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Transportation Costs and the Social Savings of Railroads in Latin America. The Case of Peru*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2013

Luis Felipe Zegarra
Luis Felipe Zegarra*
Affiliation:
CENTRUM Católica, The Business School of Pontificia, Universidad Católica del Perú, Calle Daniel Alomía Robles 125–129, Los Álamos de Monterrico, Santiago de Surco, Lima 33, Peru. Email: llzegarrab@pucp.edu.pe.
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Abstract

This article estimates the social savings of the railroads in Peru in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The construction of railroads made it possible for Peruvians to substitute the traditional system of mules and llamas, although only for a few routes. Using primary and secondary sources, I estimate the social savings for 1890, 1904, 1914 and 1918. Social savings ranged between 0.3 per cent and 1.3 per cent of GDP in 1890, but then increased to a range between 3.6 per cent and 9.4 per cent of GDP in 1918. The social savings of railroads in Peru were comparable to those for the United States and Great Britain but were much lower than those for Mexico, Brazil and Argentina, largely because Peru had very few railroads.

Resumen

Este artículo estima el ahorro social de los ferrocarriles en el Perú a finales del siglo XIX y principios del siglo XX. La construcción de ferrocarriles hizo posible que los peruanos sustituyeran el sistema tradicional de mulas y llamas, aunque solo para algunas rutas. Usando fuentes primarias y secundarias, estimamos el ahorro social para 1890, 1904, 1914 y 1918. El ahorro social se encontró entre 0.3% y 1.3% del PBI en 1890, pero luego aumentó a un rango entre 3.6% y 9.4% del PBI en 1918. El ahorro social de los ferrocarriles en el Perú fue comparable con el de los Estados Unidos y Gran Bretaña, pero mucho menor que en México, Brasil y Argentina, en gran medida porque el Perú tenía muy pocos ferrocarriles.

Keywords

Railroadstransportationeconomic developmentPeruLatin AmericaFerrocarrilesTransporteDesarrollo económicoPerúAmérica Latina

JEL classification

N70: General, International, or Comparative N76: Latin America • Caribbean R40: General
Type
Articles/Artículos
Information
Revista de Historia Economica - Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 41 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 2013 

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Footnotes

*

The author thanks the participants in the Seminar of the Asociación Peruana de Historia Económica in March of 2012 (Lima, Peru) and the V Coloquio del Grupo Cuatrinacional de Estudios Empresariales e Historia Económica in October of 2012 (Bogota, Colombia), for their support, ideas and criticism. He also thanks the comments and suggestions of the anonymous referees who read this article. Finally, he recognises the contribution of the staff of the National Library of Peru, the National Archives of Peru, and the Library of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, who helped him during the process of data collection.

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