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SUMMARY:‘The Guggenheims and the Collapse of the Chilean Nitrate Industr
 y\, 1925-33’ - Rory Miller (University of Liverpool)
DTSTART:20260316T170000Z
DTEND:20260316T183000Z
UID:TALK243505@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Gareth Austin
DESCRIPTION:In retrospect\, the challenges facing the ‘traditional’ Br
 itish-dominated Chilean nitrate industry after World War 1 appear insupera
 ble. They came from two directions: the growth of synthetics following the
  introduction of the Haber-Bosch process in wartime Germany\, and new meth
 ods of mining and processing developed by Guggenheim chemical engineers in
  the 1920s. The Guggenheims purchased older companies\, acquired new nitra
 te lands from the Chilean state\, and finally entered a joint venture with
  the Chilean government\, the Compañía de Salitres de Chile (COSACH)\, i
 n 1931. Managed by the Guggenheims and financed by debt\, this enterprise 
 aimed to monopolise the Chilean industry and provide effective competition
  to the European synthetics producers (primarily IG Farben and ICI). Howev
 er\, in January 1933 a new Chilean administration suddenly dissolved the j
 oint venture. Why did the Guggenheims fail? Clearly the economic and polit
 ical circumstances of the Depression undermined production and sales\, but
  in this paper we argue that the Guggenheims also made serious miscalculat
 ions and underestimated political and economic risk. The outcome was a muc
 h diminished industry\, the collapse of employment and tax revenue in Chil
 e\, and the loss of the investments in nitrate which Chilean entrepreneurs
 \, small investors\, and financial institutions in the United States and E
 urope had made. The Guggenheims never recovered their position in internat
 ional finance. 
LOCATION:Audit Room\, King's College\, Cambridge: to receive zoom link ple
 ase subscribe at https://lists.cam.ac.uk/sympa/subscribe/history-global-ec
 onomic-history at https://www.hist.cam.ac.uk/event-series/global-economic-
 history
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