The electric revolution in Latin America

Latin America participated in the electric revolution which profoundly transformed the most developed Western economies between 1880 and 1930. The electrification of Latin America began relatively soon after these economies, but it was incapable of keeping up with them. Public electric lighting was introduced early in the big Latin American cities, where electric trams started running at almost the same time as in Europe, and electricity spread rapidly in the mining sector. In the most advanced countries or areas in the region, the manufacturing industry substituted the steam engine with the electric motor, following the example of industry in the United States and Europe. Nevertheless, towards 1930 electricity consumption per inhabitant for Latin America was far below that of the more advanced economies, and only the Latin American countries which lead the process of electrification had reached levels of electric consumption that were similar to those of the late industrialised European countries. One of the most striking features of the electric revolution in Latin America is rooted precisely in the enormous national differences. These differences are indicative of the great economic inequalities existing in the heart of the region and these nations’ highly diverse capacity for economic modernisation.Latin American Growth, Comparative Development, Technological Progress, Energy Transition, Electricity.

Capital formation in machinery in Latin America, 1890-1930

Investment in machinery is a key aspect in the analysis of long-term economic growth during the era of the spread of industrialisation. But, historiography has only revealed what the pace of capital accumulation was in a few Latin American economies. This article offers continuous (annual) and consistent series on the magnitude of this investment in all of the Latin American countries for the period at the height of the first globalisation, 1890-1930. The paper gives special attention to comparative analysis, showing the differences that exist at the heart of the Latin American community, in the levels of capital formation in machinery as well as in the national development of this over time. The differences in the levels appear very indicative of the unequal degree of development reached by these economies. This article puts to test the hypothesis of intraregional divergence, obtaining the tentative result that there was divergence until 1913, but that there was convergence from 1914-1930.Capital equipment, Latin American industrialization, Investment in machinery, Convergence

Capital goods imports and investments in Latin America in the mid 1920s

The assessment of Latin American long term economic performance is in urgent need of mobilizing more data to match the pressing demands of growth analysts. We present a systematic comparison of capital goods imports for 20 Latin American countries in 1925. It relies on both the foreign trade data of the importing countries and of the major exporting countries –the industrialized economies of the time. The quality of foreign trade figures is tested; an homogeneous estimate of capital goods imported is derived, and its per capita ranking is discussed providing new light on Latin American development levels before import substitution.Latin America, capital goods, imports, investment, foreign trade, economic development

Los beneficios empresariales en España, 1880-1981. Estimación de un índice anual del excedente de la gran empresa

Editada en la Fundación Empresa PúblicaEn este artículo se presenta una serie anual de beneficios de la empresa en España para el período 1880-1981. El índice elaborado es altamente representativo de la gran empresa de nuestro país y constituye la primera estimación anual de renta empresarial que abarca un período muy largo. Los datos muestran que la evolución de beneficios se guió por tendencias de larga duración y por fluctuaciones de corto plazo. Ambos movimientos se acompasaron a los del producto total y del sector industrial. Los datos sugieren, asimismo, que las fluctuaciones de los beneficios estuvieron muy estrechamente correlacionadas con las de la inversión.This article presents a series of annual Spanish corporate's profits for the period 1880-1981. The index estimated represents very well spanish big firms, and it provides for the first time annual measurement on profits for a very long period. The data suggests that profits experienced long trends and short-term fluctuations. Both movements are related with whole economy and industrial dynamics. The data equally suggests that profits fluctuations were extremely correlated with investment fluctuations.Publicad

Un nuevo indicador para la historia financiera española: La cotización de las letras de cambio a corto plazo

Con esta nota pretendemos mostrar una perspectiva inédita del funcionamiento de los mercados financieros. Se trata de una primera reflexión sobre d precio de la movilidad del dinero, basada en las cotizaciones de las letras de camino a muy corto plazo sobre plazas nacionales. En la nota se expone la fuente utilizada, se desarrolla el marco conceptual que justifica considerar a los cambios como el precio de movilizar el dinero y por último, se procede a un análisis somero de las series de la plaza de Barcelona. Las principales conclusiones que extraemos son las siguientes. El precio de la movilidad del dineto es una categoría económica a tener en cuenta, ya que, sin duda, tuvo que influir en la economía financiera y en la economía treal. En la primera debido a la fuerte volatilidad de los cambios, en la segunda por el efecto que las altas cotizaciones tuvieron sobre la comercialización de los productos en el mercado interior.In this note, we present a new point of view of how financial markets worked in nineteenth centuty in Spain, focussing on the price of money mobility, which is founded on the price of domestic bills of exchange on eight days' sight. We reveal the source, then the conceptual framework in the use of the course of this exchange as the price of money mobility. Finally, we present a brief analysis of the course of the exchanges in Barcelona. Some conclusions are pointed out: the price of money mobility is a pivotal concept, since there is no doubt it had to have significant effects over both financial and real economy. High volatility of exchanges affects the financial economy while high values of them affects the real economy.Publicad

La construcción residencial barcelonesa y la economía internacional. Una interpretación sobre las fluctuaciones de la industria de la vivienda en Barcelona durante la segunda mitad del siglo XIX

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