Article citation information:
Rutkowski, M.
Decisions of the administrative council on road transport issues in
the immediate period after the establishment of the Kingdom of Poland in
1815. Scientific Journal of Silesian
University of Technology. Series Transport. 2025, 126, 189-204. ISSN: 0209-3324. DOI: https://doi.org/10.20858/sjsutst.2025.126.12.
Marek RUTKOWSKI[1]
DECISIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL ON ROAD TRANSPORT ISSUES IN THE
IMMEDIATE PERIOD AFTER THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE KINGDOM OF POLAND IN 1815
Summary. The article
analyses decisions taken by the main governing body - the Administrative
Council (and the Tsarist Imperial Governor serving therein) in terms of drawing
out the general directions and conditions of building of roads in the Kingdom
of Poland during the first period of this state existence, i.e., until the
emergence of the financial crisis of the public budget in the early 1820s. In particular, the decisions taken by the then
government regarding the development of Polish transport were assessed in the
following areas: a) main directions of road works; b) establishment of the
principles of the control system; c) laws on the division and width of roads
and measurements of their length, as well as on the of land occupied for the
construction of tracts; d) engineering or construction personnel, use of train
animals and tools, procurement of funds and construction materials,
anti-corruption system and, finally, protection against destruction. The
analysis of the archival data of minutes (protocols) of the Administrative
Council makes it possible to conclude about the relatively very high
professional level of the then legislators and policymakers, and about the
existence of correctly understood vision of the transport policy of the state
of the described era.
Keywords: road
network, Administrative Council, Kingdom of Poland, 19th century
1. GOVERNMENT
ADMINISTRATION IN RELATION TO THE DEVEPLOPMENT OF THE
TRANSPORT NETWORK OF THE PERIOD OF THE BEGINNINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF POLAND IN
THE LITERATURE OF THE SUBJECT. SOURCES OF THE ARTICLE
The issue of management by the
highest state authorities of the Kingdom of Poland, and specifically by the
Administrative Council of the period of the first years of the existence of
this quasi-independent state (practically from 1816 to the beginnings of the
twentieth century) of the process of the creation of the state road transport
network is the matter which has not been extensively studied so far. However,
the selective pointing to a large and rich-tradition literature of the subject
referring to the very structure of state power of this period, directly or
indirectly influencing the formation of the transport network, should
facilitate our endeavors to properly embody the process analyzed in the
realities of the era.
It is therefore first of all worth
mentioning in this context that the general picture of the conditions of the
work of the Kingdom administration under Russian authority was presented by Szymon Askenazy[2], Kazimierz Bartoszewicz[3] or Jerzy Kukulski[4], as well as by numerous collective
publications on this subject[5]. Hubert Izdebski
wrote in 1978 in detail about the Administrative Council itself[6]. Some useful information concerning
the legal and material bases of the construction of roads at the time can be
found in the articles of Julian Majewski[7], Rafał Kowalczyk[8] or Tomasz. Demidowicz[9]. More of it, one should note that
in 2022 the article by Mikołaj Getka-Kenig
was published, referring to civil construction issues in the work of the
Administrative Council of the Kingdom of Poland of the constitutional period,
which on page 57 (in the first paragraph) contains few references to some
chosen examples of the construction of road postal buildings[10].
This article, analyzing the
decisions of the Administrative Council of the initial period of its
functioning in the field of road infrastructure is based on archival source
materials, preserved in the form of minutes (protocols) of meetings of this
government institution, stored in the Central Archives of Historical Record in
Warsaw[11]. The printed Collection of Administrative
Regulations of the Kingdom of Poland, relating to the Department of Land and
Water Communications - Land Communication (Volume II) - to a much lesser extent - the Official
Journal of the Masovian Voivodeship was also useful
in writing this text[12]. Thus, the government influence of
the first, initial phase of development of Polish road system is here presented
referring to the most direct and reliable source.
2. DECISIONS
ON ROAD WORKS TAKEN BY THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL AT THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE
OFFICIAL EXISTENCE OF THE KINGDOM OF POLAND
The first meeting of the effective
government of the country, or at least one of the main governing bodies of the
state - the Administrative Council - at which the definition of the preliminary
technical conditions and the principles of the construction of the road network
of the Kingdom of Poland was dealt with, took place in the relatively very
early period of the existence of the Kingdom - namely on March 12, 1816[13]. At that time, it was the proposal
of the Director General (Minister) of the Government Commission on Internal
Affairs and Police - Tadeusz Antoni Mostowski[14] that was addressed by the Imperial
(tsarist) Governor in the Kingdom of Poland General Józef
Zajączek[15] for consideration by the competent
legislative body of the Kingdom - the General Assembly of the State Council[16].
