The Peruvian expropriation of the Tarapaca nitrate industry, 1875-1879 /

• Main Author: Bravo, Juan Alfonso, 1943-
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: McGill University 1990
• Subjects: Nitrate industry > Peru > History.; Nitrate industry > Chile > History.
• Online Access: http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=74625

This thesis provides the first comprehensive account of the Peruvian expropriation of the Tarapaca nitrate industry from its origins in 1870-1875 to its conclusion in 1879. The data on sellers of nitrate plants, holders of production contracts, and quotations of the nitrate bonds furnished in payment for the plants included in this work had been missing from prior, sketchy accounts of the expropriation. The sharp and protracted domestic debate in Peru over the scheme, both prior to and during the operation, presented here in detail, has never been noted or analyzed before. The parallel history of the Antofagasta Company, a Chilean-British nitrate company competing with Tarapaca at the time, is described here based on the previously unavailable correspondence of the local manager in Antofagasta. === The main contribution of this thesis is its reinterpretation of the origins of the expropriation, as well as its impact on the Antofagasta Company in particular and Chilean interests in general. The ostensible justification of the Peruvian Government for launching the operation was to curtail nitrate exports in order to allow larger guano sales at higher prices, a goal viewed as both commendable and feasible by virtually all authors dealing with the issue. This account shows that it was demonstrably impossible for Peru to control the world supply of sodium nitrate at the time because it had ceased to be the sole exporter of the product after the Antofagasta Company started operating in 1872. It is also documented here for the first time that the local opposition repeatedly cautioned that any attempt at restricting Tarapaca nitrate exports would only end up increasing the share of the market held by the rival Antofagasta Company. The conclusion of this work is that the Peruvian Government had a second, thinly veiled, agenda in proposing the purchase of the Tarapaca nitrate industry, namely to secure a new overseas loan to pursue railroad construction, imperiled by the 1876 default of the country on its foreign debt. It also demonstrates that the Antofagasta Company, as well as other emerging Chilean nitrate regions, viewed the operation as extremely favourable for them. The latter conclusion refutes the notion that the expropriation was a nationalistic measure negatively affecting Chilean interests.