Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T15:30:03.041Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dependency, the Credit Market, and Argentine Industrialization, 1860–1940

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Donna J. Guy
Donna J. Guy
Affiliation:
Associate professor of history at the University of Arizona.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The factors responsible for Latin American economic “dependency” have long been debated by economic historians. In this article, Professor Guy considers the example of Argentine industrialization between 1870 and 1940. Argentine reliance upon foreign capital, she concludes, was due much more to local Argentine institutions — the commercial law, the stock market, and the government inspection bureau — than to any pressures from abroad. She adds that, though dependency theory has its limits, by focusing attention on local institutions, it remains a valuable tool for understanding Third World development.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 58 , Issue 4 , Winter 1984 , pp. 532 - 561
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Jackson, Steven, Russett, Bruce, Snidal, Duncan, and Sylvan, David, “An Assessment of Empirical Research on Dependencia,” Latin American Research Review 14, no. 3 (1979): 13:Google Scholar

2 Examples of dependency analysis can be found in Bath, C. Richard and James, Dilmus D., “Dependency Analysis of Latin America,” Latin American Research Review 13, no. 3 (1976); 3–54Google Scholar; Fernando Henrique Cardoso, “The Consumption of Dependency Theory in the United States,” ibid. 12, no. 3 (1977): 7–24; Jackson et al., 7–28; D. C. M. Platt, “Dependency in Nineteenth-Century Latin America,” ibid. 15, no. 1 (1980): 113–30; Jones, Charles, “‘Business Imperialism’ and Argentina, 1875–1900: A Theoretical Note,” Journal of Latin American Studies 12, no. 2 (Nov. 1980): 437–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Street, James H., “The Platt-Stein Controversy Over Dependency: Another View,” Latin American Research Review 16, no. 3 (1981): 173–80.Google Scholar

3 Stein, Stanley J. and Stein, Barbara H., “Comment,” Latin American Research Review 16, no. 3 (1981): 131–46Google Scholar; Platt, “Reply,” ibid., 147–50.

4 Ferns, H. S., Argentina (London, 1967), 125Google Scholar. Quoted in Platt, “Dependency in Nineteenth-Century Latin America,” 120.

5 Street argues these two points (see esp. 178); Baklanoff, Eric N., “Latin American Economic History: Economic vs. Cultural Interpretations,” Latin American Research Review 16, no. 3 (1981): 245–49.Google Scholar

6 For example, see Randall, Laura, A Comparative Economic History of Latin America 1500–1914, vol. 2, Argentina (Ann Arbor, 1977), chap. 7, 29–164Google Scholar; Guy, Donna J., Argentine Sugar Politics (Tempe, 1980).Google Scholar

7 Cardoso, 11.

8 Kozolchyk, Boris, “Law and the Credit Structure in Latin America,” Virginia Journal of International Late 7, no. 2 (April 1967): 1–2Google Scholar; “Fairness in Anglo and Latin American Commercial Adjudication,” Boston College International and Comparative Law Review 2, no. 2 (1979): 266–67.

9 Borchard, Edwin M., Guide to the Law and Legal Literature of Argentina, Brazil and Chile (Washington, 1917), 60–61, 76–78Google Scholar; business conditions in early postindependence Argentina are described in Reber, Vera Blinn, British Mercantile Houses in Buenos Aires, 1810–1880 (Cambridge, Mass., 1979), 82–109.Google Scholar

10 Legón, Fernando A., “Exposición de los codificadores al elevar el proyecto al poder ejecutivo del estado de Buenos Aires,” in Código de Comercio de la República Argentina, 8th ed. (Buenos Aires, 1976), 6Google Scholar; República Argentina, Código de Comercio (Buenos Aires, 1862, 1889)Google Scholar; República Argentina, Congreso Nacional, Senado (1862), 347.

11 República Argentina, Código de Comercio, book 2, title 3, chap. 1–10.

12 Ibid., book 2, title 3, chap. 3, sec. 2; Legón, 6–7.

13 República Argentina, Código de Comercio, book 2, title 3, chap. 3, clause 326.

14 Ibid., book 2, title 3, chap. 3, sec. 7, clause 365. The fact that realized capital or capital paid in usually amounted to one-quarter to one-fifth of the capital authorized for new companies before World War I made this provision extremely restrictive. Official reports of paid, as opposed to subscribed, capital for Argentine corporations between 1904 and 1913, published in the Monitor de las Sociedades Anónimas, show that the average paid-in capital for companies listed in paper pesos was 21 percent and 16 percent for gold pesos.