Having established the division of
roads into large, secondary - middle class (ordinary) and side tracks, the
Administrative Council on April 20, 1816 determined first of all what the first
ones should be. By decree, the main, highest-class roads included all those
tracks that led from the capital - Warsaw to the Kingdom's border, and possibly
also some additional land transport routes, which did not pass through the
capital itself, but led from the borders to the country, passing simultaneously
through several voivodeships. The Council recognized
as such at first: roads leading from Warszawa to a) Kraków,
b) Wrocław (Breslau), c) Poznań,
d) Królewiec (Königsberg), e)
Grodno, f) Brześć Litewski,
g) Toruń (Thorn) and h) Gdańsk
(Danzig), as well as one road leading to Uściług via
Lublin, and further to Lwów. In addition, the
connection from Kraków to Brześć
Litewski via Lublin was considered to be a
first-class route, too.
In accordance with the decree of 20
April 1816, the secondary - middle class (ordinary) tracks were to be all the
other roads leading from Warsaw to the Voivodeship
cities, and the roads serving to connect the cities with the status of the
capital of the voivodeship. Other transport routes
with the status of medium (ordinary) roads were also transport lines connecting
voivodeship cities with the smaller localities but
still the capitals of the districts as well as any routes connecting with each
other individual peripheral cities. The rest of the tracks were automatically
given the status of side roads[17].
Subsequently, after the Government
Commission on Internal Affairs and Police prepared a detailed report on the
“required network of the main roads/track” of the Kingdom, and after preparing
of instructions for the “staff officers” of Polish Army used for this purpose
(i.e., for the precise determination of the course of planned transport
routes), the Ministry submitted these key materials for final acceptance by the
Imperial Governor. Finally, at the meeting of the Administrative Council on
June 22, 1816, General Józef Zajączek
- somewhat cautiously - decided to hand over the documents presented to him
again to the Government Commission for Internal Affairs and the Police, in
order to issue by this ministry, the appropriate instructions on the regulation
on the main roads of the Kingdom also for the wide range of civil authorities[18]. Thus, the Administrative Council
in June 1816 accepted the draft of the Government Commission for Internal
Affairs and Police on “the main roads of the Kingdom”, encompassing in its
decision both the participation in the whole process of the Polish military and
civilian authorities.
At the very beginning of the
functioning of established at the Vienna Congress Kingdom of Poland the
Administrative Council did not, however, show any significant activity in the
field of real development of the national road/transport network. One of the
first actions in this area of this advisory body of the Imperial Governor -
which was to some extent understandable - therefore concerned the improvement
of the situation in the development of the transport system around the capital
itself. Namely, on May 20, 1816 the Kingdom’s government ordered the
arrangement of all access roads, leading from the area of closest perimeter to
Warsaw[19]. As a result, appropriate measures were taken
surprisingly quickly. Four days later, on May 24, 1816, Tadeusz Mostowski – Director-General of the Government Committee on
Internal Affairs and Police presented to the Administrative Council a report on
the progress made in the arrangement of the roads located int
the districts surrounding the capital.
Some objections have been raised to
the planned advancement of the process of changing the previously existing
local road network around Warsaw. At the beginning of the third decade of May
1816, the ministerial Director-General of the Commission on Internal Affairs
explained why the transport authorities did not give their consent to change
the course of one of the surrounding Warsaw road tracks, which was to go
through the village of Rożniszew. Nonetheless, this
effective ministerial opposition to the announced change in the course of the
local Warsaw’s roads was not always the case. The Administrative Council issued
its first decision on July 13, 1816, to change the course of the road line,
located a bit further from the left bank of the river Vistula waters of the
capital. This decision concerned changing the course of the road leading from
the Warsaw suburb - Praga in the direction of the
locality of Serock.
Meanwhile, in connection with the
development of the road network around the capital of the country, there was no
doubt that after the expiry of the next nine months, on May 3 1817, the
Administrative Council issued five resolutions concerning the implementation of
the program of the reconstruction of the streets in Warsaw, paying mainly
attention to streets / access roads leading to the city center itself [20]. Thus, the first stage of the
activity of the actual government of the Kingdom of Poland, dating from May
1816 to May 1817, was basically limited to the territory of the appropriate
administrative center of the country.
On the other hand, since the middle
of 1817 an effective decision-making activity of the Administrative Council has
been observed, also in relation to the “beyond capital itself” territory of the
Kingdom. Furthermore, in some cases, there were clearly seen differences in the
scope of road works to be carried out in different areas of the country. This
testifies not only to some kind of conceptual confusion, but also to the significant
involvement of members of the government in development projects of the Polish
transport network. Such a dispute took place, for example, at the
Administrative Council on June 10, 1817 concerning the area of the Kraków Voivodeship[21]. Having located the source and
nature of the conflict, and after a little more than two weeks in a row, the
Council finally issued on June 21, 1817 an order to the officers of the Polish
Army Quartermaster to cooperate effectively with the officials of the
Government Commission for Internal Affairs and the Police, conducting the
program of road works in the territory of the above-mentioned Kraków Voivodeship[22]. In order to ultimately prevent
further possible disputes and omissions, on July 14, 1818 the Administrative
Council ordered in turn to carry out the regulation/ “straightening” of the
course of all the main traffic tracks in the territory of the Kraków Voivodeship[23].
