Bulmer-Thomas V., Coatsworth J., Cortes-Conde R. The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America: Volume 2, The Long Twentieth Century
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682 Bibliographical Essays
interests of the S
˜
ao Paulo coffee sector through polices aimed at supporting the
coffee industry financed by debt or inflation and the continuous depreciation of
the milre
´
ıs.Healso opposes the contrary hypothesis that claims that Brazilian
administrations had a strong orthodox bias. Fritsch reveals a more complex situa-
tion in which Brazil is affected by exogenous circumstances, such as the evolution
of the coffee harvest and changing world demand and the fluctuations in the cap-
ital markets. He analyzes how policies responded to a set of external and internal
circumstances, including the interests of all the states (not only S
˜
ao Paulo), the
interests of foreign creditors to whom the government resorted for financing with
the aim of withholding exports, and who, in turn, exerted pressure for the adop-
tion of austere fiscal and monetary stability measures that limited government
freedom. The work covers the evolution of such policies from the big monetary
expansion with a plurality of banks of issue in 1891 through the orthodox reaction
of adjustment and stabilization, the adoption of the gold standard in 1906 with
a Conversion Board, and its suspension during World War I until its return in
1926.
The article by Andr
´
e Lara Resende, “Estabilizac¸
˜
ao e reforma 1964–1967,” in A
Ordem do Progreso (cited previously) contains a very good description of the 1964
reforms (The Government Economic Action Plan, “PAEG”), and compares them
with the former stabilization plans, including President Goulart’s Triennial Plan
formulated by Celso Furtado. It deals with monetary and fiscal policies, and wage
and salary policy and its consequences for prices and GDP growth, pointing out
that these policies were conditioned to a great extent by difficulties in the balance
of payments, and concluding that – contrary to what is often said – the program
was not an orthodox one.
As regards the monetary regime, it is indispensable to consult Carlos Pel
´
aez y
Wilson Suzigan, Historia Monetaria do Brasil (Brasilia, 1976), the best monetary
history of a Latin American country published to this date. It includes monetary
series and analyzes the variables determining supply, prices, and GDP from the
nineteenth century to the 1970s. It provides a detailed and sound analysis of the
different monetary policies on the basis of the empirical evidence and monetary
theory, evaluating the opinion of “metallists” (orthodox) and those in favor of
depreciation, with the understanding that there was an oscillation from one view
to the other, and that it was orthodox tendencies that prevailed because of the need
for external financing. It also considers the financial debates centering on World
War II and the 1930 crisis.
The book by Steven Topik, The Political Economy of the Brazilian State: 1889–
1930 (Austin, TX, 1987), which covers the Empire’s final period to the 1930 crisis,
provides a detailed analysis of fiscal and monetary policies and challenges the thesis
that such policies had always been shaped by the government’s dependence on the
coffee sector, showing that the state had a relative autonomy and that the pressure
exerted by foreign creditors also had an important role; whereas the coffee sector
was striving for a depreciation of the local currency, foreign creditors supported
orthodox measures, which prevailed every time the Brazilian government was in
need of credit. Finally, it claims that the enlargement of the state was not the
result of the collapse of the export economy but the product of its very expansion.
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Bibliographical Essays 683
Thomas Skidmore, The Politics of Military Rule in Brazil 1964–85 (London, 1998)
illuminates the sociopolitical framework within which economic decisions were
made and implemented.
chile
The article by Jos
´
eJofr
´
e, Rolf Luders, and Gert Wagner, “Econom
´
ıa Chilena
1810–1995.Cuentas Fiscales,” Pontificia Universidad Cat
´
olica de Chile, Instituto
de Econom
´
ıa, Documento de Trabajo 188 (2000), has series for fiscal revenue and
expenditure for the 1810–1995 period; the series are treated in detail and very
conscientiously, with an excellent methodological handling of the data. The article
by Gabriel Palma, “Trying to Tax and Spend Oneself out of the Dutch Disease:
The Chilean Economy from the War of the Pacific to the Great Depression,” in An
Economic History of Twentieth-Century Latin America (cited previously), 234–56,
provides a new explanation of the fiscal policy in the era of the nitrate expansion
and claims that the expenditure on infrastructure and education served to prevent
an overvaluation of money (Dutch disease).
Guillermo Subercasseaux, El Sistema Monetario y la Organizaci
´
on Bancaria de
Chile (Santiago de Chile, 1920), is the best known work on banking regimes in
Chile from colonial times to the first years of the twentieth century. In turn, the
work by Frank Whitson Fetter, “Monetary Inflation in Chile” (Princeton, NJ,
1931)–especially after the attention given to it by Albert Hirschman in Journeys
To ward Progress: Studies of Economic Policymaking in Latin America (Buenos Aires,
1963)–is one of the best explanations of inflation in Chile, emphasizing the basis
of political and social interests (those of the landed gentry, exporters who collected
revenue in hard currency and paid in depreciated local currency). This was a
recurrent argument in the debate about inflation in Latin America in the 1970s.
The chapter by Paul W. Drake (1989)on“La Creaci
´
on de los Bancos Centrales
en los Pa
´
ıses Andinos,” in Pedro Tedde and Carlos Marichal, eds., La Formaci
´
on
de los Bancos Centrales en Espa
˜
na y Am
´
erica Latina; siglos XIX y XX (Madrid, 1994)
about the Kemmerer mission, which also covers other Andean countries, deals
with the projects for the creation of central banks. As regards Chile’s monetary
statistics, two works of great use to us may be mentioned: Marcos Mamalakis,
Historical Statistics of Chile: Money, Prices and Credit Services (Westport, 1983),
and Juan Braun et al., “Econom
´
ıa Chilena 1810–1995. Estad
´
ısticas Hist
´
oricas,”
in Pontificia Universidad Cat
´
olica de Chile, Instituto de Econom
´
ıa, Documento de
Trabajo 187 (2000), both providing excellent treatment of the series. The work by
Patricio Meller, Un siglo de pol
´
ıtica econ
´
omica chilena: 1890–1990 (Santiago, 1996),
also provides references on fiscal policies for several periods in the long twentieth
century.
argentina
The works on monetary and banking questions in Argentina are more complete
and numerous than those on the fiscal regimes. There are references to the latter
in the articles published in Javier Ortiz’s Nueva Historia de la Naci
´
on Argentina
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684 Bibliographical Essays
(Buenos Aires, 2000) and in the chapter by Roberto Cort
´
es Conde, “The Vicis-
situdes of an Exporting Economy: Argentina (1875–1930),” in An Economic His-
tory of Twentieth-Century Latin America (cited previously); and in Roberto Cort
´
es
Conde, “Finanzas P
´
ublicas, Moneda y Bancos (1810–1899),” in Nueva Historia de
la Naci
´
on Argentina (Buenos Aires, 2000). See also the excellent book by Pablo
Gerchunoff and Lucas Llach, El Ciclo de la Ilusi
´
on y el Desencanto: Un Siglo de
Pol
´
ıticas Econ
´
omicas Argentinas (Buenos Aires, 1998). There is also an important
article on fiscal issues in Federico Herschel and Samuel Itzcovich, “Fiscal Policy in
Argentina,” Ciclos 9 (1969).
For later periods, we may mention Atilio Elizagaray, “Taxes, Expenditures
and Government Economic Surplus in Argentina (1946–55)” (Documento de
Trabajo 1984,Instituto Torcuato Di Tella – Centro de Investigaciones Econ
´
omicas,
Buenos Aires); Ricardo L
´
opez Murphy, Jorge Avila, and Roberto Zorgno, “Crec-
imiento Econ
´
omico, Pol
´
ıticas P
´
ublicas y Reforma Fiscal” (Documento de Trabajo
1988, 6ta. Convenci
´
on de Bancos Privados Nacionales – Asociaci
´
on de Bancos
Argentinos [ADEBA], Buenos Aires); and Cristina Vargas de Flood and Mar
´
ıa
Marcela Harriague, “El Gasto P
´
ublico Consolidado” (Documento de Trabajo
1993,Secretar
´
ıa de Programaci
´
on Econ
´
omica, Ministerio de Econom
´
ıa y Obras y
Servicios P
´
ublicos).
With reference to statistical information, the oldest data were derived from the
annual Yearly Statistical Reports and from the Statistical Excerpt of 1915, published
by the General Directorate of Statistics of the Nation (belonging to the Ministry
of Economy). The Anuario Geogr
´
afico Argentino (Buenos Aires, 1942)isalso a
good source of data. Later on, data were collected from the series published by the
Comision Econ
´
omica Para Am
´
erica Latina on revenue and expenditure, which were
transcribed by Instituto de Estudios Econ
´
omicos de la Realidad Latino Americano,
and disaggregated tax information from the Direcci
´
on General Impositiva.
