IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/udc/esteco/v42y2015i2p93-119.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The British commercial houses in Peru and Chile between the two world wars: success and failure

Author

Listed:
  • Rory M. Miller

Abstract

The previously successful British merchant houses on the west coast of South America faced significant problems between the two world wars. Earlier historians have referred to difficulties such as the volatility of commodity prices, the organisation and structure of the firms, and changes in patterns of trade. This paper, instead, compares their different experiences on the basis of archives from the merchants and their banks, concluding that their response to crisis differed, depending on the manner and extent of diversification, their core expertise, the quality of their management, and the support of their banks. The outcomes varied from outright failure to continued growth, with the two largest firms struggling to survive and adapt to the new business environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Rory M. Miller, 2015. "The British commercial houses in Peru and Chile between the two world wars: success and failure," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 42(2 Year 20), pages 93-119, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:udc:esteco:v:42:y:2015:i:2:p:93-119
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.econ.uchile.cl/uploads/publicacion/654e58a8100c899a3b8767e6d24c25a01b72fca0.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chapman,Stanley, 1992. "Merchant Enterprise in Britain," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521351782, January.
    2. Miller, Rory, 1982. "Small Business in the Peruvian Oil Industry: Lobitos Oilfields Limited Before 1934," Business History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 56(3), pages 400-423, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Marc Prat Sabartes, 2007. "Vertical integration or specialisation: producing and commercialising cotton goods (1815-1913)," Working Papers in Economics 188, Universitat de Barcelona. Espai de Recerca en Economia.
    2. Sissoko, Carolyn & Ishizu, Mina, 2021. "How the West India trade fostered last resort lending by the Bank of England," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 108565, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Gupta, Bishnupriya, 2014. "Discrimination or Social Networks? Industrial Investment in Colonial India," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 74(1), pages 141-168, March.
    4. Jérôme Sgard, 2023. "Imperial Politics, Open Markets and Private Ordering: The Global Grain Trade (1875-1914)," Working Papers hal-04081417, HAL.
    5. Andrew Dilley, 2010. "‘The rules of the game’: London finance, Australia, and Canada, c.1900–14," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 63(4), pages 1003-1031, November.
    6. David Clayton, 2011. "Trade‐Offs And Rip‐Offs: Imitation‐Led Industrialisation And The Evolution Of Trademark Law In Hong Kong," Australian Economic History Review, Economic History Society of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 51(2), pages 178-198, July.
    7. Sissoko, Carolyn & Ishizu, Mina, 2021. "How the West India trade fostered last resort lending by the Bank of England," Economic History Working Papers 108565, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    8. Gary Spraakman & Julie Margret, 2005. "The transfer of management accounting practices from London counting houses to the British North American fur trade," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(2), pages 101-119.
    9. Ishizu, Mina, 2021. "Metropolitan financial agents and the emergence of inter-regional financial linkages in England and Japan, 1760-1860," Economic History Working Papers 110963, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    10. Peter Maw, 2010. "Yorkshire and Lancashire ascendant: England's textile exports to New York and Philadelphia, 1750–1805," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 63(3), pages 734-768, August.
    11. Manuel Llorca-Jaña, 2015. "Huth & Co.’s credit strategies: a global merchant-banker’s risk management, c. 1810-1850," Estudios de Economia, University of Chile, Department of Economics, vol. 42(2 Year 20), pages 17-43, December.
    12. Leslie Hannah, 2007. "Logistics, Market Size and Giant Plants in the Early 20th Century: A Global View," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-486, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.
    13. Velkar, Aashish, 2010. "‘Deep’ integration of 19th century grain markets: coordination and standardisation in a global value chain," Economic History Working Papers 28988, London School of Economics and Political Science, Department of Economic History.
    14. Ishizu, Mina, 2021. "Metropolitan financial agents and the emergence of inter-regional financial linkages in England and Japan, 1760-1860," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 110963, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    15. Jérôme Sgard, 2023. "Imperial Politics, Open Markets and Private Ordering: The Global Grain Trade (1875-1914)," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-04081417, HAL.
    16. Roy Church, 2008. "Salesmen and the transformation of selling in Britain and the US in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 61(3), pages 695-725, August.
    17. Réka Juhász & Claudia Steinwender, 2018. "Spinning the Web: The Impact of ICT on Trade in Intermediates and Technology Diffusion," NBER Working Papers 24590, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    18. Leslie Hannah, 2007. "What did Morgan's Men really do?," CIRJE F-Series CIRJE-F-465, CIRJE, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Chile; Peru; merchants; nitrate; sugar; cotton.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L81 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Retail and Wholesale Trade; e-Commerce
    • N76 - Economic History - - Economic History: Transport, International and Domestic Trade, Energy, and Other Services - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • N84 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - Europe: 1913-
    • N86 - Economic History - - Micro-Business History - - - Latin America; Caribbean

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:udc:esteco:v:42:y:2015:i:2:p:93-119. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Verónica Kunze (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/deuclcl.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.