Swedish dynasty built on Indian railway profits
Summary and headline written by AI from the source article. How we work
In 1860, Joseph Stephens, born in Stockholm and connected to British railway engineers, travelled to Bombay at age nineteen and became a railway contractor.
He started as an apprentice and eventually secured contracts on the Great Indian Peninsula Railway, building sections of railway lines. Stephens used his earnings to purchase the Huseby Estate in Sweden, a former ironworks, investing colonial profits into industrial expansion there. Stephens’s success wasn’t unique.
European men without official positions in the British administration could profit from railway construction by sourcing materials and labour. His family connections and the existing racial hierarchies of colonial India helped him secure opportunities and manage costs effectively. He kept detailed records of his work, which are now preserved in the Huseby Archives at Linnaeus University, offering insight into the lives of those who built India’s railways. Stephens’s career exemplifies a trend of “imperial hitchhikers”.
Europeans who benefited from the infrastructure and protections of the British Empire without being part of the formal ruling power. He connected Sweden and India through trade, exporting goods like timber and iron from his estate and even importing early bicycles to Bombay. This exchange of capital, goods, and knowledge demonstrates how colonial wealth extended beyond Britain, shaping economies and industries in other parts of Europe.
