Globalization in Latin America before 1940

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521812900.003

1 - Globalization in Latin America before 1940

from Part I - Cycles of Globalization

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

Luis Bértola and

Jeffrey Williamson

Edited by

Victor Bulmer-Thomas ,

John Coatsworth and

Roberto Cortes-Conde

Show author details

Luis Bértola: Affiliation:
Uruguay
Jeffrey Williamson: Affiliation:
Harvard University

Book contents

Get access

Summary

GLOBALIZATION AND GROWTH

Some describe the first half of the nineteenth century as decades of lost Latin American economic growth while the region struggled with independence conflicts and their aftermath. Latin America’s growth performance in the second half of the twentieth century was also disappointing. By comparison, during the half century between the 1860s and the 1910s, Latin American economies performed fairly well: they kept pace with European growth rates, grew more than other peripheral regions, but grew less than the big winners of the period, the United States and those European countries catching up with Britain. The term “fairly well” may understate Latin American growth given that, after all, it took place during a century that created a truly huge economic gap between the core and the rest of the periphery.

Table 1.1 documents that performance for real per capita income and purchasing-power parity – adjusted real wages of unskilled urban workers, both relative to Great Britain. Using the macroeconomist’s rhetoric, there was some Latin American catching up on the hegemonic industrial leader in Europe: per capita income in Latin America rose from 38 to 42 percent of Britain’s. Because Britain was losing that leadership to some powerful latecomers, perhaps a better comparison is with a more inclusive European industrial core, including Britain, France, and Germany: here Latin American performance is a little less impressive, with its relative position to that of the fast-growing core falling from 53 to 51 percent. Another relevant comparison is between Latin America and the source of its European immigrants, Iberia and Italy: here, Latin America improved its European immigrants, Iberia and Italy: here, Latin America improved its position from near-parity, with income per capita about 97 or 98 percent of Latin Europe, to a 5 percent advantage.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Economic History of Latin America , pp. 9 - 56

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521812900.003 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2006

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.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Acemoglu, Damen, Johnson, Simon, and Robinson, James, “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation,” American Economic Review 91 (December, 2001).CrossRef Google Scholar

Astorga, Pablo and FitzGerald, Valpy, “Statistical Appendix,” in Thorp, Rosemary, ed., Progress, Poverty and Exclusion. An Economic History of Latin America in the Twentieth Century (Washington, DC, 1998).Google Scholar

Astorga, Pablo and FitzGerald, Valpy, “The Standard of Living in Latin America During the Twentieth Century” (Development Studies Working Paper 117, Queen Elizabeth House, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, May 1998).Google Scholar

Bértola, Luis, Ensayos de historia económica: Uruguay y la región en la economía mundial, 1870–1990 (Montevideo, 2000).Google Scholar

Bairoch, Paul, “European Trade Policy, 1815–1914,” in Mathias, Peter and Pollard, Sidney, eds., The Cambridge Economic History of Europe, vol. 3 (Cambridge, 1989).Google Scholar

Bairoch, Paul, “Free Trade and European Economic Development in the 19th Century,” European Economic Review 3 (November, 1972).CrossRef Google Scholar

Bauer, Arnold, “Rural Spanish America, 1870–1930,” in Bethell, Leslie, ed., The Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. 4 (Cambridge, 1986).Google Scholar

Beatty, Edward, Institutions and Investment: The Political Basis of Industrialization Before 1911 (Stanford, 2001).Google Scholar

Blainey, Geoffrey, The Tyranny of Distance: How Distance Shaped Australia’s History (Melbourne, rev. 1982 ed.)Google Scholar

Brading, David, “Un análisis comparativo del costo de la vida en diversas capitales de hispanoamérica,” Boletín Histórico de la Fundación John Boulton 20 (March 1969).Google Scholar

Bulmer-Thomas, Victor, The Economic History of Latin America Since Independence, 2nd ed. (Cambridge, 2003).CrossRef Google Scholar

