¹ Jesús, Chavarría, ‘La desaparición del Perú colonial, 1870–1919’, Aportes 23 (01 1972), pp. 121–53.Google Scholar

² ‘Oligarchy’ used to be the common term, but some authors, as will be clear from later citations, have recently preferred others. References to their work in this paper have tried to respect their preferred terminology.

³ In particular Fredrick, B. Pike, The Modern History of Peru (London, 1967),Google Scholar and David, P. Werlich, Peru: a short history (Carbondale, Illinois, 1978).Google Scholar

⁴ Shane, J. Hunt, ‘Distribution, growth, and government economic behaviour in Peru’ in Gustav, Ranis (ed.), Government and Economic Development (New Haven and London, 1971), p. 381.Google Scholar

⁵ See, for example, on this period Julio, Cotler, Clases, estado, y nación en ci Perú (Lima, 1978);Google ScholarDennis, L. Gilbert, ‘The Oligarchy and the Old Regime in Peru’ (Ph.D. thesis, Cornell U., 1977);Google ScholarWilliam, Bollinger, ‘The Bourgeois Revolution in Peru: a conception of Peruvian history’, Latin American Perspectives 4, No. 3 (1977), pp. 18–56;Google ScholarSinesio, López J., ‘El estado oligárquico en el Perú: un ensayo de interpretación’, Revista Mexicana de Sociologia 40, No. 3 (1978), pp. 991–1007;Google ScholarManuel, Burga and Alberto, Flores Galindo, Apogeo y crisis de la república aristocràtica (Lima, 1979);Google ScholarErnesto, Yepes, ‘Burguesía y gamonalismo en el Perú’, Análisis 7, (01–04 1979), pp. 31–66.Google Scholar

⁶ Cotler, , Clases, estado, y nación, p. 128.Google Scholar

⁷ Ibid., p. 185.

⁸ Burga, and Flores, Galindo, Apogeo y crisis, pp. 87–99 and 130. Their argument is very much more subtle than represented here.Google Scholar

⁹ Laura, Madalengoitia U., ‘El estado oligárquico y la transición hacia una nueva forma de estado en el Perú’, in Enrique, Bernales B et al. ., Burguesía y estado liberal (Lima, 1979), pp. 280–1 and 285–6.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Ernesto, Yepes, ‘El desarrollo peruano en las primeras décadas del siglo XX’, in Lumbreras, L. G. et al. , Nueva historia general del Perú (Lima, 1979), pp. 150–1.Google Scholar

¹¹ Steve, Stein, Populism in Peru: the emergence of the masses and the politics of social control (Madison, Wisconsin, 1980), p. 48.Google Scholar

¹² Gilbert, , ‘The Oligarchy’, pp. 56–8;Google ScholarJorge, Basadre, Historia de la República del Perú (5th edition, Lima, 1963), pp. 4732–4.Google Scholar

¹³ Gilbert, , ‘The Oligarchy’, pp. 76–9.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Ibid., pp. 39–53. These criticisms should not detract from the value of Gilbert's thesis for the analysis of twentieth-century Peru.Google Scholar

¹⁵ On the economic changes of the period, see Rosemary, Thorp and Geoffrey, Bertram, Peru, 1890–1977: growth and policy in an open economy (London, 1978), Part II.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Gilbert, , ‘The Oligarchy’, pp. 77–80.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Jorge, Basadre, La vida y la historia: ensayos sobre personas, lugares, y problenas (Lima, 1975), pp. 124–5.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Jorge, Basadre, Elecciones y centralismo en el Perú (apuntes para an esquema histórico) (Lima, 1980), pp. 15–16 and 56.Google Scholar Biographical information on such figures can be found in Juan, Pedro Paz Soldán, Diccionario biogréfico de peruanos contemporéneos (Lima, 1921),Google ScholarNeptalí, Benvenutto, Parlamentarios del Perú conternporáneo, 1904–1924 (3 vols., Lima, 1921–24),Google Scholar and William, Belmont Parker, Peruvians of Today (Lima, 1919).Google Scholar