15 Evans, Frank, “The Evolution of the English Joint-Stock Limited Trading Company,” Columbia Law Review 8 (1908): 339–61, 461–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hunt, Bishop Carleton, The Development of the English Business Corporation in England, 1800–1867 (New York, 1936, 1969), 133–39Google Scholar; Nash, Gerald D., “Government and Business: A Case Study of State Regulation of Corporate Securities, 1850–1933,” Business History Review 38 (summer 1964); 146–50CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Obregón, Toribio Esquivel, Latin American Commercial Law (New York, 1921), 189–90.Google Scholar

16 República Argentina, Código Civil de la República Argentina, Edición Oficial (New York, 1870)Google Scholar, book 3, titles 4–16. For discussions of short-term commercial credit, see the statement of Federico Portalis in Centro de Comercio, Memoria (1897), 21–23; Boletín de la Unión Industrial Argentina 3 no. 94 (Jan. 9, 1889): 2; Hurley, Edward N., Banking and Credit in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru, in U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Special Agents Series No. 90, (Washington, D.C., 1914), 31Google Scholar.

17 Hurley; Banco de Italia y Río de la Plata, 100 años al servicio del país, 1872–1972 (Buenos Aires, 1972), 202–4, 258–59.Google Scholar

18 Navin, Thomas and Sears, Marian, quoted in Smiley, Gene, “The Expansion of the New York Securities Market of the Turn of the Century,” Business History Review 40 (spring 1981); 84Google Scholar

19 Bolsa de Commercio de Buenos Aires, La Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires en Centenario 1854/10 de julio 1954 (Buenos Aires, 1954), 140.Google Scholar

20 Ibid., 169. Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires, Memoria,1889, unpaginated table.

21 Hodge, John E., “Carlos Pellegrini and the Financial Crisis of 1890,” Hispanic American Historical Review 50 (Aug. 1970): 499–523CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Pillado, Ricardo, Anuario Pillado de la deuda pública y sociedades anónimas establecidas en las Repúblicas Argentina y del Uruguay para 1900 (Buenos Aires, 1900), 402–10.Google Scholar

22 Szuchman, Mark, “Commerce and Spatial Mobility in Argentina, 1870–1900,” vol. 9 of World Conference on Records (Salt Lake City, 1980), 7–9Google Scholar; Sofer, Eugene F., “Immigrant Entrepreneurship and Political Participation in Buenos Aires, 1890–1927: The Jewish Case,” Proceedings of the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies 6 (1977–1979): 87–106.Google Scholar

23 El Monitor de las Sociedades Anónimas 1, no. 1 (1903): 5–6. For some of the opposition faced by predecessors of the Corporate General Inspection Bureau, see Cuerpo de Inspectores de Sociedades Anónimas, Memoria, 1894, 65–85; Acuerdo reglamentando las funciones de la Inspección General de Sociedades, El Monitor de las Sociedades Anónimas 1, no. 1 (1903): 13–19.

24 Review of the River Plate, 23 Oct. 1908, 1039.

25 El País, I July 1901, 5; Review of the River Plate, 11 Oct. 1902, 622; 20 Dec. 1902, 1066. Even though revisions of the bankruptcy laws had been implemented in 1902, the business community was still dissatisfied. See Review of the River Plate, 4 Jan. 1907, 13; 22 Jan. 1909, 209; and 19 Aug. 1910, 467; El Monitor de las Sociedades Anónimas 3 (1906): 315–17; Handels Zeitung, 15 Sept. 1906, 3; Comments on Argentine Trade 8, no. 2 (Sept. 1928): 13–17, 58–64.

26 El País, 21 Jan. 1905, 5; Review of the RiverPlate, 17 Jan. 1905, 10.

27 South American Journal, 11 June 1898, 663; El País, 22 May 1900, 3; Review of the River Plate, 1 Aug. 1903, and 20 Oct. 1911, 1011; Argentina Commercially Considered (London, 1917), 63; Singer, B., Trade Laws of the World and Unfair Trade, vol. 11 (Chicago, 1913), 13.Google Scholar

28 Review of the River Plate, 16 May 1903, 846–47.

29 30 March 1901, 5–6, and 4 Oct. 1902, 591; El País, 24 April 1901, 5, and 28 April 1901, 5; El País, 29 Oct. 1901, 5, and 20 May 1905, 5; Review of the River Plate, 14 June 1902, 1203.

30 Argentine Republic, Código de Comercio, amendment to book 2, title 3, chap. 1, art. 286.

31 Law no. 4157, Argentine Republic, Senado, 19 June 1902, 112.

32 Guy, Argentine Sugar Politics, chaps. 3, 6; Sociedad General Belga Argentina, Acta no. 43, 25 May 1900, 83; Acta no. 44, 22 June 1900, 86, Casa Tornquist Archives.

