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Archival Sources for Latin American Business History

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

Vera Blinn Reber
Vera Blinn Reber
Affiliation:
Vera Blinn Reber is professor of history at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.
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Abstract

Since the Business History Review's special issue on Latin America twenty years ago, many articles and monographs have been published utilizing archival sources. An examination of many of these studies and experience in archives suggest that the historian of Latin American business must use a variety of sources to study individual firms and the relationships between business and the national societies in which they operate. In this essay Professor Reber discusses eight types of archives found in the United States, Latin America, Great Britain, France, and Spain which hold manuscripts of interest to those studying both the economic and business history of Latin America. She also offers advice about bibliographic aids, guides, and, briefly, printed primary source materials useful in supplementing the often hard-to-find archival data.

Type
Archival Essay
Information
Business History Review , Volume 59 , Special Issue 4: Business in Latin America , Winter 1985 , pp. 670 - 679
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1985

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References

1 For examples of monographs, see Reber, Vera Blinn, British Mercantile Houses in Buenos Aires. 1810–1880 (Cambridge, Mass., 1979), 176–77Google Scholar; Weinstein, Barbara, The Amazon Rubber Boom. 1850–1920 (Stanford, Calif., 1983), 329–30Google Scholar; Palacios, Marco, Coffee in Colombia. 1850–1970: An Economic. Social. and Political History (Cambridge, England, 1980), 314–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Randall, Robert W., Real del Monte: A British Mining Venture in Mexico (Austin, Tex., 1972), 229–38Google Scholar; Bergad, Laird W., Coffee and the Growth of Agrarian Capitalism in Nineteenth Century Puerto Rico (Princeton, N.J., 1983)Google Scholar; Farias, Eduardo Arcila, Historia de un monopolio: el estanco del tobaco en Venezuela. 1779–1833 (Caracas, 1977).Google Scholar For articles see Barman, Roderick J., “Business and Government in Imperial Brazil,” Journal of Latin American Studies 13 (Nov. 1981): 239–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mayo, John, “Before the Nitrate Era: British Commission Houses and the Chilean Economy, 1851–1880,” Journal of Latin American Studies 2 (Nov. 1979): 283–302CrossRefGoogle Scholar; O'Brien, Thomas F., “The Antofagasta Company: A Case Study of Peripheral Capitalism,” Hispanic American Historical Review 60 (Feb. 1980): 1–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Cardoso, Ciro Flamarion S., “La Formaciôn de la hacienda cafetalera en Costa Rica (siglo XIX),” Estudios Sociales Centroamericunos (Sept./Dec. 1973): 22–50Google Scholar; Finney, Kenneth V., “Rosario and the Election of 1887: The Political Economy of Mining in Honduras,” Hispanic American Historical Review 59 (Feb. 1979): 81–107CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Miller, Rory, “Small Business in the Peruvian Oil Industry: Lobitos Oilfields Limited before 1934,” Business History Review 56 (1982): 400–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2 Greenleaf, Richard E. and Meyer, Michael C., eds., Research in Mexican History: Topics, Methodology, Sources, and a Practical Guide to Field Research (Lincoln, Nebr., 1973)Google Scholar; TePaske, John J., ed., Research Guide to Andean History: Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru (Durham, N.C., 1981)Google Scholar; Grieb, Kenneth, ed., Research Guide to Central America and the Caribbean (Madison, Wis., 1985)Google Scholar; Nauman, Ann K., ed., Handbook of Latin American and Caribbean National Archives (Detroit, Mich., 1983).Google Scholar

3 For examples, see Millares, Carlos Agustín, Estudio bibliográfico de los archivos venezolanos y estranjeros de interés para la historia de Venezuela (Caracas, 1971)Google Scholar, which evaluates archives in Latin America, the United States, Europe, and Venezuela dealing with Venezuelan history; Escudero, Grecia Vasco de, Directorio ecuatorio de archivos (Quito, 1979)Google Scholar, which provides information on more than 125 public and religious archives, but describes no business archives; and Puerto Rico, Archivo General, Instituto de Cultural Puertorriqueña, Guía al Archivo General de Puerto Rico (San Juan, 1964)Google Scholar, which contains broad information on available material.

