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Foreign and National Enterprise in Nineteenth-Century Colombia*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Frank Safford
Frank Safford
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Dartmouth College
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Abstract

The energy and interplay of Latin American and foreign businessmen in enduring the uncertainties of independence and the obstacles of nature are underscored in this example from the Colombian experience.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , Winter 1965 , pp. 503 - 526
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1965

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References

1 Jenks, Leland H., The Migration of British Capital to 1875 (New York, 1927), pp. 44–49, 63–64Google Scholar; Rippy, J. Fred, British Investments in Latin America, 1822–1949 (Minneapolis, 1959), passimGoogle Scholar; Joslin, David, A Century of Banking in Latin America (London, 1963), pp. 4ff.Google Scholar; Ferns, H. S., Britain and Argentina in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1960), passimGoogle Scholar; Manchester, Alan K., British Preëminence in Brazil: Its Rise and Decline (Chapel Hill, 1933), pp. 322–28Google Scholar; Stewart, Watt, Henry Meiggs, Yankee Pizarro (Durham, N.C., 1946), passim.Google Scholar

2 See Hagen, Everett E., On the Theory of Social Change: How Economic Growth Begins (Homewood, Ill., 1962), pp. 376–78Google Scholar, for the thesis that the inhabitants of Antioquia took the lead in economic innovation in Colombia because of their lack, or loss, of status in Colombian society.

3 Higuita, J. de D., “Estudio histórico analítico de la población colombiana en 170 años,” Anales de Economía y Estadística, tomo III (Bogotá, Colombia, Apr. 25, 1940)Google Scholar, suplemento al número 20, pp. 3–6; Scobie, James R., Argentina: A City and A Nation (New York, 1964), p. 32Google Scholar; Archivo del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Bogotá, Consulado de Colombia, París, 1879.

4 Dr. R. S. Fisher, “General Statistics of South American States …,” Hunt's Merchant's Magazine, vol. 39 (Oct., 1858), p. 487; El Neo-Granadino (Bogotá), Feb. 13, 1852; Weston, G. M., “Foreign Commerce of the United States,” Banker's Magazine, vol. 32 (New York, Sept., 1877), pp. 200–208Google Scholar; Archivo del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, Bogotá, Consulado de Colombia, Paris, 1879.

5 Lack of public capital was an important factor in slowing transportation development during the nineteenth century. In 1878 Colombia had only 103 kilometers of railroad, while Brazil and Argentina had built more than 2,300 and Peru 1,800 kilometers. Ibid.

6 As pesos of differing values were coined in Colombia during the nineteenth century, values given here are estimated in U.S. dollars of the same period. Hall, Colonel Francis, Colombia: Its Present State (London, 1824), p. 37Google Scholar; Steuart, J., Bogota in 1836–1837 (New York, 1838), p. 251Google Scholar; Mollien, Gaspard Theodore, Travels in the Republic of Colombia in the Years 1822 and 1823 (London, 1824), p. 201Google Scholar; Gaceta de la Nueva Granada (Bogotá), Aug. 14, 1842.

7 Safford, Frank Robinson, “Commerce and Enterprise in Central Colombia, 1821–1870” (Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1965), Table I.Google Scholar

8 Ibid.

9 Sixteen pesos for upstream river freight to Honda, no more than eight pesos down the mountain from Bogotá, . Present State of Colombia (London, 1827), p. 186Google Scholar; Letters Written from Colombia 1823 (London, 1824), p. 194.

10 Of the 190 Englishmen in Colombia, 34 per cent were in Panama, 22 per cent were in the capital, 17 per cent were at the river port of Honda or the nearby silver mines, and 7 per cent were in the Caribbean port of Santa Marta. The same pattern applied to the 151 French, while the 166 North Americans were almost entirely concentrated at Panama. Of 229 Europeans in the province of Bogotá, close to half were in commerce, almost the same number were artisans. “Cuadro de los estranjeros existentes en la República al tiempo de levantar el censo de población de 1851,” Archivo Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, Ministerio de Gobierno, sección 3a, 1848–1855, tomo 556, p. 677; “Noticias estadísticas de la provincia de Bogotá en el año de 1844,” in Provincia de Bogotá, Colección de todos los decretos de interés jeneral espedidas por la honorable cámara de la provincia de Bogotá, desde 1832 hasta 1843 (Bogotá, 1844), p. 7.