In the following year of 1819, the
government of the Kingdom took decisive steps resulting in the proper
arrangement of priorities in the construction of the Polish paved (by crushed
stones) roads. The key provision for the categorization (and consequently, for
the possible order of construction) of the main road tracks of the Kingdom of
Poland was reached at the meeting of the Administrative Council of April 24,
1819. At that time, it was decided to recognize as the first class of the main
tracks of the road leading to: Brześć Litewski, Kalisz, Poznań, Uściług (leading to the village: Uściług,
located on the very border with the Russian Empire) and Wrocław/Breslau.
In April 1819, the roads of Gdańsk/Danzig, Kraków, St. Petersburg (leading to Kowno)
and Tomaszów Lubeski were
recognized as the main sections of the second-class tracks[24].
Another crucial work on determining
the course of the main treaties of the Kingdom was undertaken by the Council in
October 1819. In this month, Franciszek Christiani,
Director-General of Roads and Bridges, and Antoni Sumiński,
Director-General of the Post Offices, were authorized by the Administrative
Council to draw up the draft directions, in which the main roads of the country
would be built[25]. The conclusions presented by Christiani and Sumiński were
generally accepted. Consequently, on July 10, 1819, the Administrative Council
adopted a resolution changing at least partially the net of the routes of some
of the main parts of the Kingdom. These were the following transport routes
cases: a) the Kraków route; b) the Poznań route; c) the Warsaw-Lublin route; d) the Wrocław route[26].
Moreover, at the beginning of
December 1819, the issue of the connection of the Kingdom of Poland with the
Russian Empire in the northeastern direction was also dealt with, namely: by
the Narew River. This time it was not the initiative of the Warsaw authorities.
Surprisingly enough, on December 11, 1819 the Administrative Council was simply
informed from Saint Petersburg that tsar Alexander I authorized his governor
General Józef Zajączek to
appoint from the side of the Kingdom a special commissioner, whose task would
be (together with Joachim Wołłowicz - the then
governor of the Białystok District) to take measures
aimed at "drying the mud(s) over Narew River", in order to build a
new road connection with the capital of the district - Białystok.
It is significant that - in the event of the eventual appearing of significant
difficulties with the drying of supermassive swamps - a possible alternative
solution to be undertaken in this direction has been planned. The second
possibility was “/.../ the restoration of the former road (leading) from Białystok to the locality of Tykocin”[27].
In addition to issues of fundamental
importance for the development of transportation of the state, the matter of
development of the transport network surrounding/circumventing Warsaw returned
at the end of the year of 1819. Consequently, on December 18, 1819, the
Administrative Council issued another (two) decisions for the construction of
specific local roads near the capital of the state. At the same time, in order
to accelerate the process of proper expansion of the transport network located
both in Warsaw and in its vicinity, by virtue of a decision of the Kingdom’s
government, the general care of the Director-General of the Government
Commission on Internal Affairs and the Police was entrusted with the
construction of the highways leading from palace of Belweder
to the locality of Wilanów and from Warsaw itself to
localities of Miłosna and Jablonna[28].
Subsequently, as before, capital
(local) affairs were again intertwined with projects of national importance. It
is not surprising, therefore, that in December of the same year 1819,
Franciszek Christiani received from the Council an
order to specify the precise location “/.../in which road works for the next
spring [i.e., of 1820] are to be started” [29].. A similar issue was also discussed
by the Kingdom’s authorities at the end of the following year, precisely on
November 11, 1820, when the Administrative Council discussed the decision on
the program of construction works for public roads for the whole year of 1821.
This time the program for the construction of the transport network had to be
reduced due to the “poor financial situation of the Kingdom” and the so-called
“budget reduction” [30], and thus in connection with
factors somewhat completely independent of road traffic matters. Probably
precisely because of the aforementioned financial constraints - on December 12,
1820, the proposed by the Director- General of Roads and Bridges Franciszek Christiani new course (and therefore generating additional
costs) of the road through the suburb of Warsaw, Praga,
was not agreed. The basic formal argument here was the fact that it was
impossible to change the course of the route, which had already been approved
by tsar Alexander I himself[31].
Nonetheless, some of Christiani's other proposals to change the course of the
main tracts were accepted even in the dark times of rising financial crisis.
Fine example of this attitude is the decision of the Administrative Council of
May 7, 1821, when the Government of the Kingdom adhered to a plan prepared by
the Director-General of Roads and Bridges to change the course of the Brześć Litewski track, at least
in its section between localities of Janówek and Kaluszyn[32]. Finally, on November 13, 1821, the
Administration Council adopted a resolution changing one of the tracks of the
second-class to the main track. (of the first-class).
The above provision concerned the route leading through the town of Sieradź to the locality of Widawa[33].
To some surprise, in about the same
period, and in the framework of the process of establishing the
well-functioning transport network, “the postal routes” were also taken care
of, which - by definition and as a rule - did not belong in the Kingdom of
Poland at the beginning of the twenties of 19th century to the category of
paved roads. On November 27, 1821, the Administrative Council issued, for
example, an order for the Government Commission on Internal Affairs and Police,
which, in turn, ordered the specific voivodeship committees
to undertake “orderly work” on the postal routes. These works had to be done
with the help of a “corvée labor” of both pedestrians
(only human) and supported by animals’ nature[34].