4 See, for example, Williams, John Hoyt, “The Archivo General de la Nación of Uruguay,” The Americas 36 (Oct. 1979): 257–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Silvestrini-Pacheco, Blanca and Arroyo, María de los Angeles Castro, “Sources for the Study of Puerto Rican History: A Challenge to the Historian's Imagination,” Latin American Research Review 16:2 (1981): 156–71.Google Scholar

5 Conde, Roberto Cortés and Stein, Stanley J., eds., Latin America: A Guide to Economic History, 1830–1930 (Berkeley, Calif., 1977).Google Scholar This work includes a discussion of archives in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. However, with the exception of Pablo Macera and Shane J. Hunt's discussion of Peru analyzing the principal Peruvian public and private archives and foreign sources (pp. 571–78), the archival coverage in the volume is somewhat superficial. This is often the case in bibliographical works.

6 For examples see Guy, Donna, “Fuentes tucumanas, 1870–1900,” Boletín del Instituto de Historia Argentina Doctor Emilio Ravignani 24/25 (1970/1971): 141–57Google Scholar, which provides information on archival sources, government publications, newspapers, and journals relating to the Argentine sugar industry; Robert Oppenheimer, “Chilean Economic Development, 1850–1900: A Primary Source Guide,” in TePaske, Research Guide to Andean History, 88–95; S. F. Edwards, “Archival Resources for Chilean Economic History, 1800–1850,” ibid., 73–83, and Susan Ramirez Horton, “Sources for the Study of Peruvian Hacienda History,” ibid., 273–83 discuss a wide range of sources that would be valid for business history. See Peters, Gertrud, “Fuentes para el estudio del comercio de los Estados Unidos con Costa Rica XIX y XX,” Revista de Historia Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica 4 (Jan.–July 1979): 83–103.Google Scholar

7 Occasionally these records can be found in specialized archives, as in the case of Mexico. See James D. Ritev, “The Archivo Histórico de Hacienda,” in Greenleaf and Mever, Research in Mexican History, 77–79.

8 See Ulibarri, George S. and Harrison, John P., Guide to Materials on Latin America in the National Archives of the United States (Washington, D.C., 1974)Google Scholar; for a shorter discussion see Grow, Michael, Scholar's Guide to Washington, D.C. for Latin Americanand Caribbean Studies (Washington, D.C., 1979), 77–87.Google Scholar

9 Walne, Peter, A Guide to Manuscript Sources for the History of Latin America and the Caribbean in the British Isles (London, 1973), 168–278.Google Scholar

10 Reber, Vera Blinn, “Utilizing French Sources in Paris for Latin American Historical Research,” Latin American Research Review 17:2 (1982): 171–77.Google Scholar

11 Guy, Donna J., Argentine Sugar Politics: Tucumán and the Generationof Eighty (Tempe, Ariz., 1980)Google Scholar; Wasserman, Mark, Capitalists, Caciques, and Revolution: The Native Elite and Foreign Enterprise in Chihuahua, Mexico, 1854–1911 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1984)Google Scholar; Miller, Simon, “The Mexican Hacienda between the Insurgency and the Revolution: Maize Production and Commercial Triumph on the Temporal,” Journal of Latin American Studies 16 (Nov. 1984): 309–36CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Bergad, Laird W., “Coffee and Rural Proletarianization in Puerto Rico, 1864–1898,” Journal of Latin American Studies 15 (May. 1983): 83–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12 See Whigham, Thomas Lyle, “Archival Article,” in Inter-American Notes, The Americas 41 (July 1984): 99–110Google Scholar, in which the author discusses the archives of Resistencia, Misiones, Entre Rios, and Rio Grande Do Sul, Argentina, or the articles on Bolivia in TePaske, Research Guide to Andean History, 5–51; or Robert Knowlton, “The Period of La Reforma,” in Greenleaf and Meyer, Research in Mexican History, 153–58.

13 British Foreign Office papers can occasionally be consulted in this country. For example, the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas has some of the records on microfilm. See Garner, Jane, Archives and Manuscripts on Microfilm in Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection: A Checklist (Austin, Tex., 1980).Google Scholar

14 The importance of the French reports is suggested by the publication of French commercial reports on Uruguay. See Museo Histórico Nacional, Montevideo, “Informes comerciales del representante de Francia en el Uruguay, M. Maillefer, 1865–1870,” Revista Histórica (Museo Histórico Nacional, Montevideo) 124/126 (Nov. 1971): 231–489.Google Scholar

15 See Seckinger, Ron L., “A Guide to Selected Diplomatic Archives of South America,” Latin American Research Review 10 (Spring 1975): 127–53Google Scholar for a discussion of the collections in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and Uruguay. The research guides to Andean, Mexican, and Central American and Caribbean history have more recent information on foreign ministry archives for their respective countries.

