Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T04:49:59.368Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sources of Finance and Reputation: Merchant Finance Groups in Argentine Industrialization, 1890–1930

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 October 2022

Yovanna Pineda
Yovanna Pineda*
Affiliation:
St. Michael's College, Colchester, Vermont
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This article examines the connections between financing, reputation, and industrial development in Argentina. It analyzes five leading merchant finance groups through a newly created data set of 1,282 directors and shareholders of fifty-nine manufacturing companies across ten sectors from 1890 to 1930. Merchant finance groups formed to pool capital for manufacturing investment in the absence of developed domestic banking institutions and equity markets. The leading five groups under study secured access to diverse sources of capital by developing personal connections and by their reputations. Although these five groups successfully adapted to an environment that lacked efficient credit markets, most manufacturers' companies were capital-starved due to the lack of industrial credit. Insufficient industrial credit resulted in dominant firms owned by a few merchant finance groups controlling the noncompetitive manufacturing sector.

Resumen

Resumen

El presente artículo analiza los vínculos entre las fuentes de financiamiento y las conexiones personales en el desarrollo industrial en Argentina. Se examinan cinco de los principales grupos financieros mercantiles a partir de una base de datos que contiene 1,282 directores y accionistas de cincuenta y nueve empresas manufactureras en diez sectores durante el período 1890–1930. Los grupos financieros mercantiles se crearon con el objetivo de reunir capital para invertir en el sector manufacturero, esto a la falta de instituciones bancarias domésticas y mercados de valores lo suficientemente desarrollados. Estos cinco grupos aseguraron su acceso a diversas fuentes de capital mediante el establecimiento de conexiones personales basadas en la reputación. A pesar de que estos cinco grupos pudieron adaptarse exitosamente a la falta de mercados crediticios eficientes, la mayoría de las compañías manufactureras padecieron escasez de capital debido a la falta de crédito industrial. Esta carencia de capital industrial contribuyó al surgimiento de un sector manufacturero no competitivo dominado por unas pocas empresas propiedad de unos pocos grupos financieros mercantiles.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Research Review , Volume 41 , Issue 2 , June 2006 , pp. 3 - 30
Copyright
Copyright © 2006 by the University of Texas Press

Footnotes

*

I would like to thank William Summerhill, Naomi Lamoreaux, and José Antonio Sánchez for their insightful comments on earlier versions of this article. I am also grateful to the anonymous LARR reviewers for their comments.

References

Archival Sources

Archivo General de la Nación, Argentina 1895 “Censo social e industrial de 1895.” Manuscript. Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Archivo General de la Nación, Argentina 1908 “Las resoluciones, memorias, disolución y retiro de personería jurídica de La Unión Sociedad Anónima Cooperativa de Fósforos, 1908–11.” Manuscript. Buenos Aires, Argentina.Google Scholar
Archivo y museo del Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina 1905 “Libros de Actas.”Google Scholar
Archivo y museo del Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina 1906 “Libros de Actas.”Google Scholar
Archivo y museo del Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina 1910 “Libros de Actas.”Google Scholar
Archivo y museo del Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires in Buenos Aires, Argentina 1915 “Libros de Actas.”Google Scholar
Biblioteca Nacional 1935 “Bolsa de Comercio de Buenos Aires: Historia de la jurisdicción y prácticas comerciales desde la época del Virreynato.” Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Tornquist, Biblioteca 1895 “Guía descriptiva de las industrias Argentina.” Unpublished manuscript. Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Tornquist, Biblioteca 1899 Finanzas, comercio e industria en la República Argentina de 1898. Buenos Aires: Imprenta “Roma” de Juan Carbone.Google Scholar
Tornquist, Biblioteca 1900 Finanzas, comercio e industria en la República Argentina de 1899. Buenos Aires: Imprenta “Roma” de Juan Carbone.Google Scholar
Tornquist, Biblioteca 1909 “Álbum Argentina de industrias.” Unpublished manuscript. Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Tornquist, Biblioteca 1930 Álbum Piccardo Tabacos. Buenos Aires: Compañía Piccardo Tabacos.Google Scholar
Tornquist, Biblioteca 1940 Album Ferrum. Buenos Aires: Ferrum, Industria Argentina de Metales.Google Scholar
Tornquist, Biblioteca 1944 Revista TAMET. Buenos Aires: Ernesto Tornquist y Compañía, Limitada.Google Scholar