Cardoso, Ciro Flamarion and Brignoli, Hector Pérez, Historia económica de américa latina, vol. 3 (Barcelona, 1979).Google Scholar

Cardoso, Fernando and Faletto, Enzo, Dependency and Development in Latin America (Berkeley, 1979).Google Scholar

Centeno, Miguel, “Blood and Debt: War and Taxation in Nineteenth-Century Latin America,” American Journal of Sociology 102 (May 1997).CrossRef Google Scholar

Clark, Gregory, “Why Isn’t the Whole World Developed? Lessons from the Cotton Mills,” Journal of Economic History 47 (March 1987).CrossRef Google Scholar

Coatsworth, John, “Patterns of Rural Rebellion in Latin America: Mexico in Comparative Perspective,” in Katz, Friedrich, ed., Riot, Rebellion, and Revolution: Rural Social Conflict in Mexico (Princeton, NJ, 1988).Google Scholar

Coatsworth, John, Growth Against Development: The Economic Impact of Railroads in Porfirian Mexico (Dekalb, IL, 1981)Google Scholar

Conde, Roberto Cortés and Harriague, Marcela, “Estimaciones sobre el PBI en Argentina 1874–1935,” (Documento de Trabajo 3, Universidad de San Andrés, Buenos Aires, 1993).Google Scholar

Cueva, Agustin, El desarrollo del capitalismo en América Latina, 2nd ed. (Mexico City, 1977).Google Scholar

Díaz-Alejandro, Carlos, “Latin America in the 1930s,” in Thorp, Rosemary, ed., Latin America in the 1930s (New York, 1984)CrossRef Google Scholar

Díaz-Alejandro, Carlos, Essays on the Economic History of the Argentine Republic (New Haven, CT, 1970)Google Scholar

Donghi, Tulio Halperin, “Economy and Society in Post-Independence Spanish America,” in Bethell, Leslie, ed., The Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. 3, From Independence to c. 1870 (Cambridge, 1985).Google Scholar

Ellsworth, P. T., “The Terms of Trade between Primary Producing and Industrial Countries,” Inter-American Economic Affairs 10 (Summer 1956).Google Scholar

Engerman, Stanley and Sokoloff, Kenneth, “Factor Endowments, Institutions, and Differential Paths of Growth Among New World Economies: A View from Economic Historians of the United States,” in Haber, Stephen, ed., How Latin America Fell Behind (Stanford, 1997).Google Scholar

Gallup, John Luke and Sachs, Jeffrey, “Geography and Economic Development,” in Pleskovic, Boris and Stiglitz, Joseph E., eds., Annual World Bank Conference on Development Economics, 1998 (Washington, DC, 1999)Google Scholar

Glade, William, “Latin America and the International Economy, 1870–1914,” in Bethell, Leslie, ed., The Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. 4 (Cambridge, 1986).Google Scholar

Harley, C. Knick, “Ocean Freight Rates and Productivity, 1740–1913: The Primacy of Mechanical Invention Reaffirmed,” Journal of Economic History 48 (December 1988).CrossRef Google Scholar

Hwang, Jason, and Williamson, Jeffrey G., “The Impact of the Terms of Trade on Economic Development in the Periphery, 1870–1939: Volatility and Secular Change,” NBER Working Paper 10600, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA (June 2004).Google Scholar

Irwin, Douglas, “Higher Tariffs, Lower Revenues? Analyzing the Fiscal Aspects of the Great Tariff Debate of 1888” (NBER Working Paper 6239, National Bureau of Economic Research, October 1997)CrossRef Google Scholar

Kindleberger, Charles, “Group Behavior and International Trade,” Journal of Political Economy 59 (February 1951)CrossRef Google Scholar

