Throughout the twentieth century, the Chilean business elite has played a central role in the country, not just as entrepreneurs but also as political and social actors. The chapters in this book, the first in English on the history of Chilean business, focus on the importance of diversified family business groups in twentieth-century Chile, their dynamics, organisation, and management, and their interaction with foreign investors and the state. Using a range of company and government archives, as well as other contemporary sources in Chile, Britain, and the United States, the individual authors pay particular attention to many key topics: the evolution of the Edwards family businesses, those of Pascual Baburizza, Chilean corporate networks, British firms in the nitrate industry, the Anglo South American Bank, the Copec group, Compañía Explotadora de Tierra del Fuego, the energy sector, SOFOFA (the industrialists' association), and the recent growth of Chilean multinationals.

Analyzes Latin America, and specifically Chile, as a rapidly growing field of interest for business historians Brings some of Chile's best research to the attention of an international audience Examines Chile for its long history of government intervention in the economy, its move to deregulation, privatization and neoliberalism, and its multilatinas (multinational firms based in Latin America)

Autorentext
Manuel Llorca-Jaña is Professor of Economic History at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile.
Rory M. Miller is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool Management School, UK.
Diego Barría is Professor of Public Administration and Policy at the Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Chile.

Inhalt

1. Introduction: Business History in Chile in the Twentieth Century.- 2. Entrepreneurial Families, Inheritances and Wealth Transfers: The Edwards Family and their Transition from Entrepreneurs to Rentiers, 1880-1914.- 3. Baburizza: A Business Group in Chile in the First Half of the Twentieth Century.- 4. Managed Decline, Headlong Retreat or Entrepreneurial Failure? British Nitrate Producers and the Withdrawal from Chile, 1920-1930.- 5. Riding on a Roller-Coaster: The Rise and Decline of the Anglo South American Bank.- 6. Economic Policy and Foreign Capital in the Creation and Rise of Copec.- 7. Chile´s Business Network in 1939: Between the Global Crisis and Adaptation to State-led Industrialization Policies.- 8. Electricity Generation and Electric Power in Chile before 1975.- 9. On the Origins of the '(Neo)liberal Project' in Chile: Entrepreneurs in the 1950s.- 10. Chilean Multinationals: Contexts, Paths, Strategies.