By the early 1870s railway construction in Turkey, both Asiatic and European, was no longer a pioneering project. The Sublime Porte had already granted four concessions to British companies for railway lines in Asia Minor and in the Balkans. For more than one reason railways seemed to be a first class choice for raising the public revenue. They would open large areas to exploitation and would reinforce central government control over remote districts of the Empire. Naturally tax collection was expected to increase and cover a part of the country’s deficit. On the other hand, foreign capitalists and investors appeared to be willing to finance such enterprises, since faster transport in Turkey meant easier access to Ottoman sources of production and expansion of the distribution network. However, regardless of the long term economic benefits, railways were also a revolutionary innovation in the traditional rural economy and society of the Empire, both as a construction project and as a mode of transport.