¹⁹ Cotler, , Clases, estado, y nación, p. 130.Google Scholar

²⁰ Pablo, Macera, Trabajos de Historia (4 vols., Lima, 1977), IV, 426.Google Scholar

²¹ Howard, L. Karno, ‘Augusto B. Leguía: the oligarchy and the modernisation of Peru, 1870–1930’ (Ph.D. thesis, UCLA, 1970), pp. 66–9;Google ScholarGilbert, , ‘The Oligarchy’, p. 55.Google Scholar

²² Burga, and Flores, Galindo, Apogeo y crisis, pp. 90–2;Google ScholarCarlos, Malpica, Los dueños del Perú (9th edition, Lima, 1976), pp. 90–1 and 119–20;Google ScholarJosé, Carlos Martín, José Pardo y Barreda: el estadista (Lima, 1948), p. 21.Google Scholar

²³ On Payán, see Carlos, Camprubí Alcázar, José Payán y de Reyna (1844–1919): su trayectoria peruana (Lima, 1967); on the Aspíllagas and Miró Quesadas, Gilbert, ‘The Oligarchy’, chapters 3 and 5.Google Scholar

²⁴ The question of oligarchic ideologies and mentalities has recently been raised by López, , ‘El estado oligrquico’, and interestingly developed by Burga, and Flores, Galindo, Apogeo y crisis, especially pp. 87–99.Google Scholar

²⁵ Jorge, Basadre, ‘Para la historia de los parddos: el desplazamiento de los demócratas por el civilismo’, Documenta 4, (1965), pp. 297–300.Google Scholar This argument is repeated in Elecciones y centralismo, pp. 61–6.Google Scholar

²⁶ Pedro, Dávalos y Lissón, Diez años de historia conternporánea del Perú, 1899–1908 (Lima, 1930), pp. 88–122.Google Scholar

²⁷ Martin, , José Pardo, pp. 35–6;Google ScholarPeter, Blanchard, ‘A Populist Precursor: Guillermo Billinghurst’, Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 9, Part 2 (1977), pp. 251–73.Google Scholar

²⁸ Basadre, , Historia, p. 3799.Google Scholar

²⁹ Antero Aspílaga had a meeting with José Pardo in February 1918 at which he was asked to undertake the regeneration of the party with the ultimate prospect of running for president: Antero, Aspíllaga to Ramón, Aspíllaga, 25 02 1928,Google Scholar Vol. 244, Cayaltí, archive, Archivo del Fuero Agrario, Lima; El Comercio, 16 03 1918, a;Google ScholarMcMillin, to Secretary of State, 20 11 1918, U.S. State Department file 823.00'239;Google ScholarVíctor, Andrés Belatúnde, Planteamiento del problema nacional: memorias, tercera parte (Lima, 1962), p. 134.Google Scholar

³⁰ Benvenutto, , Parlamentarios del Perú, 3, 93.Google Scholar

³¹ Victor, Andrés Belande, Meditaciones peruanas (Lima, 1932), p. 113. The essay cited was written in 1917.Google Scholar

³² Carlos, Miró Quesada Laos, Radiografía de la política peruana (Lima, 1959), p. 67.Google Scholar

³³ Gary, R. Garett, ‘The Oncenio of Augusto B. Leguía: middle sector government and leadership in Peru, 1919–1930’ (Ph.D. thesis, University of New Mexico, 1973), p. 40.Google Scholar

³⁴ Alaine, M. Low, ‘The effect of foreign capital on Peruvian entrepreneurship’ (B.Phil. thesis, Oxford University, 1975), pp. 75–6.Google Scholar Sousa's alignment with Billing- hurst caused great problems for the Aspíllagas for he was also a landowner in the valley where Cayaltí was located: Ramón Aspíllaga to Antero Aspíllaga, 6 February 1914, Vol. 204, Cayaltí archive; Basadre, , Historia, p. 3765.Google Scholar