11 With reference to foreign merchants in the Caribbean ports, a contemporary declared that “all foreigners who have resided here from five to ten years are rich, the greater part of them came with little or no capital; the profits on all kinds of foreign goods are so immensely large that riches must follow prudent sales.” A notable example was John Glen of Schenectady, who came to Cartagena as a clerk in 1809. After serving in the patriot armies, Glen made a fortune running provisions into Cartagena during the long Spanish siege of that port in 1815. Later Glen was captured by the Spanish and imprisoned in Porto Bello. When independence was secured, the Colombian government granted Glen the exclusive right to export goods from the port of Sabanilla, now the site of Barranquilla, and the port best situated for trade with the interior via the Magdalena. Glen carried on a lucrative trade, exporting dye-wood and cotton, and importing merchandise from Jamaica. By 1829 he owned more than a dozen keelboats, employed 100 boatmen, and had become the “patriarch” of the area. Rensselaer Van Rensselaer to Gen. Sol. Van Rensselaer, Barran-quilla, May 1, and Mompox, May 13, 1829, in Bonney, Catharina V. R., A Legacy of Historical Gleanings (2 vols., Albany, 1875), vol. I, pp. 472–78.Google Scholar

12 The only significant French activity in the 1820's was the work of Bernard Daste, a physician who secured a privilege to develop an ironworks near the town of Pacho, sixty miles from Bogotá. Moyne, Augusto Le, Viajes y estancias en America del Sur (Bogotá, 1945), pp. 15, 17, 196–99Google Scholar; Codificación nacional de todas las leyes de Colombia desde el año de 1821, hecha conforme a la ley 13 de 1912 (Bogotá, 1924–1933), vol. III, p. 302.

13 Restrepo, Vicente, Estudio sobre las minas de oro y plata de Colombia (Bogotá, 1952), pp. 135–37.Google Scholar

14 Gilmore, Robert Louis and Harrison, John Parker, “Juan Bernardo Elbers and the Introduction of Steam Navigation on the Magdalena River,” Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. XXVIII (Aug., 1948), pp. 335–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15 Charles Stuart Cochrane, Capt., Journal of a Residence and Travels in Colombia, dur ing the years 1823 and 1824 (2 vols., London, 1825), vol. II, pp. 175, 185, 192–208Google Scholar; Humphreys, R. A. (ed.), British Consular Reports on the Trade and Politics of Latin America, 1824–1826 (London, 1940), pp. 269–71.Google Scholar Among the leading colonization schemes were those of Herring, Graham, and Powles, who received 200,000 fanegadas of land in 1823, and Tyrell Moore, who was conceded 100,000 fanegadas.

16 Tischendorf, Alfred and Taylor Parks, E. (eds.), The Diary and Journal of Richard Clough Anderson, Jr. (Durham, N.C., 1964), p. 226Google Scholar; Steuart, Bogotá in 1836–1837, p. 245. From 1832 through the 1850's Wills was a persistent agitator for free trade, the establishment of banks, and the improvement of communications.

17 Civil wars were fought primarily over the two parties' rival claims to the honors and perquisites of office, though other issues were often raised. Issues usually involved political organization — Napoleonic or republican, centralist or federalist, for or against Church power and privileges. Except in 1854, when artisans revolted against free trade policies, economic questions were not at issue. Upper-class politicians generally maintained an ef fective consensus on economic policy.

18 Gunboat diplomacy was actually used by the British in 1836–37, to protect a consul, and in 1856, on behalf of British creditors. The United States, at first somewhat loath (or unable) to throw its weight around, did use naval force, after 1850, particularly in Panama. See Manning, William R. (ed.), Diplomatic Correspondence of the United States: Inter-American Affairs, 1831–1860 (Washington, 1935), vol. V, pp. 531, 556Google Scholar; El Tiempo (Bogotá), Oct. 14, 1856, Feb 24, Nov. 17, 1857.

19 Relevant treaties with England were signed in 1825. For protests against the privileges of foreigners see “Remitido” signed by “Unos artesanos del país,” El Día (Bogotá), July 17, 1842; “Omnium,” El Día (Bogotá), July 17, 1845.

20 Cabal, Hugo Latorre, Mi novela: apuntes autobiográficos de Alfonso Lopez (Bogotá, 1961), p. 264.Google Scholar

21 Steuart, Bogotá in 1836–1837, pp 249–53; Hoenigsberg, , Wessels, & Compañía, , Cuestión Jimeno-Hoenigsberg, en su parte moral (Bogotá, 1872), passim.Google Scholar

23 Eibers at this time was the victim of political intrigue, having become identified (apparently erroneously) as an instrument of American penetration at a time when Simón Bolívar considered American economic interests and political principles as threats to his own authority and to the good order of Colombian society. Gilmore and Harrison, “Juan Bernardo Eibers,” pp. 344–48.

