The first thing to note in this connection is, that in the case of telegraphy, as in the case of so many other British industries, public ownership has been a parasite. It has been unwilling to assume the risk and burden of establishing the industry, and has contented itself with purchasing "ready-made" the industry after it had been developed by private enterprise. When Mr. Ronalds attempted to interest the British Government in telegraphy, he was told "that the telegraph was of no use in times of peace, and that the semaphore in time of war answered all the required purposes."[17] In 1837, British individuals and companies began to stake their money upon the telegraph in Great Britain; and in 1854 they even carried the telegraph industry to continental Europe, notably to Belgium. In 1850 and 1851, the Governments of France, Belgium and Switzerland, profiting by the losses suffered, and the technical advances made, by British individuals and companies, appropriated, so far as their countries were concerned, the new industry. [Sidenote: _History of British Telegraphy_] The Electric and International Telegraph Company was formed in 1846, out of the reorganization of properties, that in 1837 had embarked in telegraphy in England, and in 1845 had carried the telegraph industry to Belgium.[18] At this time the use of the telegraph was confined almost exclusively to railway purposes, such as train signalling. The possibility of use for commercial purposes was so little appreciated by the public, that the Electric and International Company, after purchasing, in 1846, Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone's inventions, was looked upon as a complete commercial failure. The shares of the company for several years were almost valueless; the chief source of revenue then being contracts obtained from railway companies for the construction and maintenance of railway telegraphs. Between 1846 and 1851 great improvements were made in telegraphy, and the public gradually learned to use the telegraph. In 1849 the Electric and International declared its first dividend, mainly the result of the contracts with the railway companies. In November, 1851, a cable was laid between Dover and Calais; for the first time the prices of the stock exchange securities in Paris were known the same day within business hours on the London stock exchange; and the financial and trading interests became convinced of the value of the telegraph.[19]