The European Cable Companies in South America before the First World War

Between the middle of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, South America’s main markets witnessed one of the fastest periods of growth in commerce and international investment. This growth would not have been possible were it not for the simultaneous technological revolutions in communication and transportation. This process has been studied primarily in relation to changes in ground transport and navigation. The development of telegraphy—particularly underwater transoceanic cables—has not received similar attention, despite the fact that the advances made possible by this technological development could be compared with changes brought on by the information revolution of recent years.Jorma Ahvenainen’s meticulous study, which explores the pre-1914 development of telegraphic cable communication in South America in the hands of European enterprises, attempts to fill this void. The volume, published by the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, reflects the progress of Latin American studies in a country that has not historically been noted in this field. The book reflects the author’s considerable efforts, since 1981, in researching bibliographic and archival sources on telegraphic communication in Europe, the Americas, and other parts of the globe.The study is organized chronologically into 13 chapters of unequal length. The first two deal with the origins and implementation of the first cable telegraph companies. Together with the third chapter, which examines their evolution up through 1880, this material comprises more than a third of the entire volume. In these chapters, the author details the initial difficulties posed by the installation of the cables, the pioneering advances made by small local companies, and the entry of large British enterprises into a field where competition was soon limited by a series of agreements that would result in what would become Western.The next three chapters deal, in the space of some 35 pages, with the development of the sector between 1880 and 1900. This period was marked by the merging of local companies and their eventual absorption into Western. During this time, a new group of U.S. capitalists also emerged, intent on challenging Western’s domination over cable communications with Europe by means of a longer and more indirect route along the Pacific Coast.Chapters 7 and 13 (each only ten pages) deal with the impact on tariffs. Equally brief is the author’s review of the financial results of the Western conglomerate. In contrast, chapters 9–12 devote extensive attention (more than one hundred pages) to post-1900 attempts at competition by French, German, and U.S. interests. The analysis concerns itself with the vagaries of administrations and treaties granting or postponing concessions on the part of the companies and the various diplomatic corps, both European and North American.It appears that the nature of the sources consulted—mostly found in the public archives of the countries involved—determined the book’s organization. However, the author’s choice of a chronological presentation also gives little room for the systematic treatment of broader themes—such as actors, organizations, or technological and financial difficulties—that are merely evoked in the various parts of the book without deeper exploration. The availability of sources, even if the author limited himself to a single conglomerate (Western, naturally), could have been the basis for a more analytical presentation of these and other themes.Perhaps these problems originate in the book’s uneven space allotment and the notable absence of an introduction that would have laid out the author’s objectives, questions, and command of the existing literature. In one short page, titled “Note on Sources,” the author mentions three recent works, in the midst of references to contemporary manuscripts and published sources. The author does not engage those recent works of scholarship, however, in a way that would justify the current undertaking.This lack of problematization makes itself evident in the conclusions, as well, which consist primarily of a linear summary of the development of the book and which only at the very end voice three decisive questions concerning competition, profitability, and tariffs. These questions remain to be answered in a more systematic analysis, although the present work would provide an abundant source of information for such a project

Economic history · Economics · Economy · Globe · Latin Americans · Political science · Telecommunications · Telegraphy · Engineering · Historical Studies in Central America · History · ICT Impact and Policies · Law

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