We can also mention the valuable work on monetary regimes by Gerardo Della
Paolera and Javier Ortiz, “Money, Financial Intermediation and the Level of Activ-
ity in 110 Years of Argentine Economic History,” Documento de Trabajo Nro. 36,
(Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, 1995); reference should also be
made to Marie-Ange V
´
eganzon
`
es and Carlos Winograd, Argentina en el Siglo XX :
Cr
´
onica de un Crecimiento Anunciado (Paris, 1997), and to Pablo Gerchunoff and
Lucas Llach (cited earlier).
On monetary and banking issues, the following were very useful: Aldo Arnaudo,
Cincuenta A
˜
nos de Pol
´
ıtica Financiera Argentina: 1934–1983 (Buenos Aires, 1987)is
an essential work to understand the main aspects of monetary policies in Argentina.
Rafael Olarra Jim
´
enez, Evoluci
´
on Monetaria Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1968), pro-
vides a summary of events in that field. Adolfo Diz, “La experiencia monetaria y
bancaria de la d
´
ecada del 70”(Valores en la sociedad industrial, Setiembre 1994 –
A
˜
NO XII / Nro.30, Centro de Estudios de la Sociedad Industrial – Universidad
Cat
´
olica Argentina, Buenos Aires), contains a very important thesis on the factors
that determine the monetary supply. Raul Prebisch, “La orientaci
´
on del cr
´
edito en
el sistema financiero durante la vigencia de efectivos m
´
ınimos fraccionarios,” in
El Banco Central de la Rep
´
ublica Argentina en su 50 aniversario: 1935–1985 (Buenos
Aires, 1986), explains some of the goals of monetary policies. On specific issues,
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Bibliographical Essays 685
such as public debt and inflation, we may mention Domingo Cavallo and Angel
Pe
˜
na, “D
´
eficit fiscal, endeudamiento del gobierno y tasa de inflaci
´
on: Argentina
1940–1982,” Revista Estudios (Buenos Aires) And for a panorama of the public sector,
it is advisable to read Osvaldo Schenone, “Public Sector Behavior in Argentina,”
in Felipe Larra
´
ın and Marcelo Selowsky, The Public Sector and the Latin American
Crisis (San Francisco, 1991).
CHAPTER 7 (RICHARD SALVUCCI)
There are several indispensable surveys of the period. Foremost is Victor Bulmer-
Thomas, The Economic History of Latin America Since Independence, 2nd ed.
(Cambridge, 2003). For long-term GDP and capital formation estimates, see
Andr
´
eA.Hofman, The Economic Development of Latin America in the Twenti-
eth Century (Cheltenham, UK, 2000). A valuable addition to the literature on
“export-led growth” that draws a number of revisionist conclusions is Enrique
C
´
ardenas, Jos
´
eAntonio Ocampo, and Rosemary Thorp, eds., An Economic His-
tory of Twentieth-Century Latin America: The Export Age (Hampshire, UK, 2000).
Still worthwhile are Roberto Cort
´
es Conde and Shane J. Hunt, eds., The Latin
American Economies. Growth and the Export Sector, 1880–1930 (New York, 1985), and
Cort
´
es Conde’s classic, The First Stages of Modernization in Latin America (New
York, 1974). Rory Miller, Britain and Latin America in the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Centuries (London, 1993) contains a valuable discussion of British trade with Latin
America in the period under consideration.
The literature on the gold standard in Latin America has grown considerably in
recent years. One most often thinks of Alec Ford’s pioneering The Gold Standard
1880–1914:Britain and Argentina (Oxford, 1962), but there has been much of value
published since. Ford himself reprised and amplified his work in “International
Financial Policy and the Gold Standard, 1870–1914,” in The Cambridge Economic
History of Europe,vol.8 (Cambridge, 1989). But for detailed criticism, see Roberto
Cort
´
es Conde, La econom
´
ıa Argentina en el largo plazo (Buenos Aires, 1997), or
Barry Eichengreen, “The Gold Standard Since Alec Ford,” in S. N. Broadberry and
N. F. R. Crafts, eds., Britain in the International Economy (Cambridge, 1992). There
is also the important contribution of Michael Bordo (with Anna J. Schwartz), “The
Operation of the Specie Standard: Evidence for Core and Peripheral Countries,
1880–1990,” in Michael D. Bordo, ed., The Gold Standard and Related Regimes
(Cambridge, 1999), 238–317, and Bordo, “The Gold Standard: The Traditional
Approach,” in Michael D. Bordo and Anna J. Schwartz, eds., ARetrospective
on the Classical Gold Standard, 1821–1931 (Chicago, 1984), 23–119. Bordo and
Eichengreen have also collaborated on an important reconsideration of the gold
standard in “The Rise and Fall of a Barbarous Relic: The Role of Gold in the
International Monetary System,” in Guillermo A. Calvo, Rudi Dornbusch, and
Maurice Obstfeld, eds., Money, Capital Mobility and Trade. Essays in Honor of
Robert Mundell (Cambridge, MA, 2001), 53–121.Arecent monograph emphasiz-
ing the monetary approach to the balance of payments is Gerardo della Paolera and
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686 Bibliographical Essays
Alan M. Taylor, Straining at the Anchor. The Argentine Currency Board and the Search
for Macroeconomic Stability, 1880–1935 (Chicago, 2001). A provocative paper with
implications for Latin America is Jeffrey B. Nugent, “Exchange-Rate Movements
and Economic Development in the Late Nineteenth Century,” The Journal of
Political Economy 81, 5 (1973): 1110–35.Ofequal interest are Albert Fishlow, “Mar-
ket Forces or Group Interests: Inconvertible Currency in Pre-1914 Latin America”
(working paper, Berkeley, CA, 1987); Barry Eichengreen, “The Baring Crisis in
aMexican Mirror” (http://repositories.cdlib.org/iber/cider/C87-084); and Jeffry
Frieden, “Monetary Populism in Nineteenth-Century America: An Open Econ-
omy Interpretation,” The Journal of Economic History 57, 2 (1997): 367–95. Also, see
Jeffry Frieden and Ernesto Stein, eds., The Currency Game. Exchange Rate Politics
in Latin America (Washington, DC, 2001). Barry Eichengreen, The Gold Stan-
dard in Theory and History (New York, 1985), remains an indispensable historical
introduction.
Pablo Martin Ace
˜
na and Jaime Reis, eds., Monetary Standards in the Periphery.
Paper, Silver, Gold, 1854–1933 (London, 2000), contains specific studies of the gold
standard in Brazil (Winston Fritsch and Gustavo H. B. Franco), Chile (Agust
´
ın
Llona), and Colombia (Jos
´
e Antonio Ocampo). Fritschdeals with the gold standard
in greater detail in External Constraints on Economic Policy in Brazil, 1889–1930
(Pittsburgh, PA, 1988), and in his summary chapter in Marcelo de Paiva Abreu,
ed., AOrdem do progresso. Cem anos de pol
´
ıtica econ
ˆ
omico republicana, 1889–1989
(Rio de Janeiro, 1990). For Peru, see Alfonso W. Quiroz, Domestic and Foreign
Finance in Modern Peru, 1850–1950 (Pittsburgh, PA, 1993). The classic study for
Mexico is Joaqu
´
ın Casasus, La reforma monetaria en M
´
exico (Mexico City, 1905),
but it should be supplemented by the modern work of Aldo Mussachio, “Entre el
oro y la plata: un estudio de las causas de la adopci
´
on del patr
´
on oro en M
´
exico,”
(BA thesis, Instituto Tecnol
´
ogico Aut
´
onomo Mexicano, Mexico City, 1998). A
useful survey of the Dominican Republic is J. Laurence Laughlin, “Gold and
Silver in Santo Domingo,” The Journal of Political Economy 2, 4 (1894): 536–60.
For the peculiarities of the gold standard in Colombia, see Jos
´
e Antonio Ocampo’s
remarkably comprehensive Colombia y la econom
´
ıa mundial 1830–1910 (Bogot
´
a,
1984).
Another valuable study that deals with the operation of the gold standard in
peripheral economies is Jorge Braga de Macedo, Barry Eichengreen, and Jaime
Reis, eds., Currency Convertibility: The Gold Standard and Beyond (London, 1996).
Also, see the important paper on Spain and Portugal by Agust
´
ın Llona in Maria
Cristina Marcuzzo, Lawrence H. Officer, and Annalisa Rosselli, eds., Monetary
Standards and Exchange Rates (London, 1997). Also useful is Michael D. Bordo
and Forest Capie, eds., Monetary Regimes in Transition (Cambridge, 1993). Finally,
it would be difficult to overstate the value of David George Cowen, “A World
of Difference: Exchange Rate Regime Choice and Economic Performance in the
Interwar Years” (Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, 1995).
Commercial policy per s
´
eisdiscussed in a number of places. A valuable com-
parative study is Marcelo De Paiva Abreu, “Contrasting Histories in the Political
Economy of Protectionism: Argentina and Brazil, 1880–1930” (working paper, Rio
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Bibliographical Essays 687
de Janeiro). For Colombia, see Jos
´
e Antonio Ocampo and Santiago Montenegro,
Crisis mundial, protecci
´
on e industrializaci
´
on. Ensayos de historia econ
´
omica colom-
biana (Bogot
´
a, 1984), and William Paul McGreevey’s classic, An Economic His-
tory of Colombia, 1845–1930 (Cambridge, 1971). For a superb account of Porfirian
Mexico, see Edward Beatty, “Commercial Policy in Porfirian Mexico: The Struc-
ture of Protection,” in Jeffrey L. Bortz and Stephen Haber, eds., The Mexican
Economy, 1870–1930.Essays on the Economic History of Institutions, Revolution and
Growth (Stanford, CA, 2002), 205–52; and “The Impact of Foreign Trade on the
Mexican Economy: Terms of Trade and the Rise of Industry 1880–1923,” Journal
of Latin American Studies 32 (2000): 399–433. Also, see Stephen Haber, Industry
and Underdevelopment. The Industrialization of Mexico, 1890–1940 (Stanford, CA,
1989).
Trade and production statistics are notoriously unreliable, but there have been
some major efforts at systematic collection and consideration. For a useful general
overview, see Victor Bulmer-Thomas, “British Trade with Latin America in the
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries” (working paper, London, 1998;available
at http://www.peruembassy-uk.com/TraInv/britishtrade.pdf). Among the more
important (by country) are Roberto Cort
´
es Conde, “Estimaciones del producto
bruto interno de Argentina, 1875–1935” (working paper, Buenos Aires, 1994); Alan
Taylor, “Argentina and the World Capital Market: Saving, Investment, and Inter-
national Capital Mobility in the Twentieth Century,” Journal of Development Eco-
nomics 57 (1998): 147–84; Ana Mar
´
ıa Cerro, “La conducta c
´
ıclica de la actividad
econ
´
omica de Argentina en el per
´
ıodo 1820–1970” (working paper, Tucum
´
an);
Roberto A. Domenech, “Estad
´
ısticas de la evoluci
´
on econ
´
omica de Argentina,
1913–1984,” Estudios 9 (1986): 103–84;Nathaniel H. Leff, Underdevelopment and
Development in Brazil, 2 vols. (1982); Ann
´
ıbal Villanova Villela and Wilson Suzigan,
Pol
´
ıtica do governo e crescimento da economia brasilierea, 1889–1945 (Rio de Janeiro,
1975); Claudio L. S. Haddad, Crescimento do produto real no Brasil, 1900–1947
(Rio de Janeiro, 1978); Estat
´
ısticas hist
´
oricas do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 1987); Gail
D. Triner, Banking and Economic Development: Brazil, 1889–1930 (New York,
2000); the excellent Web site of the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estat
´
ıstica
(www.ibge.net); Thomas and Ebba Schoonover, “Statistics for an Understand-
ing of Foreign Intrusions into Central America from the 1820sto1930,” Anuario
de Estudios Centroamericanos 15, 1 (1989): 93–117, 16, 1 (1990): 135–56, and 197,
2 (1991): 77–119;Markos J. Mamalakis, The Growth and Structure of the Chilean
Economy: From Independence to Allende (New Haven, CT, 1976); Patricio Meller,
Un siglo de econom
´
ıa pol
´
ıtica chilena (1890–1990) (Santiago, 1996); Juan Braun et al.,
“Econom
´
ıa Chilena 1810–1995: Estad
´
ısticas Hist
´
oricas” (working paper, Santiago,
2000), a major statistical source that came to my attention only after this chap-
ter was completed; Sandra Kuntz Ficker, “Nuevas series del comercio exterior de
Mexico, 1870–1929,” Revista de Historia Econ
´
omica 20, 2 (2002): 213–70, and her
“El comercio M
´
exico-Estados Unidos, 1870–1929:Reconstrucci
´
on estad
´
ıstica y
tendencies generales,” Mexican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos 17, 1 (2001): 71–107.For
Mexican prices under silver and (on and off) gold, see Aurora G
´
omez-Galvarriato
and Aldo Musacchio, “Un nuevo
´
ındice de precios para M
´
exico, 1886–1929,” El
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688 Bibliographical Essays
Trimestre Econ
´
omico 67, 1 (2000): 47–91;Bruno Seminario and Arlette Beltr
´
an,
Crecimiento econ
´
omico en el Per
´
u: 1896–1995.Nuevas evidencias estad
´
ısticas (Lima,
1998); Luis B
´
ertola, El PBI de Uruguay, 1870–1936,yotras estimaciones (Montevideo,
1998); Asdr
´
ubal Baptista, Bases cuantitativas de la econom
´
ıa venezolana, 1830–1995
(Caracas, 1997); D. C. M. Platt, Latin America and British Trade, 1806–1914 (New
York, 1973), primarily for the statistical appendices; and Leandro Prados de la
Escosura, “International Comparisons of Real Product, 1820–1990:AnAlternative
Data Set,” Explorations in Economic History 37 (2000): 1–41. Angus Maddison,
The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective (Paris, 2001)provides contemporary
data. Some of the early historical data for Latin America, particularly Mexico, are
questionable.