3. ESTABLISHMENT BY THE
ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL OF THE GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF THE CONTROL SYSTEM IN THE
FIELD OF TRANSPORT
In the summer of 1816, the Administrative Council decided on the
principles and main topics of verification work aimed at assessing the actual
state of Polish road traffic network. It is worth noting here that the
so-called state assessment reports of the individual roads of the Kingdom were
initially - it seems - carried out in principle only because of the occurrence
of some important event, such as the anticipated passage of the then Russian-Polish
monarch (tsar and king Aleksander I). In fact, for
this purpose and solely on this occasion, one of General Zajączek
members of trusted staff paid a visit to (still existing before turning into voivodeship) the department of Łomża,
in the summer of 1816. After this “circumnavigation”, on September 3, 1816, the
Administrative Council dealt with the general’s report at its session, ordering
that its excerpts be sent to the competent ministries[35]. What is notable is the fact that only on September 24, 1816 (and thus
three weeks after the actual circumcision) the Government of the Kingdom
granted 300 Polish Zloties (local currency) to cover
the travel costs for person actually sent to inspect the roads by which the
tsar Alexander I would travel – namely personal adjutant of General Zajączek[36]. It does not seem surprising, therefore, that the verification process
described above was to be counted among those actions (of unquestionable
importance, at least because it was directly linked to the person of the monarch
himself) which the Administrative Council had found to require immediate
payment.
The proper and detailed rules for drawing up reports on the work already
carried out in the Polish road transport were drawn up at the beginning of the
summer of 1817. After the chairman of the Kraków Voivodeship had sent to the Warsaw’s authorities a report
on the state of the work already done in the subordinate voivodeship
on the so-called “Kraków track”, the Administrative
Council decided at its session on June 21, 1817, to distribute it to all other voivodeship committees, in order to apply by them to the
solutions developed in this example at stake[37]. In this way, the reporting procedure scheme proposed in June 1817 by
the Kraków Voivodeship
Chairman to the Administrative Council was decided by the Government to
recognize as national guidelines on this issue. So here we see the real
recognition by the Government of the Kingdom of the local, somewhat bottom-up
reporting initiative in the field of the state of Polish road transport as
worthy of widespread dissemination.
Nor should it be surprising that the general assessment of the current
state of the roads was recommended by the Administrative Council to the
Government Commission of Internal Affairs and Police, which took actually place
on July 5, 1817. This Ministry was obliged - quite naturally - to collect data
on the state of the roads through the General Directorate of Posts (which
Antoni Sumiński was the head of - as mentioned above
- one of the authors of the original plan for the development of Polish road
transport). I was requested that besides the general description of the tracks,
in the reports to be sent every month by the Post Directorate it was necessary
to clearly indicate their sections, which were necessarily requiring any sort
of repairs[38].
Expanding the already fairly wide scope of transport network
verification, on December 6, 1817, the Administrative Council ordered the
chairmen of the voivodeship committees to conduct
audits/lustrations of the located on the territory of the national estates’
roads and bridges (as well as dykes and inns by the roads)[39]. Then, on April 3, 1819, the Council issued an order to the various voivodeship commissions to submit to the Warsaw Government
Commission of Internal Affairs and Police “current reports” on the work carried
out in the construction of roads[40].
Finally, it should be noted that the assessment of the state of road
work has also become the domain of the tsarist Governor - General Zajączek himself, who was at the same time the chairman of
the Administrative Council. As a suitable example, one could point to the
situation of August 7, 1819, when he personally presented to the Council a
report from the inspection trip, carried out in the territory of the voivodeship of: Augustów, Plock
and Mazowsze. In addition to describing the local
road traffic, Zajączek also drew in the submitted
file attention to the development of the cities located in these voivodeships[41]. Another such report, this time concerning the Lublin and Podlasie Voivodeships, was
delivered by General Zajączek to the Council on April
25, 1820. In the second paragraph of this his subsequent report the Governor
not only informed about the general state of the local roads, or about the
construction of their new sections, but he also described for instance the
transportation of stones required for the building of tracks, which took place
from the surroundings of locality of Chełm. In the
sixth part of his report from the end of April 1820, Zajączek
focused on the changes made in the course of the tracts[42].
4. THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL’S DETAILED PROCEEDINGS AND REGULATIONS ON LAWS
ON THE DIVISION AND WIDTH OF ROADS AND ON MEASUREMENTS OF THEIR LENGTH, AS WELL
AS ON THE LAND OCCUPIED FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF TRACTS
Extremely important issue which in
the field of road transport attracted the attention of the central authorities
of the Kingdom was the problem of classification of types of roads and
determination of technical conditions of building them, as well as the
acquisition of the land needed for the construction of tracks. On the proposal
of the Government Commission on Internal Affairs and Police, the President of
the Administrative Council, the Deputy General Józef Zajączek, issued on April 20, 1816, regulations defining
the division of national roads into “big, secondary - middle class (ordinary)
and side roads”, and additionally defining their dimensions. This provision was
drafted and approved “to facilitate the conduct of communications” in the Kingdom
of Poland. Another requirement behind the new legislation was the need to
address the need for a transport system that not only would meet economic
conditions, but also would refer to social expectations (originally:” to public
convenience”). Finally, it was decided in April 1816 to regulate the issues of
land transport taking into account the need for “creating the image of the more
beautiful country”[43].