References

Adelman, Jeremy 1990 “Agricultural Credit in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1890–1914.” Journal of Latin American Studies 22: 69–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Adelman, Jeremy 1994 Frontier Development: Land, Labour, and Capital on the Wheat Lands of Argentina and Canada, 1890–1914. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Argentina 1889 Código de comercio de 1889. Buenos Aires, Museo Mitre.Google Scholar
Argentina 1901a “Constitución de la Nación Argentina.” In Códigos de la República Argentina, Edición Oficial. Buenos Aires: Compañía Sud-Americana de Billetes de Banco.Google Scholar
Argentina 1901b “Código de Comercio, Ley no 2637: Octubre 9, 1889.” In Códigos de la República Argentina, Edición Oficial. Buenos Aires: Compañía Sud-Americana de Billetes de Banco.Google Scholar
Banco de la Nación Argentina 1991 El Banco de la Nación Argentina en su cincuentenario, 1891–1941. Buenos Aires: Impreso en la Argentina.Google Scholar
Barbero, María Inés 1990 “Grupos empresarios, intercambio comercial e inversiones italianas en la Argentina: El caso de Pirelli (1910–1920).” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos 5 (15–16): 311–341.Google Scholar
Barbero, María Inés 1997 “Argentina: Industrial Growth and Enterprise Organization, 1880s–1980s.” In Big Business and the Wealth of Nations, edited by Chandler, Alfred D., Amatori, Franco, and Hikino, Takashi, 368–393. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barbero, María Inés 2000 “Mercados, redes sociales y estrategias empresariales en los orígenes de los grupos económicos: De la Compañía General de Fósforos al Grupo Fabril (1880–1929).” Estudios Migratorios Latinoamericanos 44: 119–145.Google Scholar
British Chamber of Commerce in the Argentine Republic 1920–30 “Annual Report.” Buenos Aires: British Chamber of Commerce.Google Scholar
Brown, Jonathan, and Rose, Mary B., eds. 1993 “Introduction.” In Entrepreneurship, Networks, and Modern Business, edited by Brown, Jonathan and Rose, Mary B., 1–7. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Chandler, Alfred 1977 The Visible Hand. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Cornblit, Oscar 1967 “Inmigrantes y empresarios en la política Argentina.” Desarrollo Económico 6 (24): 641–91. (January–March).Google Scholar
Cortés Conde, Roberto 1965 “Problemas del crecimiento industrial de la Argentina, 1870–1914.” In Argentina, sociedad de masas, edited by Torcuato Di Telia and German, Gino, 59–83. Buenos Aires: Editorial Universitaria de Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Cortés Conde, Roberto 1997 La economía Argentina en el largo plazo (siglos XIX y XX). Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana, Universidad de San Andrés.Google Scholar
Dean, Warren 1969 The Industrialization of São Paulo, 1880–1945. Austin: University of Texas Press. Della Paolera, Gerardo, and Alan M. TaylorCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dean, Warren 1998 “Finance and Development in an Emerging Market: Argentina in the Interwar Period.” In Latin America and the World Economy Since 1800, edited by Coatsworth, John H. and Taylor, Alan M., 139–169. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Dirección General de Estadística de la Provincia de Buenos Aires 1898 Anuario Estadístico de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, 1896, Vol. 3. La Plata: Talleres de Publicaciones del Museo Mitre, Buenos Aires, Argentina.Google Scholar
Fey, Ingrid 1996 “First Tango in Paris. ” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Gallo, Ezequiel 1970 “Agrarian Expansion and Industrial Development in Argentina, 1880–1930.” Buenos Aires: Instituto Torcuato di Telia, Centro de Investigaciones Sociales.Google Scholar
Gilbert, Jorge 1998 “El grupo Tornquist, 1906–1930.” Paper presented at the XVI Jornadas de Historia Económica, Asociación Argentina de Historia Económica, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes.Google Scholar
Guy, Donna 1982 “La industria Argentina, 1870–1940: Legislación comercial, mercado de acciones, y capitalización extranjera.” Desarrollo Económico 22 (87): 351–74. (Octubre-Diciembre). Haber, StephenGoogle Scholar
Guy, Donna 1989 Industry and Underdevelopment. The Industrialization of Mexico, 1890–1940. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Guy, Donna 2006 “The Political Economy of Latin American Industrialization.” In Cambridge Economic History of Latin America: Vol. 2, The Long Twentieth Century, edited by Bulmer-Thomas, Victor and Coatsworth, John. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Haber, Stephen, Razo, Armando, and Maurer, Noel 2003 The Politics of Property Rights: Political Instability, Credible Commitments, and Economic Growth in Mexico, 1876–1929. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halperín, Isaac 1961 Manual de sociedades anónimas por Juez de la Cámara Nacional de Apelaciones en lo comercial. Buenos Aires: Roque de Palma.Google Scholar
Honorable Cámara de Diputados de la Nación, Secretaria Parlamentaria 1991 Nómina de Diputados de la Nación por Distrito Electoral, Período 1854–1991 (Hasta el 31-5-1991). Buenos Aires: Dirección de Archivo, Publicaciones y Museo, Subdirección de Publicaciones e Investigaciones Históricas.Google Scholar