The terms of trade controversy has generated a vast literature. An important
paper on the income terms of trade is T. Wilson, R. P. Sinha, and J. R. Castree, “The
Income Terms of Trade of Developed and Developing Countries,” The Economic
Journal 79 (1969): 813–32.For the net barter terms of trade, see John T. Cuddington
and Carlos M. Urzua, “Trends and Cycles in the Net Barter Terms of Trade: A
NewApproach,” The Economic Journal 99 (1989): 426–42.Regarding the important
issue of volatility in the terms of trade, see Matthias Lutz, “The Effect of Volatility
in the Terms of Trade on the Growth of Output: New Evidence,” WorldDevelop-
ment 22, 12 (1994), 1959–1975;Parantap Basu and Daryl McLeod, “Terms of Trade
Fluctuations and Economic Growth in Developing Countries,” Journal of Devel-
opment Economics 37 (1992), 89–110; and Enrique G. Mendoza, “Terms-of-Trade
Uncertainty and Economic Growth,” Journal of Development Economics, 54 (1997),
323–56.But also see Angus Deaton, “Commodity Prices and Growth in Africa,”
Journal of Economic Perspectives 13, 3 (1999): 23–40. The canonical modern study of
the terms of trade is Enzo R. Grilli and M. C. Yang, “Primary Commodity Prices,
Manufactured Goods Prices, and the Terms of Trade of Developing Countries:
What the Long Run Shows,” The World Bank Economic Review 2 (1988): 1–47.
On the entire subject of macroeconomic volatility in Latin America, see Over-
coming Volatility: Economic and Social Progress in Latin America. 1995 Report of the
Inter-American Development Bank (Washington, DC, 1995).
Any consideration of railroads in this period should begin with Jos
´
eSanz
Fern
´
andez, ed., Historia de los ferrocarriles de Iberoam
´
erica (1838–1995) (Madrid,
1998), which includes an invaluable database on CD-ROM. Colin Lewis, British
Railways in Argentina, 1857–1914.ACase Study of Foreign Investment (London,
1983)remains very useful. The measurement of social savings for railroads in Latin
America has been pioneered by a small band of scholars. The first to appear was
John Coatsworth’s, “Indispensable Railroads in a Backward Economy: The Case
of Mexico,” Journal of Economic History 39 (1979): 939–60.William Summerhill’s
“Transport Improvements and Economic Growth in Brazil and Mexico,” in
Stephen Haber, ed., How Latin America Fell Behind. Essays on the Economic History
of Brazil and Mexico (Stanford, CA, 1997), 93–117, offered alternative estimates, and
Summerhill’s work on Brazil is fundamental. See, for instance, “Market Interven-
tion in a Backward Economy: Railway Subsidy in Brazil, 1854–1913,” Economic His-
tory Review 51, 3 (1998): 542–68; and for Argentina, his “Profit and Productivity on
Argentine Railroads, 1857–1913” (unpublished paper, Los Angeles). For Colombia,
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Bibliographical Essays 689
see Mar
´
ıa Teresa Ram
´
ırez, “Los ferrocarriles y su impacto sobre la econom
´
ıa
colombiana,” Revista de Historia Econ
´
omica 19, 1 (2001). A major revisionist study
of railroad building and its local impact in southern Mexico is Theresa Miriam van
Hoy, “The Railroad as Public Utility and the Public: Land, Labor and Rail Services
in Southern Mexico” (Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, 2000).