³⁵ Ramón, Aspíllaga to Antero, Aspíllaga, 7 03 1914,Google Scholar Vol. 204, and Ramón, Aspíllaga to Antero, Aspíllaga, 7 03 1937, Vol. 234, Cayaltí archive;Google ScholarBenvenutto, , Parlamentarios del Perú, 1, 47–8.Google Scholar

³⁶ Martín, , José Pardo, p. 15;Google ScholarBasadre, , Elecciones y centralismo, p. 130.Google Scholar

³⁷ Manuel, González Prada, Figuras y figurones (Lima, 1969), pp. 100–1.Google Scholar

³⁸ See, for example, the treatment of the Prados in Miró, Quesada, Radiografía, pp. 5, 27–8, 36, 94–5, 104.Google Scholar

³⁹ Peter, F. Kiarén, Modernization, dislocation, and Aprismo: origins of the Peruvían Aprista Party, 1870–1932 (Austin, 1973), pp. 13–14, 16–20,Google Scholar discusses Larco's character and fortunes. On Larco's opposition to the Benavides regime, see Basadre, , Historia, p. 3765.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ Leslie, Combs to Secretary of State, 1 08 1910, State Department, Decimal File 823.00/83.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Gilbert, , ‘The Oligarchy’, pp. 234–5;Google ScholarChavarría, , ‘La desaparición’, pp. 144–52; for the Aspíllagas' views on the political situation created by the fall of Billinghurst,Google Scholar see Ramén, Aspílaga to Antero, Aspíllaga, 5 02 1914, Vol. 204, Cayaltí archive. Despite their friendship with the Prados, there does not appear to be evidence in the Cayalti archive that the Aspíllagas had prior knowledge of the coup against Billinghurst. Antero Aspíllaga wrote four days before the coup that ‘the army will stay in its barracks’:Google ScholarAntero, Aspílaga to Ramón, Aspíllaga, 31 01 1914, vol. 205, Cayaltí archive.Google Scholar

⁴² Burga, and Flores, Galindo, Apogeo y crisis, p. 89.Google Scholar

⁴³ Alberto, Flores Galindo et al. , ‘Oligarquía y capital comercial en el sur peruano, 1870–1930’, Debates en Sociología 3, (1978), p. 55.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Stephen, M. Gorman, ‘The State, Elite, and Export in Peru: toward an alternative reinterpretation of political change’, Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs, Vol. 21, No. 3, (1979) pp. 410–11.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ See Sociedad Nacional de Industrias, Los derechos de aduana y las industrias nacionales (Lima, 1900).Google Scholar On industry, see Thorp, and Bertram, , Peru, 1890–1977, pp. 112–28.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ El Financista, 9/16 11 1915.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Antero, Aspíllaga to Ramón, Aspíllaga, 14 08 1914, Vol. 209, Cayaltí archive.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Cayaltí, to Lima, , II 09 1914, Vol. 215, Cayaltí archive.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ El Financista, 23/30 01 1914.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Sociedad Nacional Agraria to Director of La Patria, 23 12 1915, SNA archive; La Agricultura, Vol. 1, No. 5, (10 1915), 78.Google Scholar

⁵¹ La Agricultura, Vol. 5, No. 59, (07 1920),Google Scholar II. La Agricultura had been making such complaints about the SNA for years: see Vol. 4, No. 40, (09 1978), 6, and Vol. 4, No. 41, (10 1918), 4.Google Scholar

