John Hillman

The Emergence of the Tin Industry in Bolivia

The political economy of Bolivia has been dominated by the extraction and export of mineral wealth; in the nineteenth century by silver, in the twentieth by tin. The decline of silver in the 1890s neatly coincides with the rise of tin so that there has been little consideration of the origins of the latter. Casual references suggest that they are to be found in the decision of silver miners to turn their attention to tin deposits once the decline in the price of silver destroyed the profitability of working the nobler metal. This shift in attention from one mineral to another was facilitated by the completion of the railway from the Pacific coast to Oruro, the centre of the tin-mining district, in 1892 which reduced the cost of exporting to European markets. The apparent innocence of the birth of the industry contrasts sharply with the negative images that have been inextricably associated with it in its period of maturity. Then it became ‘dominated’ by the figures of Patinio, Hochschild and Aramayo, and few who have commented on the industry have been able to avoid referring to them as ‘tin barons’.

Malaya and the International Tin Cartel

Although there has been considerable support for primary commodity agreements in the Third World, the experience of one of the pioneering agreements, the International Tin Restriction Scheme of the 1930s, has been very critically assessed, especially as regards its impact on the largest tin producer, Malaya.

Bolivia and British Tin Policy, 1939–1945

During the Second World War, Bolivia became the single most important source of tin for the Allies. As with other Latin American countries who were placed in the position of supplying essential raw materials, 1 Bolivia confronted a situation where the operation of normal market forces was suspended. Access to Axis markets was denied, and prices were set through government intervention, often at widely divergent levels in different markets. As a result, the impression was created that the poor producers were prevented from enjoying a wartime bonanza by exploitative collusion on the part of the rich consumers.

Bolivia and the International Tin Cartel, 1931–1941

The Depression in tin began in 1929 as the price fell towards ?200 per ton. By the beginning of 193 a cartel was organised which was able to reduce production to the point where by 1934 real prices and incomes had been restored to levels comparable with those enjoyed during the boom of the mid-9o20S. The tin cartel has received extensive attention, which has tended to be rather critical and has focused on the impact on the largest producer, Malaya.1 Although Bolivia was the major beneficiary of cartelisation, there has been comparatively little analysis of her relationship with the cartel.2

The Impact of the International Tin Restriction Schemes on the Return to Equity of Tin Mining Companies, 1927–39

This article reviews some of the debates that emerged around the cartelisation of the tin industry during the 1930s, by analysing the rates of return realised by shareholders in tin mining companies. The claim that the tin cartel used its market power to raise prices excessively is questioned by comparing the rate for tin equities with other forms of investment. Comparisons within the industry show that the companies associated with Anglo-Oriental, the group that was responsible for the formation of the cartel, were not especially dependent on the cartel for their survival. As a result, the cartel is considered to be a solution to a problem of collective action on the part of all tin companies.

The Mining Industry and the State: The Politics of Tin Restriction in Bolivia, 1936–1939

In the aftermath of the Chaco War (1932–1935) a strong left nationalist political current emerged in Bolivia which defined the three large mining companies of Patino, Hochschild and Aramayo as a superstate, controlling both the economy and the politics of the nation to their own advantage. This article challenges that characterisation by examining the way in which the state exercised control over the two largest producers. Unfortunately, the state lacked the technical capacity to use its powers responsibly, preventing the development of a coherent mining policy.

Promise and Performance in the Bolivian Tin Mining Industry, 1923–1929

AbstractDuring the 1920s, Bolivia experienced a commodity boom based on the export of tin. Although some established Bolivian companies derived considerable benefits, most of the fresh investment from foreign sources—especially the US, Chile, and the UK—proved unprofitable. At the same time, the industry found itself in an increasingly hostile domestic environment, as the government raised taxes to service an unproductive foreign debt, allowed an overvalued currency to subsidize imports and tried to establish new standards of employment for the mine workers. The cleavages that emerged between the mining industry and the rest of the society were profound and adversely affected the ability of the country to find an effective policy for the industry long after the boom had subsided.