Krugman, Paul and Venables, Anthony, “Integration and the Competitiveness of Peripheral Industry,” in Bliss, C. and Macedo, J. Braga, eds., Unity with Diversity in the European Community (Cambridge, 1990)Google Scholar

Krugman, Paul, Geography and Trade (Cambridge, 1991)Google Scholar

Landes, David, The Wealth and Poverty of Nations (New York, 1998).Google Scholar

Leff, Nathaniel, “Economic Development and Regional Inequality: Origins of the Brazilian Case,” Quarterly Journal of Economics 86 (May 1972).CrossRef Google Scholar

Lewis, Arthur, “Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour,” Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies 22 (May 1954).CrossRef Google Scholar

Lewis, Colin, “Industry in Latin America before 1930,” in Bethell, Leslie, ed., The Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. 4 (Cambridge, 1986).Google Scholar

Lewis, W. Arthur, The Evolution of the International Economic Order (Princeton, NJ, 1978).Google Scholar

Maddison, Angus, Monitoring the World Economy, 1820–1992 (Paris, 1995)Google Scholar

Maddison, Angus, The World Economy. A Millennial Perspective (Paris, 2001).Google Scholar

Mares, David, Violent Peace: Militarized Interstate Bargaining In Latin America (New York, 2001).CrossRef Google Scholar

Newland, Carlos, “Economic Development and Population Change: Argentina 1810–1870,” in Coatsworth, John and Taylor, Alan, eds., Latin America and the World Economy Since 1800 (Cambridge, MA, 1998)Google Scholar

North, Douglass C., Summerhill, William, and Weingast, Barry, “Order, Disorder and Economic Change: Latin America vs. North America,” In Mesquita, Bruce Bueno and Root, Hilton, eds., Governing for Prosperity (New Haven, CT, 2000).Google Scholar

North, Douglass, “Ocean Freight Rates and Economic Development 1750–1913,” Journal of Economic History 18 (December 1958)CrossRef Google Scholar

Ocampo, José Antonio, “Una breve historia cafetera de Colombia, 1830–1938,” in Cartagena, A. Machado, ed., Miniagricultura 80 años. Transformaciones en la estructura agraria (Bogotá, 1994).Google Scholar

O’Rourke, Kevin, “Tariffs and Growth in the Late 19th Century,” Economic Journal 110 (April 2000).Google Scholar

O’Rourke, Kevin, “The European Grain Invasion, 1870–1913,” Journal of Economic History 57 (December 1997).Google Scholar

Oribe Stemmer, Juan E., “Freight Rates in the Trade between Europe and South America,” Journal of Latin American Studies 21:1 (February 1989).Google Scholar

Prebisch, Raúl, The Economic Development of Latin America and its Principal Problems (New York, 1950)Google Scholar

Presedo, Vázquez, Estadísticas Históricas Argentinas. Compendio 1873–1973 (Buenos Aires, 1988).Google Scholar

Pritchett, Lant, “Divergence, Big Time,” Journal of Economic Perspectives 11 (Summer 1997).CrossRef Google Scholar

Rogowski, Ronald, Commerce and Coalitions:How Trade Affects Domestic Political Alignments (Princeton, NJ, 1989).Google Scholar

Sánchez-Albornoz, Nicholás, “The Population of Latin America, 1850–1930,” in Bethell, Leslie, ed., The Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. 4 (Cambridge, 1986).Google Scholar

Singer, Hans, “The Distribution of Gains Between Investing and Borrowing Countries,” American Economic Review 11 (March 1950).Google Scholar

Sunkel, Osvaldo and Paz, Pedro, El subdesarrollo latinoamericano y la teoría del desarrollo (Mexico City, 1970)Google Scholar

Taylor, Alan, “On the Costs of Inward-Looking Development: Price Distortions, Growth, and Divergence in Latin America,” Journal of Economic History 58 (March 1998).CrossRef Google Scholar

,United Nations. Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA), The Process of Industrial Development in Latin America (New York, 1966).