Hora, Roy 2000 “Terratenientes, empresarios industriales y crecimiento industrial en la Argentina: Los estancieros y el debate sobre el proteccionismo (1890–1914).” Desarrollo Económico 40 (159): 465–491. (October–December).Google Scholar
Hora, Roy 2001 “Landowning Bourgeoisie or Business Bourgeoisie? On the Peculiarities of the Argentine Economic Elite, 1880–1945.” Journal of Latin American Studies 34: 587–623.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, Charles 1985 “The State and Business Practice in Argentina, 1862–1914.” In Latin America, Economic Imperialism and the State: The Political Economy of the External Connection from Independence to the Present, edited by Abel, Christopher and Lewis, Colin M., 184–197. London: University of London.Google Scholar
Kicza, John E. 1983 Colonial Entrepreneurs, Families, and Business in Bourbon Mexico City. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Kirsch, Henry 1977 Industrial Development in a Traditional Society: The Conflict of Entrepreneurship and Modernization in Chile. Gainesville: The University of Florida Presses.Google Scholar
Kono, Clifford, Palmer, Donald, Friedland, Roger, and Zafonte, Matthew. 1998 “Lost in Space: The Geography of Corporate Interlocking Directorates.” American Journal of Sociology 103 (4): 863–911. (January).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lamoreaux, Naomi R. 1986 “Banks, Kinship, and Economic Development: The New England Case.” Journal of Economic History 46 (3): 647–667. (September).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marval, E. 1933 Laws of Argentina in English with Regulations and Recent Amendments to the Commercial Code and Copyright Law. Compiled and Translated by J.A. & E. de Marval. Buenos Aires: J.A. & E. de Marval.Google Scholar
Maurer, Noel, and Sharma, Tridib 2001 “Enforcing Property Rights through Reputation: Mexico's Early Industrialization, 1878–1913.” Journal of Economic History 61 (4): 950–973.Google Scholar
Ministerio de Justicia, Inspección General de Justicia 1925 Nueva fórmula obligatoria para balances de sociedades anónimas, nacionales y extranjeras. Decreto aprobatorio del Ministerio de Justicia e Instrucción Pública. Edición especial del monitor de sociedades anónimas y patentes de invención. Buenos Aires: Imprenta y casa editora “Coni”: Imprenta y casa editora “Coni”.Google Scholar
Nakamura, Leonard, and Zarazaga, Carlos E. J. M. 2001 “Banking and Finance in Argentina in the Period 1900–35,” Center for Latin American Economics Working Paper no. 0501. Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, Dallas, TX.Google Scholar
Quilmes, S. A. 1990 Quilmes Cerveza: Quilmes Centenario. Buenos Aires: Quilmes, S. A.Google Scholar
Quiroz, Alfonso W. 1989 “Financial Leadership and the Formation of Peruvian Elite Groups, 1884–1930.” Journal of Latin American Studies 20: 49–81.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Regalsky, Andes M. 1997 “Banking, Trade and the Rise of Capitalism in Argentina, 1850–1930.” In Banking, Trade and Industry: Europe, America and Asia from the Thirteenth to the Twentieth Century, edited by Teichova, Alice, Ginette Kurgan-van Hentenryk, and Ziegler, Dieter, 359–377. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rocchi, Fernando 1997 “Building a Nation, Building a Market, Industrial Growth, and the Domestic Economy in Turn-of-the-Century Argentina.” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California Santa Barbara.Google Scholar
Sábato, Jorge 1991 La clase dominante en la Argentina moderna: Formación y características. Buenos Aires: Imago Mundi.Google Scholar
Sánchez Román, José Antonio 2001 “El Banco de Londres y del Río de la Plata y el negocio azucarero en Tucumán, Argentina (1909–1914).” Revista de Historia Económica 19 (2): 415–447. (Spring–Summer).Google Scholar
Silveyra, Carlos 1925 Sucesión Baenninger versus Cervecería Argentina Quilmes. Printed civil suit case regarding inheritors' rights to shares and bonds. Buenos Aires.Google Scholar
Smith, Peter 1974 “Argentine Chamber of Deputies of Roll Calls, Sessions 1904–1955.” Dataset. Data and Program Library Service, University of Wisconsin-Madison.Google Scholar
Socolow, Susan 1978 The Merchants of Buenos Aires, 1778–1810: Family and Commerce. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Alan M. 1992 “External Dependence, Demographic Burdens, and Argentine Economic Decline after the Belle Epoque.” Journal of Economic History 52 (4): 907–936. (December).Google Scholar
Tirole, Jean 1996 “A Theory of Collective Reputations.” Review of Economic Studies 63: 1–22.Google Scholar
Tornquist, Ernesto, y Compañía, Limitada 1924 Ernesto Tornquist y Co. Ltda., 1874–1924. En ocasión del cincuentenario de la existencia de nuestra casa bajo el nombre Ernesto Tornquist y Co. Ltda. y en homenaje a su ilustre fundador Don Ernesto Tornquist … Buenos Aires: La Compañía.Google Scholar
United States Bureau of Statistics, Department of State, Special Consular Reports 1890 Cotton Textiles in Foreign Countries, Reports from the Consuls of the United States, on the Cotton Textiles Imported Into their Several Districts, etc. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar