineering.The purpose of this article is to identify the relationships between these three institutions and the government and show the relevance of these bodies in the national railway policy. In order to do so, we will examine the Parliament’s daily records, the copy books of the ministry’s advisory bodies, the Revista de Obras Públicas e Minas (the Journal of Public Works and Mines) and the compilations of laws that indicate what was actually done.Through content analysis,we intend to frame these sources in their historical context