33 “Cuadro demonstrative de las hipotecas bajo el control directo o indirecto de Ernesto Tornquist y Cía. Ltda. al 31 Die. 1914,” pp.106–7, Archivo General de la Nación (AGN), Archivo de Victorino de la Plaza, Hacienda Varios 1913–1916.

34 For examples of how the Tornquist group lent money directly, see 18 Pagarés from Francisco Bustamante (sugar industrialist) to Ernesto Tornquist & Co. equaling $180,000 paper pesos, May-June 1902, Miscelánea 715, Biblioteca Tornquist; Refinería Argentina (Tornquist enterprise), Libro de Actas, Acta no. 112, 9 March 1901, 220, grants mortgages on Germania Sugar Factory; ibid.,13 Dec. 1913, Acta no. 378, Contrato de prenda. Ingenio San Miguel.

35 El Monitor de las Sociedades Anónimas 3 (1906): 45–51. Berduc, Enrique, Ernesto Tornquist ir Co. Limitada, 1874–1974 (Buenos Aires, 1924), 28–29Google Scholar, lists some of the companies in which Tornquist was a sleeping partner; he also cites all those who were sleeping partners in the Tornquist Company until 1906 (15–16). Ernesto Tornquist & Co., Ltda., Sociedad Anonima Financiera Comercial Libro de Sesiones del Directorio, Actas no. 2–3, 7 Jan. 1907, 6; 15 May 1907, 7, Casa Tornquist Archives.

36 Tulchin, Joseph S., “El crédito agrario en la Argentina, 1910–1926,” Desarrollo Económico 18, no. 71 (Oct.-Dec. 1978): 381–408.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

37 Bunge, y Born, S.A., 1884–1964 Bunge y Born (Buenos Aires, 1964)Google Scholar; El País, 22 Nov. 1901, 5; Morgan, Dan, Merchants of Grain (New York, 1979), 220–21.Google Scholar

38 Chueco, Manuel, Los pioneers de la industria nacional (Buenos Aires, 1886, 1896), 1:377–81, 2:379–98Google Scholar, describes the factories that merged into the General Match Company; El Monitor de las Sociedades Anónimas 1 (1903): 38; Lloyd, Reginald, ed., Twentieth-Century Impressions of Argentina (London, 1911), 390Google Scholar; Banco de Italia y Río de la Plata, 100 años, 39; Barrett, Robert S., Paper, Paper Products, and Printing Machinery in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, U.S. Department of Commerce, Special Agents Series No. 163, (Washington, D.C., 1918), 39.Google Scholar

39 Compañía Fabril Financiera, Historia de un grupo de empresas industriales en la Argentina, 1888–1948 (Buenos Aires, 1949), 1–13.Google Scholar

40 Unión Industrial Argentina, Album de la industria argentina (Buenos Aires, 1923), 156–57, 359Google Scholar; Revista Tarnet 15, no. 164 (April-May, 1944): 7; Berduc, Ernesto Tornquist& Co., Uda., 1874–1924, 29.

41 Torres, José Luis, Los “perduellis” (Buenos Aires, 1943), 201–6.Google Scholar

42 Pianetto, Ofelia, “Industria y formación de Clase obrera en la cuidad de Córdoba, 1880–1906,” in Homenaje al Doctor Celerino Garzon Maceda. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Facultad de Filosofia y Humanidades, Instituto de Estudios Americanistas, “Doctor Enrique Martínez Paz” (Córdoba, 1973), 346–47; R. Pedro Farga and Mariano Farga, “Fundación de la Casa Farga Hnos,” unpub. ms., 1–2, Céspedes, Tettamanti y Cía. Archives.Google Scholar

43 Fargo and Fargo, 3.

44 Escritura 808, 25 Oct. 1888, pp. 1655–57, Registro 3. Protocolos 1888, Escribano Felix M. Rodríguez, Archivo Histórico de Córdoba.

45 Escritura 349, 3 Dec. 1893, pp. 877–80, Registro 3. Protocolos, 1893, Escribano Felix M. Rodríguez, Archivo Histórico de Córdoba. Sometime between 1888 and 1893, Orfilas share had been eliminated from the partnership.

46 Donato Carried, “La fábrica de calzado Grimoldí. Su origen y trayectoría desde el año 1895 hasta el ańo de 1952,” c. 1968, unpub. ms., 10–12. The Grimoldis maintained their partnership with Grisetti until 1901, when the three brothers formed their own simple partnership. “Testimonio del contrato de la sociedad Grimoldi Hermanos,” 7 May 1901, photocopy in possession of the Grimoldi family.

