The nineteenth century witnessed a major expansion in the construction of public works including canals, roads, and railways across the British empire. The question that colonial governments faced during the nineteenth century was on how to finance public works. Focusing specifically on irrigation works and the rivers of southern India, this article shows how different experiments were attempted, including raising capital and labour from local communities as well as corporate investment in irrigation works through London capital markets. The article argues that by the latter part of the nineteenth century, a definitive answer had emerged, i.e. irrigation projects on rivers would be financed through state debt. An enormous body of scholarship in Britain and India debated the relationship between public works and public debt. This article rethinks this scholarship as a technological and environmental history. The article argues that colonial modes of raising capital were dependent on speculating on Indian rivers. Historiography wise, in contrast to scholarship which takes for granted the role of the state in building large dams, it suggests that the emergence of the state as the builder of large dams was part of a more fundamental relationship between rivers, technology, and colonial capital that emerged in the nineteenth century.

十九世纪见证了大英帝国的公共工程建设的重大扩展，包括运河，公路和铁路。殖民政府在19世纪面临的问题是如何为公共工程筹集资金。本文专门针对灌溉工程和印度南部的河流，展示了如何进行不同的实验，包括从当地社区筹集资金和劳动力，以及通过伦敦资本市场对灌溉工程进行企业投资。该文章认为，到19世纪后期，已经出现了一个明确的答案，即河流上的灌溉项目将通过国家债务来筹集资金。在英国和印度，大量的学者对公共工程与公共债务之间的关系进行了辩论。本文将这种奖学金重新视为技术和环境的历史。文章认为，殖民地筹集资金的方式取决于对印度河流的投机活动。从史学的角度来看，与学术界认为国家在建造大水坝中的作用是理所当然的相反，它表明，国家作为大水坝建造者的出现是河流，技术和殖民地资本之间更基本的关系的一部分出现在19世纪。