⁵² Alfredo, Broggi to Amador, del Solar, 24 08 1918, SNA archive.Google Scholar

⁵³ Antero, Aspíllaga to Ramón, Aspíllaga, 8 07 1914, Vol. 205, Cayaltí archive.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Aspíllaga, Hermanos to Henry, Kendall and Sons, 1 09 1915, Vol. K. 214, Cayaltí archive.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Antero, Aspíllaga to Ramón, Aspíllaga, 28 08 1917, Vol. 244, Cayaltí archive.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Legislatura, Ordinaria de 1915, Diario de los Debates de la H. Cámara de Diputados, pp. 350, 434, 458, 507.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ West Coast Leader, 15 06 1918.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ El Financista, 15 10 1917;Google ScholarKiarén, , Modernisation, Dislocation, and Aprismo, pp. 70–9.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ 3 a Legislatura Extraordinaria de 1917, Debates, Diputados, pp. 308–10.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ See the list of directors in Ernesto, Yepes del Castillo, Perú, 1820–1920: un siglo de desarrollo capitalista (Lima, 1972), pp. 175–80.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Jorge, Basadre and Rómulo, A. Ferrero, Historia de la Cámara de Comercio de Lima (Lima, 1963), pp. 363–5.Google Scholar

⁶² Ibid., pp. 57–60, 77; Cámara, de Comercio de Lima, Memoria presentada por el Consejo de Administración‖, 1915 (Lima, 1915), pp. 10–11,Google Scholar and Memoria, 1916, pp. 12–14;Google ScholarBasadre, , Historia, p. 3878.Google Scholar

⁶³ Macera, , Trabajos, 4, 325–7.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Camprubí, , José Payán, pp. 33–4.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ Ibid., p. 37; Legislatura Ordinaria de 1897, Debates, Diputados, pp. 397–419, 431–44, 480–505.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Howard, H. Clay to Secretary of State, 28 01 1913, U.S. State Department Decimal File 823.51/56.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ El Economista Peruano, 04/05 1975, p. 850.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Congreso Ordinario de 1914, Debates, , Diputados, pp. 39–40, 65–6, 72, 507–18, 570–82;Google ScholarAntero, Aspíllaga to Ramón, Aspíllaga, 13 08 1914, Vol. 209, Cayaltí archive;Google ScholarVictor, Aspíllaga to Ramón, Aspíllaga, 10 1914,Google Scholar Vol. 215, Cayaltí archive; Basadre, , Historia, pp. 3786–7.Google Scholar

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⁷⁰ It is interesting to note that the banks were not protected in 1931 when the Banco del Perú y Londres was allowed to fail.

⁷¹ See, amongst others, the comments of Cotler, Madalengoitia, and Flores Galindo above, all of whom mention either the exporters or sugar planters as the dominant group within the elite. Baltazar Caravedo Molinari also talks of a ‘system of government in which predominated the agro-exporters, British capital, and the landowners’. Clases, lucha política, y gobierno en el Perú, 1919–1930 (Lima, 1977), p. 39.Google Scholar

⁷² Ramón, Aspíllaga to Antero, Aspíllaga, 18 02 1914, Vol. 204, Cayaltí archive.Google Scholar

⁷³ Quoted in William, Albert, An Essay on the Peruvian Sugar Industry, 1880–1920 (Norwich, 1976), p. 191a.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ La Agricultura, Vol. 3, No. 34, (03 1918), p. 527.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Germán, Arenas, Algo de una vida (para después de mi muerte) (Lima, 1941), p. 18.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Ramón, Aspíllaga to Antero, Aspíllaga, 14 10 1913, 15 10 1913, 23 10 1913, 3 11 1913, 17 01 1914, 6 02 1914, 9 02 1914, 13 02 1914, 28 02 1914, 6 04 1914, Vol. 204, Cayaltí archive. Other plantations' papers in the Archivo Agrario, such as those of San Nicolás, Contain similar requests.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ Gilbert, , ‘The Oligarchy’, p. 173.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ See, for example, the cases cited in debates over the Código de Aguas in Congreso Ordinario de 1916, Debates, Senadores, pp. 18–68;Google ScholarEl Economista Peruano, 08 1917, p. 1128.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Abelardo, M. Gamarra, Algo del Perú y mucho de Pelagatos por El Tuñante (Lima, 1905), pp. 63–70. I am grateful to Julio Cotler for directing me to Gamarra's essays, one of the more entertaining ways of conducting historical research.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Abelardo, M. Gamarra, Partículos de costumbres de El Tuñante (Lima, 1910), pp. 58 and 140.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Ibid., pp. 18–45.

