Topic 10 - Latin America pre 1913 Flashcards
(40 cards)
When did Latin America’s “Belle Époque” begin and end?
1870 to 1913 — the era of rapid export-led expansion before World War I.
Which two Latin American countries ranked among the world’s richest economies around 1900?
Argentina and Uruguay.
What is meant by export-led growth in the Belle Époque?
Economic growth driven by booming primary-product exports, financed by foreign capital, technology and mass European immigration.
Name three key primary exports that dominated Latin America’s trade circa 1913.
Beef and wheat from Argentina, coffee from Brazil, and nitrates from Chile (sugar from Cuba is another).
What are backward linkages?
Industries that supply inputs (e.g., fertilizer, machinery) to export producers, stimulated by the export boom.
What are forward linkages?
Industries that process the exported commodity into further goods, such as furniture from timber.
What are final-demand linkages?
Growth in complementary services (finance, transport, communications) spurred by rising export incomes.
What empirical finding suggests linkages were weak in most of Latin America before 1913?
Manufacturing grew slowly and hardly exported; agriculture for domestic consumption remained low-productivity.
How did Mexican grain yields in 1913 compare with US yields?
About half of US yields per hectare (and only a quarter of Australia/NZ/Canada).
Why did manufacturing exports remain negligible in Latin America before World War I?
Limited linkage spillovers, small domestic markets, high transport and tariff barriers, and competition from industrial powers.
How did rising tariffs in the late 19th century affect Latin American industry?
They raised input costs and dampened productivity, limiting competitive manufacturing development.
What effect did interstate taxes and internal barriers have on Latin American markets?
They increased transaction costs and reduced market integration, weakening economies of scale.
Why were rural labour markets less connected to booming urban centres?
Landowner dominance and coercive labour practices limited mobility; mechanization was sparse.
In colonial analysis, what are “factor endowments”?
The initial ratios of land, labour and capital that shape economic institutions and inequality.
According to Engerman & Sokoloff, how did factor endowments influence institutions?
Resource abundance and plentiful labour encouraged elites to create extractive institutions that restricted political rights and schooling.
Give an example of restricted political participation in 19th-century Latin America.
Limited suffrage to property-owning males, excluding most of the population.
How did large landowners respond to rural labour scarcity?
They often relied on coercion and political influence rather than raising wages or mechanizing.
Define an “extractive institution”.
An institution designed to concentrate economic benefits and political power in the hands of a narrow elite.
What is the “resource curse” hypothesis?
That abundant natural resources can hinder long-run development by fostering rent-seeking and weak institutions.
What does “internal core-periphery” mean within a country?
Stark regional divides where export-oriented cores prosper while peripheral areas remain poor and subsistence-based.
What is a “settler economy”?
An economy built by European immigrants who farm resource-rich frontiers, such as Canada’s Prairies or Argentina’s Pampas.
What does the “Prairies and Pampas” analogy highlight?
Similarities in land-abundant settler frontiers in Canada and Argentina leading to export booms.
What does GDP per capita measure?
The average economic output (value added) produced per person in an economy.
What does wage convergence theory predict?
International migration should equalize real wages between labour-sending and labour-receiving regions over time.