The new law
adopted at the meeting of the Administrative Council on April 20, 1816, also
pre-determined the standard width of the individual types of roads to be built
in the Kingdom of Poland. The standard solutions in this regard were approved
as follows. The main (large) tracts were to have a width of 7 fathoms (about
12.5 m), except for extreme situations where it was not possible to build given
tracts of such width; the medium (ordinary) roads would have a wide of 5
fathoms (about 9 m); the sides roads were expected to be relatively narrow - of
2 fathoms (3.57 m) of width[44].
The
decision to change the width of the main tracts was taken by the Administrative
Council as a result of the intervention of Christiani:
The Director-General of Roads and Bridges, who originally had submitted his
draft for evaluation to the Government Commission for Internal Affairs and
Police. After receiving the ministerial positive opinion, the new law was
approved by the Government, and this new proposal became an official
interpretation by the decree of the deputy Zajączek
of 19 April 1819. As a result, the Administrative Council changed the width of
the main roads in the Kingdom, introducing a new standardization in this case
of 18 cubits (in other words: of 36 Polish feet, or of 34 Russian feet). To
such established standardized width of main roads, one should have added one
foot wide “turfing” on each side of the track. As a
result, starting as of April 1819, the total width of the typical main road in
the Kingdom of Poland was 38 Polish feet, or 35.9 “Russian feet”. Since then,
this changed width of main tracks started to be treated by road builders as
standard for a long time. Interestingly enough, at the same time when the
decision to change the standard width of the Polish main roads was taken, the
chairman of the Administrative Council declared that the construction of the
most important tracts in the vicinity of Warsaw should continue to be carried
out “in their original width”[45].
The length measurements of the main
and secondary-middle class tracts were subject to some specifications. The
decree of April at stake referred to miles and clearly stated that the Polish
official mile corresponded to the longitude of the so-called geographic mile,
according to the division of one degree of the equator into 15 such miles. The
length of the mile used in national road transportation was therefore
officially fixed by the Administrative Council at 12,456 cubits of “the Warsaw
measure”. It was 7,417.5 meters[46]. However, this situation (which is
described in detail above because of its importance) did not last long. In
accordance with another decision of the Administrative Council, this time on
the 13th of June 1818, it was decided to introduce a new mile in the
Kingdom of Poland with a length of 14,816 cubits 12 inches 3,75 lines, or about
8 534 meters. This project, however, was ultimately not implemented. Instead, a
so-called “postal mile” was adopted, comparable to seven Russian versts, that is, with a length of 7,467 meters. Finally,
the Warsaw’s government introduced the Russian system of measurement of length
which was already based on the verst, where one verst was equal to 500 fathoms, or 1 066 meters[47].
The Administrative Council also
dealt with the issue of the acquisition/purchase of land for the construction
of the roads’ sideways, which was inextricably linked to the determination of
the width and length of the roads. What was obvious was that soon after the
standard width of paved roads, including their verges, was established by the
decree of Governor Zajączek on April 20, 1816,
construction practice showed that it was still necessary to determine an
additional width of land necessary for the construction of transport routes.
These were the stripes of land needed a) for excavating roadside ditches; b)
digging land in mountainous areas, or c) for additional earth moving in lowland
areas. Finally, another reason for the need for requiring additional land for
road construction was the need to secure the area for various construction
materials. Consequently, in the spring of 1823 the Government Commission for
Internal Affairs and Police submitted a request to the Administrative Council
for the approval of a provision, supplementing the law of April 20, 1816. As a
result, on June 24, 1823, General Józef Zajączek after consulting the whole matter at the meeting
of the Administrative Council, decided to approve new regulations concerning
the confiscation of land for the construction of roads built in the Kingdom of
Poland.
These new
regulations clearly indicated that for the purpose of the construction of
transport routes (especially paved roads) in Poland it was acceptable to add
some terrain to the basic width of the main tracts, as it had been provided for
implementation on the basis of the regulations of April 20, 1816. From June 24,
1823, a typical way of widening the road belt in the lowland areas was to
occupy on both sides of the path a belt 2 fathoms wide and 5 feet deep (circa 5
m). Another option - used when it was necessary to build a road embankment -
was to build on both sides of the road with a width of 5 fathoms 6 inches
(about 9 m) in dry areas, and 6 fathoms 1 foot (approx. 11 m) in areas
considered to be marshlands. In addition, the typical road, according to the
newly introduced regulations, required an extension in the situation of passing
through the mountainous area. It was both sides of 6 fathoms 5 feet (circa 12.3
m) of land in the mountain-sandy area, and 5 fathoms 4 feet (approximately 10.1
m) in the hill-clay area[48].
