Abstract:
Before the 1870s there was a preference in the United States that the federal and state governments would subsidize private corporations but did not attempt to control them. This was the case when North Carolina held a three-quarters interest in the North Carolina Railroad (NCRR). The NCRR was built to help enable trade and travel to and within the Piedmont region of North Carolina. Chartered in 1849, the NCRR was the center of some controversy as to the style and amount of state control until it was leased out by the state in 1871.