16 See pp. 443–54.

17 One way to get a handle on bank archives would be to examine articles and monographs written on banking. The problem is that many of these works have been done by nationals, who, until recently, have preferred printed sources to manuscript ones. For example, see Ycaza, Julio Estrada, Los bancos del siglo XIX (Guayaquil, 1976)Google Scholar, which is excellent and is based on archival sources, yet lists only one bank archives, the Banco de Crédito Hipotecario. The author extensively utilized banking journals.

18 The best article that I know on this subject is Elinor C. Burkett. “The Notarial Archives: Fact behind the Fad,” in TePaske, Research Guide to Andean History, 284–99. Although dealing with colonial notarial archives, the author provides information that is applicable for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For a discussion of the national period see Thomas F. O'Brien, Jr., “Notarial and Judicial Archives as Sources for Nineteenth-Century Chilean Economic History,” ibid., 96–97.

19 Calvo, Roberto Querejaza, Llallaqua: historia de una montaña (La Paz, 1977)Google Scholar reports receiving permission to use and eventually saving the archives of the Compañia Minera la Salvadore and la Patiño Mines, stored in a building in Paris, before they were to be destroyed.

20 Hirst, Monica, “Um guia para a pesquisa histórica no Rio de Janeiro: os documentos privados nos arquivos públicos,” Latin American Research Review 14:2 (1979): 150–71Google Scholar, indirectly illustrates the problem. She gives a good summary of major public archives which hold private collections, but most of these collections appear to be political papers rather than economic or business collections. It is possible that some of these sources may have business collections.

21 Pp. 442–93.

22 Dean, Warren, “Sources for the Study of Latin American Economic History: The Records of North American Private Enterprises,” Latin American Research Review 3 (Summer 1968): 79–86.Google Scholar

23 Walne, Guide to Manuscript Sources, 495–513. A list of allthe new collections would be more than this author will attempt, but an examination of recent publications such as McBeth, B. S., Juan Vicente Gómez and the Oil Companies in Venezuela, 1908–1935 (Cambridge, England, 1983), 259–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar, begins to give indications of other company papers.

24 For a discussion of the Centro de Pesquisa e Documentão, see Latin American Research Review 14.2 (1979). 150–71. Note the sources used for Colombia in Bergquist, Charles W., Coffee and Conflict in Colombia, 1886–1910 (Durham, N.C., 1978).Google Scholar For Peru, see Alier, Juan Martinez, “Relations of Production in Andean Haciendas: Peru,” in Land and Labour in Latin America, ed. Duncan, Kenneth and Rutledge, Ian (Cambridge, England, 1977), 162Google Scholar, and Pastor, Humberto Rodríguez, “El Archivo del Fuero Agrario, Lima, Peru,” Latin American Research Review 14:3 (1979): 202–6.Google Scholar

25 See Solberg, Carl E., Oil and Nationalism in Argentina: A History (Stanford, Calif., 1979), 217–20Google Scholar, for a discussion of problems and types of printed materials he used.

26 See Lewis, Colin M., British Railways in Argentina: A Case Study in Foreign Investment (London, 1983), 250–52Google Scholar and Shafer, Robert Jones, Mexican Business Organizations: History and Analysis (Syracuse, N.Y., 1973)Google Scholar for details of primarily printed materials used for research on a range of business organizations.

27 Lombardi, Mary, Brazilian Serial Documents: A Selective and Annotated Guide (Bloomington, Ind., 1974)Google Scholar gives information on the organization of Brazilian government full names for popular acronyms, and references to guides and indexes.

28 See Brazil, Arquivo Nacional, Divisāo de Publicaçōes, Biblioteca, Catálogo de jornais brasileiros: 1808–1889 (Rio de Janeiro, 1979)Google Scholar, for a list of 330 serials preserved in the National Archives. Charno, Steven M., Latin American Newspapers in United States Libraries: A Union List (Austin, Tex., 1968)Google Scholar is a good starting point for locating newspapers in the United States. Major twentieth-century newspapers are more available and complete than those of the nineteenth century.

29 A good analysis of the major library collections dealing with Latin America in Washington, D.C., can be found in Grow, The Scholar's Guide, 3–67.