5. PRELIMINARY PRINCIPLES AND EXAMPLES OF WORK PERFMORMED
IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND REPAIR OF ROADS, OBTAINING FUNDS AND COUNTERING
CORRUPTION, AS WELL AS PROVIDING HUMAN AND MATERIAL SUPPORT FOR TRANSPORT
NETWORK BUILDING, INTRODUCED BY THE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL
The first regulations for the
specification of the rules of work to be carried out in the construction and
repair of roads were established by the Administrative Council in the meeting
of this institution on May 15, 1816[49]. Since the lack of adequate road
traffic personnel proved to be an extremely sensitive issue, the Administrative
Council decided on July 6, 1816 - in the presumed absence of its own top-class
specialists - to bring from the Austrian Galicia one person (sic) in the rank
of the road conductor, as well as several people who would be skilled in the
art of road construction.[50]. Thus, it can be said that at the
very beginning of the construction of a new road network in the Kingdom of
Poland, the Polish authorities also "used" the skilled workers taken
from the Polish territories occupied by the Austrians.
Despite these early efforts, a
prolonged initial shortage of candidates for construction and inspection
positions, left many of these workstations still unfilled in 1817. This
apparently resulted in budget savings in the state’s road transportation. On
this basis, on October 7, 1817, the Administrative Council issued a decree
according to which the possible salary increases for already working inspectors
and road builders, which were not originally planned by the staff, were to be
paid from the savings achieved due to the lack of candidates for certain
positions in the construction services of the Kingdom of Poland[51].
Since the lack of suitable workers
persisted for a relatively long time, on August 4, 1818 the Administrative
Council asked the Government Commission of Internal Affairs and Police to
(again) address the Voivodeship Commission of Augustów to start searching for suitable workers,
“qualified” to carry out construction works on paved roads, i.e., roads of the
“chausse type”[52]. In turn, on November 14, 1818, the
Council urged the Director-General of the Government Commission of Internal
Affairs and Police to prepare in the spring of 1819 the necessary “technical
forces” for the construction of the transport network throughout the country[53]. Thus, the case of lack of transport
services was, in principle, a constant concern of the authorities of the
Kingdom of Poland during the first period of their activity, which was
reflected, among other things, in the above-mentioned regulations of the
Administrative Council.
The problem of proper financing of
the transport works appeared in a rather unexpected way in the activity of the
Administrative Council in 1818. When, in view of the difficult budgetary
situation of the Kingdom tsar Alexander I ordered the introduction of general savings
in the various administrative activities in the Kingdom of Poland, as a kind of
response to this, on August 18, 1818 the Administrative Council decided to
suspend all road in the whole country. There was only one exception to this
rule, namely the Warsaw-Brześć Litewski
road (the so-called Brześć road), which was
considered to be an extremely important transport route, especially because of
the numerous journeys made there by tsar
Alexander I, and because of the commercial transport that heavily used this
route, mainly for the Warsaw fair[54].
After a few months, the situation
improved slightly. On November 14, 1818, the Administrative Council asked
Tadeusz Mostowski, the Director-General of the
Government Commission for Internal Affairs and Police, to prepare in advance
“the Spring program for the construction of national
roads”[55]. Later, on November 11, 1820, the Council
requested the collection of information necessary to “establish” the proper
quantity of materials required for the ongoing construction of roads[56]. Then, on November 6, 1821, the
Government asked the Warsaw’s Commission for Internal Affairs and Police to
precisely point out the places where, in the Spring of
1822, the further construction of the paved beaten roads should begin as a priority.
The aim of this request was to have the necessary building materials during the
winter time[57].
This all was possible because the
main rules for collecting materials needed for the construction of roads had
already been developed in the government forum. After the draft of the law on
the “accumulating of materials from private properties required by the local
government authorities”, was drafted, it was decided at the meeting of the
Administrative Council on December 13, 1817 to send the entire draft, for
assessment, to the General Assembly of the State Council[58]. Furthermore, on March 10, 1818,
the Government adopted a resolution which introduced free access to private
fields and “open spaces”, where there would be deposits of materials suitable
for the construction of roads, in particular: gravel, stones, sand, etc. For
possible “damages” to the land, however, the new law provided formal
compensation[59].
Having found the exceptionally
convenient location for the material deposits needed for the construction of
roads, the Warsaw authorities decided on several occasions to purchase the
given land. Thus, on March 13, 1821 the Administrative Council decided to
submit to the General Assembly of the Council of State the proposal for the
purchase of five morgue fields in the locality of Młociny,
in the Warsaw region, where they found deposits of rock particularly suitable
for use in the construction of paved roads[60]. Finally, on May 17, 1821, the
draft decree was transformed into a formal resolution at the meeting of the
Administrative Council[61]. Similarly, on October 16, 1821,
the Government approved the decision to submit to the General Assembly of the
State Council a draft decision on the purchase of land privately owned by the
owner of the Izdebki estate. Because in this place
there was a pebble, especially useful for work on the roads[62]. Therefore, as one can see, in the
early period of the existence of the Kingdom, the Administrative Council not
only made some decisions in the field of drafting and adopting legislation on
the collection of materials necessary for the construction of roads, but also
actively participated in specific decisions on their acquisition.
