The plan of constructing the nationwide networks of railways took its concrete shape in the late 1880's. At that time Ukichi Taguchi, who was well known as a liberalistic economist in Japan, attached much imporance to the railway that would link the coast of the Japan Sea to that of the Pacific Ocean (from his treatise, "First of all the projects of all-Japan railway networks should be formed"published in 1889). His suggestion was furthered in the reports publiehed by Tokyo Economic Associationin in 1891, which carried the article "The future railway networks in Japan"written by Kazutsugu Saburi. On the other hand, Meiji Government also had already thought out the same projects as this from a militaristic point of view. Kyoto Railway Company whose line linked Kyoto to Maizuru and to Miyazu,; which were among the most important ports in the coast of Japan Sea, came to occupay an important position upon the whole railway systems in Japan. This article aims at bringing out a feature of the process of constructing nationwide railway networks through analyzing the tendency of that Company and the Government which they showed when the Kyoto Railway was constructed. Firstly, we try to analyze the economic bases of Kyoto Railway Company. According to the document entitled "The report of the investigation of Kyoto-Maizuru Railway" published by Kyoto Chamber of Commerce, this railway had mainly been used for conveying silk fabrics, raw silk and so forth. From this fact we can see that the economic bases for constructing Kyoto Railway was made up through the developmens of the textile industries in Tango province. Secondly, We attempt to analyze the composition of shareholders of Kyoto Railway Company. When this company was established, its shareholders were mostly composed of businessmen in Kyoto and the nobility in Tokyo. But they gradually disappeared from the list of its shareholders, which tells weak financial position of the shareholders in Kyoto. Thirdly, we refer to "the movement for early construction of the Kyoto railway" Kyototesudo sokusei Undo. This projects was encouraged by businessmen in Kyoto. This Company got down to business in 1889 with the 21.68 miles line from Kyoto to Sonobe. But thereafter the Company could not extend its railways at all because of the Meiji Government's railway policy which had been conditioned by a militaristic point of view. So we might conclude that in those days the construction of these rail-ways \+ad under the control of the Meiji Government's railway policy which was fixed for militaristic purposes.
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