In the Argentine the railway companies are not established as in France, by right of a concession limited to a certain number of years.[24] The concession is granted without conditions, excepting the reserve that it may be redeemed by the State; and this reserve may be applied at any time whatever, conformably with the expropriation law. The conditions of redemption are in most cases established on the basis of the revenues of the last five years, increased by 20 per cent., so that the clause can scarcely be carried into effect to the profit of the State in the case of lines yielding good profits. [Footnote 24: A clause fixing the term of the concession——that is, the date upon which the line, with all its buildings, etc., will pass into the hands of the Government without any payment on the part of the latter, was inserted in the case of two railways only, and for a term of fifty-five years. These two lines are the railway from Villa Mercedes to La Toma (the old North-Western Argentine), to-day a section of the Andean National, and that from San Cristobal to Tucuman, to-day the Southern Section of the Central Northern. Both are guaranteed by the nation; but the nation having become the proprietor, the above clause has of course not taken effect.] The State and the Provinces have guaranteed dividends in various ways. These guarantees were granted very liberally when the Argentine was seeking to create and develop its railway system, but the Governments have not shown the same readiness to honour their signatures in times of crisis. We shall see in the financial section of this book that the State has had to contract loans in order to redeem its obligations, and to liberate itself from engagements it had been unable to keep.[25] [Footnote 25: The French company of the Santa Fé Railways, which had a guarantee from the Province, which guarantee was never paid, obtained in exchange, by arrangement, the complete ownership of its lines.] At present the Government no longer gives guarantees——not even to encourage the construction of lines in regions which offer little attraction from the point of view of traffic. It prefers to build them itself, in order to increase the extent if not the value, of the systems it already owns; or has recourse to companies or private individuals for the construction of new lines, but without guarantees of any sort.