⁸² Manuel, Vicente Villarán, Páginas escogidas (Lima, 1962), pp. 88–9.Google Scholar

⁸³ Pedro, Dávalos y Lissón, La primera centuria (4 vols., Lima, 1919–1926), I, 60–2. This feature intensified during the oncenio.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Dávalos, y Lissón, La primera centuria, p. 63.Google Scholar See also Villarán, , Páginas escogidas, pp. 66–9.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ Dávalos y Lissón commented that one reason for this was the payment of Congressmen, La primera centuria, pp. 78-9.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Vincent, J. Tufano, ‘Politics, instability, and the rise of modern militarism in Peru’ (Ph.D. thesis, City University of New York, 1976), p. 98.Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Dávalos, y Lissón, Diez años, p. 200.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ Basadre, , Historia, pp. 3872–3.Google Scholar Leguía's reputation was built on his struggle as Minister of Finance to push a budget through Congress. See Dávalos, y Lissón, Diez años, pp. 98–9.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Blanchard, , ‘A Populist Precursor’, pp. 267–8.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ José, Pardo, Perú: cuatro años de gobierno constitucional (New York, 1919), p. 73.Google Scholar This view is shared by several historians, amongst them Jorge, Basadre, Elecciones y centralismo, p. 100.Google Scholar

⁹¹ Congreso Ordinario de 1917, Debates, Congreso, p. 7.Google Scholar Proposals for such a reform dated back to 1912: Dávalos, y Lissón, La Primera Centuria, p. 49.Google Scholar

⁹² Belaúnde, , Meditaciones peruanas, pp. 118–20.Google Scholar

⁹³ Gilbert, , ‘The Oligarchy’, pp. 54–5.Google Scholar

⁹⁴ This analysis is based on Echegarray C., I. R., La Cámara de Diputados y los Constituyentes del Perú (Lima, 1965); Legislatura Ordinaria de 1915, Debates, Senadores, passim; Paz Soldán, Diccionario biográfico; Parker, Peruvians of Today;Google ScholarBenvenutto, , Parlamentarios del Perú.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ Arenas, , Algo de una vida, p. 21;Google ScholarBasadre, , La Vida y la Historia, pp. 124–5.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Of the remaining 23, 15 were born in Lima.

⁹⁷ There is scope for a large-scale computer analysis of members of Congress in Peru. Jorge Basadre appears to have been engaged in research along these lines at the time of his death: Elecciones y centralismo, pp. 122–4, 128–32.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ Cotler, , Clases, estado, y nación, pp. 725–6.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Burga, and Flores, Galindo, Apogeo y crisis, pp. 104–12.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ Yepes, , ‘Burguesía y gamonalismo’, pp. 56–61.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Jorge, Basadre, ‘Leyes electorales peruanas, 1890–1917: teoría y realidad’, Histórica, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1977), pp. 1–36. Similar material is to be found in Elecciones y centralismo, passim.Google Scholar

¹⁰² This paragraph is based both on Basadre, ‘Leyes electorales peruana’, and Villarán, , Páginas escogidas, pp. 297–205.Google Scholar See also Basadre, , Elecciones y centralismo, pp. 76–83, 101, 106.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Burga, and Flores Galindo, Apogeo y crisis, pp. 109–10 and 140–1;Google ScholarMichael, J. González, ‘Capitalist agriculture and labour contracting in northern Peru, 1880–1905’, JLAS, Vol. 12, (1980), p. 302.Google Scholar

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¹⁰⁵ Legislatura Ordinaria de 1917, Debates, Diputados, pp. 370–1.Google Scholar

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