24 Steuart, Bogotá in 1836–1837, pp. 165–71.

25 Regarding the career of the Dane, Carlos Michelsen, from clerk in 1840 to capitalist in 1850, see El Tiempo (Bogotá), Sept. 7, 1864.

25 Restrepo, José Manuel, Diario político y militar (Bogotá, 1954), tomo II, pp. 101, 103, 119, 123Google Scholar; Steuart, Bogotá in 1836–1837, pp. 14, 111, 114–46, 174–75, 288.

26 Charles Biddle to John Forsyth, Nov. 15, 1836, in Manning (ed.), Diplomatic Correspondence, vol. V, p. 546; Powles, J. D., New Granada: Its Internal Resources (London, 1863), pp. 77–78.Google Scholar

27 Evan Hopkins and John Lloyd, in ibid., pp. 11, 81.

28 Cochrane, Journal, vol. I, pp. vii-viii.

29 Vicente Restrepo, Estudio, pp. 135–37.

30 Gilmore and Harrison, “Juan Bernardo Eibers,” pp. 358–59.

31 Steuart, Bogotá in 1836–1837, pp. 140–41.

32 José Manuel Restrepo, Diario, vol. II, pp. 303–304, 314, 370.

33 Ponce, Ignacio Gutiérrez, Vida de don Ignacio Gutiérrez Vergata (London, 1900), pp. 3–225Google Scholar; Restrepo Sáenz, José María y Rivas, Raimundo, Genealogías de Santa Fé de Bogotá (Bogotá, 1928), pp. 12–13, 20–23, 280Google Scholar; Vásquez, Luis Ospina, Industria y protección en Colombia, 1810–1930 (Medellín, 1955), pp. 175–77.Google Scholar

34 Ignacio Gutiérrez Vergara to Rufino Cuervo, Bogotá, Dec. 15, 1841, Epistolario del doctor Rufino Cuervo (Bogotá, 1918–1922), vol. II, P. 169.

35 “Proyecto de lei sobre concierto de jóvenes,” El Argos (Bogotá), Apr. 28, 1839, signed by twenty-two elite investors in local manufactures.

36 See Fritz Redlich, “European Aristocracy and Economic Development,” and Kellenbenz, Hermann, “German Aristocratic Entrepreneurship: Economic Activities of the Holstein Nobility in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” in Explorations in Entrepreneurial History (1953), vol. VI, pp. 78–90, 103–114.Google Scholar

37 Constitucional de Cundinamorca (Bogotá), Sept. 29, Oct. 20, 1833, March 23, 1834; Notaría primera, Bogotá, 1856, tomo 346, fols. 109r-111r; Francisco Escobar Gutiérrez, “Injusticias de la época” (Aug. 3, 1852), Biblioteca Nacional, Bogotá, hojas sueltas.

38 Ware, Caroline F., The Early New England Cotton Manufacture (Boston, 1931), pp. 20, 63, 81Google Scholar; Stein, Stanley J., The Brazilian Cotton Manufacture: Textile Enterprise in an Underdeveloped Area, 1850–1950 (Cambridge, Mass., 1957), pp. 40–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39 El Amigo del Pueblo, Bogotá, Feb. 10, 1839; Roberto H. Bunch and Ignacio Ospina, “Proceder indebio i siniestro,” March 1, 1855, Biblioteca Nacional, hojas sueltas.

40 José Manuel Restrepo, Diario, vol. II, pp. 329, 370; vol. IV, p. 96; Steuart, Bogotá in 1836–1837, pp. 139–40.

41 Notaría primera, Bogotá, 1856, tomo 346, fols. 109r-111r; Guia oficial i descriptiva de Bogotá (Bogotá, 1858), pp. 73–75.

42 Steuart, Bogotá in 1836–1837, pp. 140–41.

43 Arboleda, Gustavo, Historia contemporánea de Colombia (Cali, 1918–1935), vol. II, p. 117Google Scholar; El Día (Bogotá), Aug. 9, 1846; El Neo-Granadino (Bogotá), Aug. 25, 1849. Patents Listed Gaceta oficial (Bogotá), Aug. 25, 1850, Sept 27, 1851, Oct 30, 1852; June 10, 1853, Jan 20 and March 13, 1854, Apr 17, June 30, Sept. 27, Dec. 4, 1855.

44 Gamba, Prospero Pereira, “Los conflictos de Bogotá,” Revista Literaria, vol. IV (Apr., 1894), pp. 530–32Google Scholar; Tamayo, Joaquín, Don José María Plata y su época (Bogotá, 1933), pp. 71–105.Google Scholar

45 El Día (Bogotá), Nov. 3, 1844; Dec. 21, 1845; Jan. 4, 1846; Gaceta de la Nueva Granada (Bogotá), Jan. 10, May 23, 1847; El Neo-Granadino (Bogotá), Nov. 23, 1848, Nov 30, 1849, Apr 4, 1851; Caja de ahorros de Bogotá, 130 informe anual de la junta de inversión i superintendencia (Bogotá, 1859).

