The money to build the CLR was obtained through a syndicate of financiers including Ernest Cassel, Henry Oppenheim, Darius Ogden Mills, and members of the Rothschild family. On 1894, the syndicate incorporated a contractor to construct the railway, the Electric Traction Company Limited (ETCL), which agreed a construction cost of £2,544,000 (approximately £ today) plus £700,000 in 4 per cent debenture stock. When the syndicate offered 285,000 CLR company shares for sale at £10 each in June 1895, only 14 per cent was bought by the British public, which was cautious of such investments following failures of similar railway schemes. Some shares were sold in Europe and the United States, but the unsold remainder was bought by members of the syndicate or by the ETCL.