Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T20:40:19.422Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Struggling against Decline: British Business in Chile, 1919–33

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2000

JONATHAN R. BARTON
JONATHAN R. BARTON
Affiliation:
School of Development Studies, University of East Anglia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

British business in Latin America struggled throughout the inter-war period, affected by the First World War, aggressive US trade strategies and a dated British commercial support structure that had turned its attentions to imperial markets. Chamber of Commerce archive material reveals the frustrations of the British business community in Chile as hard-won markets were lost to well-supported US firms and returning German competition, as a consequence of weak political, financial and marketing support. Against a backdrop of British commercial decline worldwide, the Chilean case echoes the experiences of businessmen across Latin America's non-imperial markets. As the British government dallied, US business established an unassailable position.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , February 2000 , pp. 235 - 264
Copyright
© 2000 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I am grateful to Rory Miller, the staff of the British and US Chambers of Commerce in Santiago, and the Chilean Foreign Office archive section for their valuable assistance. The LSE Research Fund provided financial support for the field work.