46 “Banco nacional i otras mejoras,” El Argos (Bogotá), Feb. 24, Apr. 28, 1839; El Día (Bogotá), Oct. 4, Oct. 8, Oct. 11, Oct. 22, Oct. 29, 1846; Wills, Guillermo, Establecimiento de un banco nacional en la Nueva Granada (Bogotá, 1854)Google Scholar; El Tiempo (Bogotá), June 5, 1885; Gaceta oficial (Bogotá), June 25 and July 21, 1855.

47 El Tiempo (Bogotá), Aug. 10, Nov. 2, Nov. 30, 1864, Mar, 1, 1865; Vargas, cartas, 1866, fol 89; Bretón, Julio Estévez, Alegato de conclusion presentado ante el Juzgado l°. del Circuito de Ambalema por el apoderado del Señor Gregorio Castrellón en el juicio sobre el dominio de la hacienda de Bledonia (Bogotá, 1890), p. 7Google Scholar; 21–22; Joslin, Century of Banking, pp. 89–90.

48 The “foreigners” in the Banco de Bogotá were the German-English importing firm of Koppel & Schloss, members of which had resided in Bogotá since 1847. Salomon Koppel figured in many of the early financial institutions, being elected first director of the Banco de Bogotá and later serving as director of the Banco Hipotecario (1883–85). But several Bogotano merchant families also repeatedly played leading roles, particularly Joaquín Sarmiento, and various members of the Samper, Vargas, Valenzuela, and Camacho Roldan families. Merchants hailing from Santa Marta (Tomás Abello and several Vengoecheas) are also frequently found among the stockholders and officers of the early financial institutions. (See Diario oficial, Nov. 28, 1870; 60° aniversario de la Compañía Colombiana de Seguros, 1874–1934 (Bogotá, 1934); Quijano Wallis, José María, Memorias autobiográficas histórico-pólíticas y de carácter social (Grottaferrata, 1919), pp. 452–58, 490–96.Google Scholar

49 Other members of the mining company included Juan de Dios Aranzazu (an important politician, 1825–45), Juan C. Campuzano, Juan Antonio Montoya, and Juan Santamaría. (Vicente Restrepo, Estudio, pp. 50–55.)

50 José Manuel Restrepo, Diano, vol. II, pp. 303–304, 314, 370. In the 1830's, when interest rates were above 24 per cent in Bogotá, they were at 8 per cent in Antioquia. To some extent this differential reflected a greater risk factor in Bogotá because of the chronic threat of political turbulence around the capital.

51 Ospina, Joaquín, Diccionario biográfico y bibliográfico de Colombia (Bogotá, 1927-1939), vol. Il, pp. 806–808Google Scholar; Calderón, Clímaco, Elementos de hacienda pública (Bogotá, 1911), pp. 269–71.Google Scholar

52 One key road-building company was owned by Francisco and Luis María Montoya, Antonio and Raimundo Santamaría, Antonio González Leiva, Bernardo Pardo, and Santos Agudelo, almost all of whom were Antioqueños. (Codificación nacional, vol. V, p. 79.) Montoya's shipping companies included Agudelo and Montoya's Antioqueño cousin, José María Pino, as well as a number of merchants in Santa Marta. (Gaibrois, José T., Estudio biográfico de don José Maria Pino [Bogota, 1887], pp. 6–27.)Google Scholar

53 Harrison, John P., “The Colombian Tobacco Industry from Government Monopoly to Free Trade, 1778–1876” (Ph.D. thesis, University of California, 1951), passim.Google Scholar

54 R. S. [Rafael Samper], “Cuestión tabaco,” El Tiempo (Bogotá), December 17, 1861.

55 Ibid.; Cuervo, Rufino, Memoria de Hacienda, 1843 (Bogotá, 1843), pp. 18, 36, 37Google Scholar; Eí Día (Bogotá), March 10, 1884.

56 El Tiempo (Bogotá), June 8, 1864. The bulk of Colombia's 19th-century railroad mileage was laid after 1870, not by Americans or Englishmen, but by Francisco J. Cisneros, a Cuban.

57 Interest rates for upper-class Colombians with good credit reputations ranged from 9 to 18 per cent per year in time of peace and prosperity; in time of depression they rose above 24 per cent; and in time of civil war, loans were not available. Safford, op. cit., Table III.