Money was hard to come by, and finding an intermediary was no easy task. To serve as this intermediary, one first had to meet three basic requirements: first, have good relations with the Russians; second, possess a certain amount of financial strength; third, remain beyond Russo-Austrian influence.
Without a good relationship, it would be difficult to spin a convincing tale. Only when the relationship was strong enough could the story that followed be properly woven.
There was no love or hatred in this world without cause. Even if pies truly fell from the sky, one still had to make sure they were not poisoned before swallowing them.
That required a good story—one that would make the Tsarist Government believe the intermediary was helping fund the construction of the Siberian Railway for its own benefit.
A story alone was certainly not enough; there also had to be some capital. It did not need to be much—only enough to advance part of the Siberian Railway's costs.
Or they could follow the Vienna Government's example in funding the Central Asian Railway: find a railway company to undertake the Siberian Railway's construction and allow the Russians to defer payments for surveying, design, management, and equipment rentals.
Russian Bear labor was not in short supply, and they could supply most of the raw materials themselves. Aside from rails, which might need to be imported, the Russians could provide everything else.
In fact, labor and raw materials were the most expensive parts of railway construction. Once those two major costs were resolved, seventy or eighty percent of the expenses were gone.
With no taxes and no administrative fees, the Tsarist Government would certainly give the green light all the way for a railway of such strategic importance. Even the bureaucrats would not dare stretch out their