Throughout the whole life of the Contract and Finance Company the stockholders were the same men who held the bulk of the stock of the Central Pacific Railroad. Contracts between the finance company and the railroad company were therefore made by the associates in one capacity, with themselves in another capacity, a situation unfortunately not unique in the history of American railroad building. An unusual feature of the arrangement, however, which was common to arrangements with other construction companies formed by the associates, was that the funds of the Contract and Finance Company, over and above the sums received from the Central Pacific, were derived from loans to the company by its stockholders and not from payments on the stock subscribed. There is no evidence that Hopkins, Stanford, Huntington, or either of the Crockers paid a cent in cash on their subscriptions. Instead, they gave their notes. To provide the Contract and Finance Company with funds, they deposited money, sometimes more and sometimes less, paying interest on their notes, and receiving credit for interest on their balances, each partner as a rule putting in all the funds which he could spare, and having an individual account kept of his transactions. The Contract and Finance Company was, therefore, always heavily in debt, although the debt was owed to its own stockholders. The advantages of this arrangement would seem to be two: first, that it concealed effectively the profits which the company was making; and second, that it did not limit any stockholder to a proportionate share in the burdens and gains of the undertaking. If any of the associates desired to participate more heavily than his friends, or less heavily, he could do so. Such a privilege was probably not important before 1869, but it became so later. Contracts with Construction Company