On the general subject of land, labor, and the consolidation of markets in vari-
ous countries, see the following: Ezequiel Gallo, La pampa gringa. La colonizaci
´
on
agr
´
ıcola en Santa Fe (1870–1895) (Buenos Aires, 1984); Carl E. Solberg, The Prairies
and the Pampas. Agrarian Policy in Canada and Argentina, 1880–1930 (Stanford, CA,
1987), and Immigration and Nationalism. Argentina and Chile, 1890–1914 (Austin,
TX, 1970); Simon G. Hanson, Argentine Meat and the British Market. Chapters
in the History of the Argentine Meat Industry (London, 1938); “Brasil: 500 anos
de povoamento” (www1.ibge.gov.br/brasil500/index2.html); Lowell Gudmundson
and H
´
ector Lindo-Fuentes, Central America, 1821–1871.Liberalism Before Liberal
Reform (Tuscaloosa, AL, 1995); Arnold Bauer, Chilean Rural Society from the Spanish
Conquest to 1930 (Cambridge, 1975); Catherine LeGrand, Frontier Expansion and
Peasant Protest in Colombia, 1830–1936 (Albuquerque, NM, 1986); Jos
´
e Antonio
Ocampo, ed., Historia econ
´
omica de Colombia (Bogot
´
a, 1987); J. C. Cambranes,
Coffee and Peasants in Guatemala (South Woodstock, VT, 1985); Robert H. Holden,
Mexico and the Survey of Public Lands. The Management of Modernization, 1876–
1911 (DeKalb, IL, 1994); Roberto Melville, Crecimiento y rebeli
´
on. El desarrollo
econ
´
omico de las haciendas azucareras en Morelos (1880–1910) (Mexico City, 1979);
Manuel Burga, De la encomienda a la hacienda capitalista. El Valle de Jequetepeque
del Siglo XVI al XX (Lima, 1976); Michael Gonzales, Plantation Agriculture and
Social Control in Northern Peru, 1875–1933 (Austin, TX, 1985); Peter Klar
´
en, Mod-
ernization, Dislocation and Aprismo. Origins of the Peruvian Aprista Party, 1870–1932
(Austin, TX, 1973); and H
´
ector Lindo-Fuentes, Weak Foundations. The Economy
of El Salvador in the Nineteenth Century (Berkeley, CA, 1990).
CHAPTER 8 (WILLIAM R. SUMMERHILL)
Few topics receive as much attention from amateur and professional historians
alike as do railroads. The amount of relevant source materials available to any
investigator can be nearly overwhelming, as many historians can attest. Several
types of sources are worth mentioning in a general way because they are too
voluminous to even begin to provide much detail. The first is the contemporary
periodical press, both local and foreign. Railroad notices garnered ample attention
in the newspapers of major Latin American cities. In both Britain and the United
States, a press specializing in railroad news and financial reporting appeared in the
nineteenth century. With respect to Latin American railways, the U.S. periodicals
focused principally on affairs in Mexico, whereas in Britain, the South American
railways were the object of frequent reports that today remain of great value to
historians. A local specialized railway press emerged in several countries. In Brazil,
by way of example, the Revista de Estradas de Ferro first appeared in 1885, and Brasil
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690 Bibliographical Essays
Ferrocarril began publication in the early twentieth century. The South American
Journal and River Plate Mail circulated widely among the expatriate business com-
munity in Latin America and frequently provided coverage of railway questions as
well as foreign-owned enterprise more generally. The Railway Age, Railway Gazette,
and Railway Times stand out among the examples of the contemporary overseas
English-language railway periodicals that devoted some attention to Latin Ameri-
can railway questions.
The second type of source material that is too extensive to discuss in detail is the
pamphlet literature, which was geared mainly toward promoting specific railroad
projects. These publications sometimes went the other direction, as grievances of
one sort or another, often over rate setting or the route of proposed extensions, gave
rise to published jeremiad. Limited in their initial printings and circulation, many
such pamphlets survive in major research libraries throughout Latin America, and
are valuable both for the information they present on the prospects of a particular
railroad that is proposed and for the insight they provide on attitudes and opinions
on commercial affairs and the problem of material progress more generally.
An important reference on all Latin American economic questions, including
railways and infrastructure more generally, is Roberto Cort
´
es Conde et al., Latin
America: A Guide to Economic History, 1830–1930 (Berkeley, CA, 1977). Examples
of articles providing detailed information on the sources available in particular
countries include Sandra Kuntz Ficker, “Fuentes para el estudio de los ferrocarriles
durante el porfiriato,” Am
´
erica Latina en la Historia Econ
´
omica: Bolet
´
ın de Fuentes
13–14 (January–December 2000): 137–48; and Sonia Pinto Vallejos, “Historia de
los ferrocarriles de Chile: Volumenes da carga y cantidad de pasajeros transportados
(1901–1929),” Cuadernos de Historia 6 (July 1986): 49–66.Evidence, both of a quan-
titative and qualitative nature, on railway finance and operations is abundant in the
serial publications of the railway companies themselves and in government pub-
lications dedicated to monitoring railway services. Railway companies, including
those owned by governments, commonly reported their operations and financial
results to the relevant government ministries. Companies that were listed on stock
exchanges also generated reports, on either an annual or semester basis, to their
shareholders. Both types of publications carry a wealth of information that has
proven indispensable for historical research. In Mexico and Argentina, by way of
example, these reports survive in reasonably complete manner. Further, for the
British-owned railways in Latin America that sold equity or bonds on the London
Stock Exchange, company reports are available from 1880 onward in Guildhall
Library, Corporation of London.
