credit suisse played a substantial role in the economic development of switzerland, helping the country develop its currency system, funding entrepreneurs and investing in the gotthard railway, which connected switzerland to the european rail system in 1882. credit suisse helped fund the creation of switzerland's electrical grid through its participation with elektrobank (now called elektrowatt), a coalition of organizations that co-financed switzerland's electrical grid. according to "the handbook on the history of european banks", "switzerland's young electricity industry came to assume the same importance as support for railway construction 40 years earlier." the bank also helped fund the effort to disarm and imprison french troops that crossed into swiss borders in the 1870 franco-prussian war. by the end of the war, credit suisse had become the largest bank in switzerland.