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Entrepreneurship in Public Enterprise: General Enrique Mosconi and the Argentine Petroleum Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Carl E. Solberg
Carl E. Solberg
Affiliation:
Professor of History, University of Washington
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Abstract

The economic history of Latin America offers an unusual paradox. For much of the twentieth century, nationalist governments have fostered the growth of state enterprise, but for the most part the proponents of such policies have received little attention. The Argentine petroleum industry is a case in point. While the state oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (or YPF) grew from relatively modest origins into the largest firm in the country, its most important architect, General Enrique Mosconi, has remained a little-known figure. In this article, however, Dr. Solberg takes note of Mosconi's career. He examines the forces that shaped it and that shaped his policies as the Director General of YPF. Mosconi's story, however, is not that of just another nationalist-turned-public servant, for his ideas and policies had far-reaching ramifications not only in the political economy of Argentina but also in that of other nations of Latin America.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1982 , pp. 380 - 399
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1982

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References

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10 For Alvear's decree, see The Review of the River Plate, 59 (April 20, 1923), 973.

* The value of the Argentine paper peso was about 42 U.S. cents in the 1920s.

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16 Argentine Republic, Recopilación de leyes, 145–151; The Review of the River Plate, 61 (January 18, 1924), 171; 61 (May 2, 1924), 1005. Hollander, Frederick Alexander, “Oligarchy and the Politics of Petroleum in Argentina: The Case of the Salta Oligarchy and Standard Oil, 1918–1933,” (Ph. D. dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 1976), 151–172 and 312–339Google Scholar discusses Salta's oil policy. The only period during the 1920s when Salta refused to co-operate with Standard was between 1922 and 1925, when the Radical Party held the provincial government.

17 Mosconi made this comment in congressional testimony. See Argentine Republic, Cámara de Diputados, Orden del día Num. 66, 56. For the Windhausen quote, see his article, “Apuntes sobre la zona petrolífera de la Patagonia meridional,” in the Buenos Aires daily La Epoca, October 18, 1920. He presented a technical analysis of his research in “Cambios en el concepto de las condiciones geológicas del yacimiento petrolífero de Comodoro Rivadavia (comunicación preliminar),” Boletín de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias de Córdoba, 27 (1923), 1–8. I would like to thank his grandson, Rodolfo Windhausen, for calling my attention to these publications and to the scientific controversy that Mosconi confronted. Fossa-Mancini, Enrico, “Faults in Comodoro Rivadavia Oil Field, Argentina,” Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 16 (June, 1932), 561, 575Google Scholar; Fossa-Mancini, Enrico, “Geophysics as an Aid in the Search for Oil-Bearing Structures in the Argentine,” World Petroleum Congress, July 19th-25th, 1933; Proceedings, 2 vols, (London, 1934), I, 177.Google Scholar Interview with Rodolfo Windhausen, New York City, September 4–5, 1980. Recent studies of Patagonian oil reserves estimate them as larger than the North Sea fields and as high as 31 billion cubic meters. “Argentina Looks Abroad for Off-shore Oil Expertise,” Latin America Economic Report, 4 (February 6, 1976), 23; Croll, Donald O., “Oil Nationalism Modified,” The Review of the River Plate, 161 (April 29, 1977), 552.Google Scholar

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20 Tyler, William G., “Comment,” in Geithman, David T., ed., Fiscal Policy for Industrialization and Development in Latin America (Gainesville, Florida, 1974), 290Google Scholar; Cochran, Thomas C. and Reina, Ruben E., Entrepreneurship in Argentine Culture: Torcuato de Tella and S.I.A.M. (Philadelphia, 1962), 54–59, 80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

21 “Foreign Oil Producers in Argentina Facing Uncertain Government Policy,” Oil Weekly, 55 (December 13, 1929), 73. For background on the international oil situation at this time, see Sampson, Anthony, The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They Made (New York, 1975), 70–73Google Scholar; and Penrose, Edith T., The Large International Firm in Developing Countries: The International Petroleum Industry (Cambridge, Mass. 1968), 179–182.Google Scholar For the Soviet imports, see SD, 835.00/375, Jauary 14, 1926, Jay (Buenos Aires) to Secretary of State; Larra, Mosconi, 124; and Frondizi, Petróleo y política, 251.

22 The real value of Argentine industrial production rose 54 per cent between 1935 and 1945. See Wynia, Gary W., Argentina in the Postwar Era: Politics and Economic Policy Making in a Divided Society (Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1978), 29.Google Scholar Also see Mosconi, El petróleo argentino, 159; and Casella, Albert T. and Clara, Alejandro, Petróleo, soberanía y paz (Buenos Aires, 1963), 17.Google Scholar

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28 A recent and thorough analysis of the 1930 coup and its relationship to oil politics, Mayo, Carlos A., Andino, Osvaldo R., and Molina, Fernando García, Diplomacia, política y petróleo en la Argentina (1927–1930) (Buenos Aires, 1976), 191Google Scholar, concludes that no evidence exists of a conspiracy between the military and the oil companies.

29 Larra, Mosconi, 155–156, 169–184.

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32 “Latin America: After the Oil Crisis,” Bank of London and South America Review, 13 (December, 1979), 706–707.