By the late nineteenth century, the largest countries were publishing, often on an
annual basis, the basic operating and financial figures of their railway systems. Key
examples here are Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru. For Argentina, the national
government initiated full annual statistical coverage of the rail sector for 1892 in the
Estadistica de los ferrocarriles en explotaci
´
on (Buenos Aires), which it published for
decades thereafter. Data also appeared in a variety of reports of both national and
provincialgovernments for earlier years. By the first decade of the twentieth century,
the Argentine Estadistica volumes further provided retrospective summary figures
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Bibliographical Essays 691
on railway operations going back to the 1850s. Consistent but incomplete annual
coverage of the operations of Brazilian railways, focusing on those lines whose
concession were awarded by the central government, first appeared for the year
1898 in Estat
´
ıstica das estradas de ferro do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro). The government
provided less detailed information, before the appearance of the annual statistical
volumes, in the publications of the Ministry ofCommunications and Public Works.
In Mexico, a series of volumes appeared near the end of the nineteenth century that
not only initiated regular publishing of railway operating figures but also provided a
valuable retrospective going back to the earliest railways: Rese
˜
na hist
´
orica y estad
´
ıstica
de los ferrocarriles de jurisdicci
´
on federal desde Agosto de 1837 hasta Diciembre de 1894
(Mexico City, 1895); Rese
˜
na hist
´
orica y estad
´
ıstica de los ferrocarriles de jurisdicci
´
on
federal, 1895–1899 (Mexico City, 1900); Rese
˜
na hist
´
orica y estad
´
ıstica de los ferrocarriles
de jurisdicci
´
on federal, 1900–1903 (Mexico City, 1905); Rese
˜
na hist
´
orica y estad
´
ıstica
de los ferrocarriles de jurisdicci
´
on federal, 1904–1906 (Mexico City, 1907), which
were complemented until the revolution by a rich array of Mem
´
orias and related
government volumes. Some evidence for Peru is found in Federico Costa y Laurent,
Rese
˜
na historica de los ferrocarriles del Per
´
u (Lima, 1908). A major contribution, of
more recent vintage, is the book and accompanying CD-ROM edited by Jes
´
us
Sanz Fern
´
andez, Historia de los ferrocarriles de Iberoam
´
erica, 1837–1995 (Madrid,
1998).
Early railway studies, often by contemporaries, provide important informa-
tion and serve as valuable research guides. Two that strove to encompass multiple
countries were Juan Jos
´
e Castro, Treatise on the South American Railways and the
Great International Lines (Montevideo, 1893) published by the Uruguayan govern-
ment for the Columbian exposition; and Frederic M. Halsey, Railway Expansion in
Latin America: Descriptive and Narrative History of the Railroad Systems of Argentina,
Peru,Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, Bolivia and All Other Countries of South and Cen-
tral America (New York, 1916). A short list of country-specific classics includes
Bernard Moses, The Railway Revolution in Mexico (San Francisco, 1895); Emilio
Schickendantz and Emilio Rebuelto, Los ferrocarriles en la Argentina, 1857–1910
(Buenos Aires, reprint 1994); and Julian Smith Duncan, Public and Private Opera-
tion of Railways in Brazil (New York, 1932), an impressive early work of scholarship
that relied heavily on the Brazilian Estat
´
ıstica volumes.
The modern monographic literature on the economic role of railways has pro-
gressed impressively over the last half century. The Argentine experience justifiably
garners attention commensurate with its high level of railway density per capita in
this period. In short, the narrative and analytic historiography has come a very long
way since Scalabrini Ortiz’s impressionistic Historia de los ferrocarriles argentinos
(Buenos Aires, 1958). The history of British-owned railways during the better part
of a century is addressed by Paul B. Goodwin in Los ferrocarriles brit
´
anicos y la
U.C.R., 1916–1930 (Buenos Aires, 1974); and Colin M. Lewis, British Railways in
Argentina, 1857–1914:ACase Study of Foreign Investment (London, 1983). The for-
mer gives more emphasis to political issues, whereas the latter is especially strong on
economic questions and the unique relationship between the London capital mar-
ket and railway development on the pampa. The French took up a secondary but