The access to and use of materials
for the construction of roads was apparently connected with the consideration
of the possibility of obtaining funds for their construction or repair by the
Administrative Council. And so, on June 6, 1816, the Council, for the first
time in its history, allocated in advance 20 thousand Polish zloty for the
repair of roads in the Kingdom[63].
After more than two years, the
Council made a spectacular move when, at least in theory, it granted
"unlimited credit" for general repairs of national roads. This was
done in such a way that on July 14, 1818, the Warsaw authorities authorized the
Government Commission of Revenue and Treasury to transfer to the Government
Commission of Internal Affairs and Police the amounts of money needed by the
Ministry for the repair of the country's transportation network. Then, on
February 5, 1820, the Administrative Council instructed the Government
Commission of Internal Affairs and Police and the Government Commission of
Revenue and Treasury to collect the funds expected to be spent on payments to
persons employed in the construction of roads. Such a move was intended to
prevent possible interruptions in the construction process in the future, which
would eventually be caused by the periodic non-payment of wages to contract
road workers[64].
Sometimes the unexpected
co-financing from the side of the Administrative Council concerned a very
specific task. This was the case with the allocation of 4 thousand Polish
zlotys in the state budget on April 17, 1821, with the purpose of using it for
sudden and accidental repairs of roads around the capital Warsaw. Furthermore,
on November 25, 1821, the government approved the payment of the sum of about
100 thousand Polish zlotys personally to Franciszek Ksawery
Christiani - the General Director of Roads and
Bridges, for the completion of the construction of roads built in the Kalisz Voivodeship. A much smaller amount of 550 Polish zloty was
allocated on February 6, 1821 "for the maintenance costs" of the road
between Sieluchów and Różan
for a period of eleven months. Similarly to the technical issue (collection of
materials for the construction of the transport network), the issue of
obtaining funds for road construction was dealt with by the Administrative
Council both at the national level and in relation to specific local solutions.
The fight against corruption/financial
abuse, which may have occurred during the construction of the Polish transport
network, as well as the imposition of possible sanctions for this, were other
problems that the Administrative Board dealt with during the initial period of
the Kingdom's existence. This was mainly due to the fact that in case of the
possibility of fraud in road/transport services, the authorities (including the
central authorities) always initiated investigative measures. When in 1821 in
the provincial town of Siedlce there were
irregularities caused by road officials, the Administrative Council decided on
March 20, 1821, to investigate the whole case "on the spot".
Therefore, some funds and allowances were given to persons who were sent to Siedlce "/.../ to investigate the accusations made
against the road officials”[65].
Similarly, citizens were sometimes
condemned by administrative authorities for acts of obstructing or stopping
road works, possibly misleading transport officials. Such an event occurred
when after the "Council of the Prefecture of Radom" (i.e., before the
introduction of the administrative structures of the voivodeships)
in 1816 had charged an individual named Karol Zakrzewski
with the costs of "/.../ geometry fees for the repair of the road from
(locality) Końskie to Żarnów",
on August 6, 1816 the Administrative Council received information that the
appeal of the convicted person had been sent for consideration by the
Government Commission of Internal Affairs and Police. In return, on September
2, 1817, the Administrative Council granted compensation in the amount of 1,816
Polish zlotys for the grain destroyed during the straightening of the roads in
the Mazowsze Voivodeship[66].
In this context, it is worth
mentioning that the Administrative Council has already formally dealt with the
development of rules for the protection of roads against any form of
destruction. This was the case on December 26, 1821, when the Council decided
to send to the General Assembly of the Council of State a draft regulation on the
provisions for the protection against destruction of paved roads and the
transport bridges located on these lines. The Administrative Council has also
addressed the practical aspects of road construction, for example by creating a
special working group for the construction of the transportation network. This
was the case on October 18, 1817, when this administrative body decided to
create a "brigade for road works". A special order of the
Administrative Council for this brigade was issued at the meeting of this
institution on February 8, 1820, when the Council ordered the use of a new road
construction company to assist in the construction of the road network around
Warsaw. Moreover, on July 3, 1821, the Council allocated a fund for the road
construction company in the state budget[67].
In these circumstances, it is
necessary to mention the interest of the Administrative Council in the question
of providing the transport services with the appropriate animal power (beasts
of burden) and tools, when in the summer of 1816 it was decided to purchase
horses and equipment necessary for the construction of roads bypassing Warsaw.
For this purpose, on August 6, 1816, the Board of Directors allocated 62
thousand Polish zlotys for the purchase of: a) 30 wagons, together with wooden
boxes, b) a considerable number of harnesses for horses, c) a
large number of horses themselves, especially those capable of carrying the
materials necessary for the construction of these roads[68].