47 Carrieri, 15–17; Brock, Herman G., Boots and Shoes, Leather and Supplies in Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Special Agents Series No. 177 (Washington, D.C., 1919), 45, 51, 62–63Google Scholar; Pianetto, 348.

48 Carrieri. The quote is from Brock, 45. See also Butman, Arthur B., Shoe and Leather Trade in Argentina, Chile, Peru and Uruguay, U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Manufacturers, Special Agents Series No. 37 (Washington, D.C., 1910), 8–9, 14–15.Google Scholar

49 Butman; Jule Smith, Special Beport, 14 June 1933, 5, Record Group 151, Commercial Attache, Buenos Aires, National Archives; Review of the River Plate, 16 Feb. 1940, 21–27.

50 Manacorda, Telmo, La gesta callada (Biografia de una industrial (Buenos Aires, 1947)Google Scholar, passim; Protocolos 74, 1886, pp. 135–36, 21 April 1886, AGN.

51 Noel, undated pamphlet published by the Noel Co., circa1972.

52 M. S. Bagley y Cía. Ltd. S.A., Bagley, 100 años produciendo calidad 1864–1964 (Buenos Aires, 1964) pamphlet.Google Scholar

53 Protocolos 75, 1887, pp. 327–28, 27 June 1887, AGN; El Monitor de las Sociedades Anónimas 3 (1906): 118; Boletín Unión Industrial Argentina 13, no. 365 (20 April 1899): 31–32.

54 Tilmant, Jules, “Ernesto Tornquist et le commerce anversois,” in In Memoriam: Ernesto Tornquist (Buenos Aires, 1908), 273Google Scholar; Handels Zeitung, 31 Aug. 1900, 9–10; London Times, 28 March 1912, 18.

55 Miranda, Guido, Tres ciclos chaqueños; crónica histórica regional (Resistencia, 1945), 195Google Scholar.

56 Hurley, 99; Review of the River Plate, 1 Feb. 1907, 267; El Monitor de las Sociedades Anónimas 2 (19031:97.

57 Diccionario comercial e industrial de la República Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1942), 357–58.

58 El Monitor de las Sociedades Anónimas 1 (1903): 300; ibid., 3 (1906); 118–19; Gori, Gaston, La Forestal (Buenos Aires, 1974), 49–72Google Scholar; Review of the River Plate, 23 July 1915, 213; London Times, 20 Jan. 1914, 14.

59 Hicks, Agnes H., The Story of the Forestal (London, 1956), 43.Google Scholar

60 Guerrero, Américo, La industria argentina, su origen, organización y desarrollo (Buenos Aires, 1944), 65–66, 77–78.Google Scholar

61 See note 26.

62 Land prices also fell at this time. Hurley, 29; Smith, Peter H., Politics and Beef in Argentina. Patterns of Conflict and Change (New York, 1969), chap. 3, 57–81Google Scholar.

63 Cámara de Diputados, Diario de Sesiones, 1911, 4:16–41.

64 Review of the River Plate, 19 Jan. 1912, 143.

65 El Monitor de las Sociedades Anónimas 13 (1912): 70; Review of the River Plate, 9 Feb. 1912, 343. A similar measure, evenmore favorable to foreign companies, was introduced into the Chamber of Deputies in 1910, but without success.

66 Comments on Argentine Trade 2, no. 10 (May 1923): 15.

67 Great Britain, Report of the British Economic Mission to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay (London, 1930), 15.Google Scholar

68 Alexander V. Dye, “Nationally Planned and Managed Economy in Argentina,” 27 April 1934, Record Group 151, Commercial Attache, Buenos Aires, National Archives.

69 Weil, Felix J., Argentine Riddle (New York, 1944), 124.Google Scholar Bankruptcy law was changed by law 11.719, sanctioned in 1933; the creation of the S.R.L. was due to the promulgation of law 11.645, October 1932.

70 Argentine Republic, Comisión del Censo Industrial, Censo Industrial de 1935 (Buenos Aires, 1937).Google Scholar

71 Hofmannstahl, Emilio, “Las sociedades anónimas como factor de equilibrio social e internacional,’ reprinted in Código de Comercio y Leyes complementarias documentados y concordados, ed. Zavala Rodríguez, Carlos Juan (Buenos Aires, 1967), 1:375–77.Google Scholar

72 Weil, Argentine Riddle, 148.

73 Ibid.

74 Brock, 45.

75 Kirsch, Henry W., Industriai Development in a Traditional Society: The Conflict of Entrepreneurship and Modernization in Chile (Gainesville, 1977), 59, 61Google Scholar; Normano, J. F., The Struggle for South America Economy and Ideology (Boston, 1931), 223.Google Scholar