Finally, at the session of July 10,
1819, the Administrative Council ordered the free distribution of wood from the
forests belonging to the Government Administration for "various equipment
and road tools". Next, on July 13, 1819, the Council authorized the Government
Commission of Internal Affairs and Police to sell by public auction (tender)
road tools, wagons and horses previously used in Warsaw for transportation and
road works. The reason for this decision was the completion of most of the road
projects in the capital at that time. This decision may be all the more
surprising when one considers that on May 22, 1821, the Administrative Council
adopted a resolution approving the sums (amounting to 12,048 Polish zloty) for
the annual maintenance of four carriages with harnesses intended for work on Warsaw's
local roads[69].
6. CONCLUSION
The first resolutions of the Council
of the Kingdom of Poland on road transport (which appeared as early as March
1816) focused on the specification of the initial technical conditions and the
basic principles of track construction. These proposals, mostly of ministerial
origin and especially from the side of the Government Commission of Internal
Affairs and Police, were often or rather repeatedly referred back by the
Council - with the active participation of its chairman, Tsarist Governor
General Zajączek - for further analysis and
consideration by the General Assembly of the Council of State. It is worth
mentioning here that at the beginning the Council did not carry out any visible
activity in the area of the development of the national road network, limiting
itself essentially to the areas around the capital, as only in July 1816, the
first decisions on changing the routes of the roads located a little further
from the capital appeared. In general, it can be said that the initial stage of
the Council's activity, at least until May 1817, was definitely limited to the
areas of the corresponding hard core of the country. When this situation
changed, the Council began to intervene, among other things, in the settlement
of jurisdictional disputes. As a result, the administrative decision-making
body in Warsaw (especially since 1819) took some decisive legal steps, which
resulted in the proper order of priorities for the construction of Polish paved
roads, including their detailed categorization and order of construction.
The summary of the decisions taken
on the scope of the development of the transport network in the Kingdom of
Poland in the first, initiative period of its existence (which is somehow
characterized by the growing crisis of public finances in the early twenties of
the 19th century), indicates a certain repetition of phenomena dealt with by
the then government, such as a) a strong interest in building or repairing
roads around the capital of the country - Warsaw; b) the appearance of
colliding development trends at the local level; c) the establishment and
further modification of the directions of road construction; and finally: d)
the chronological systematization of this process. In principle, all these
phenomena were conceived by the Warsaw authorities somehow on their own, i.e.
without the apparent involvement of the Russian factor. The only exception was
the construction of a well-prepared and built line of communication in the
northeast direction, where the imperial authorities - undoubtedly for military
and, to some extent, economic reasons - participated in determining (and
accelerating) the construction process.
The intensification of the state
control system and the development of the country's transportation network,
already visible in the first years of the kingdom's existence, was largely
based on the initiative of the tsar's governor, who sometimes - mostly by
members of his office staff - took on the task of conducting inspections on the
spot. Moreover, the seriousness of the administrative council's approach to the
issue of track inspection was clearly demonstrated by the fact that two
national agendas were sometimes simultaneously involved in the process: the
Government Commission of Internal Affairs and Police, and the General Directorate
of Posts, which included the work of ministerial inspectors assisted by local voivodeship commissioners. Obviously, the issue of a
realistic view of the state of road traffic in the Kingdom was one of the
priorities of the central authorities (and this despite the documented
occasional diligence in paying the diets associated with such endeavors), which
they had to consider as inalienable.
Starting from 1816, the decision of
the Administrative Council to proceed with proper division of categories of national
roads and to some extent, far-sighted programmatic concept of their creation
was then - as we see - supplemented by necessary indication of their standard
width. In this connection, however, it should be emphasized that the solutions
presented in the following years were unconvincing, where - probably due to the
highest degree of analytical observation of the needs of everyday life - it was
possible to notice at least a partial deviation from the proposals originally
envisaged. Only the question of the purchase of the appropriate width of the
belt of land adjacent (on both sides) to the built roads did not raise any
major doubts in the legislators of the Administrative Council of the early
period of its activity.
The activity of the Board of Directors
to establish other principles of work on roads has focused on: a) the search
for qualified workers; b) the prevention of corruption and abuse in the
construction of the transportation network and the imposition of appropriate
penalties; c) the collection of materials necessary for the construction of
roads; d) the development of rules to protect roads from destruction; and e)
the provision of a sufficiently high level of financing for transportation
investments.
From the above brief summary, it can
be concluded that in the activities of the Administrative Council in the field
of transport development in the Kingdom of Poland during the initial period of
the quasi-independent state (i.e., until the early twentieth years of the 19th
century), we can observe, first and foremost, the focus of this governmental
body on the whole, wide range of problems plaguing road transport at that time.
Both key issues of national importance and the solution of local, sometimes
very specific problems were dealt with alternately in the government forum. The
above-mentioned phenomenon, as well as the relative speed of the decisions
taken and, above all, the emphasized professionalism in their preparation,
unquestionably testify to the responsible policy of the authorities of the
Kingdom of Poland in the field of the development of the Polish transport
network in the period described.
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Received 26.07.2024; accepted in
revised form 17.10.2024
Scientific Journal of Silesian University of Technology. Series
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