This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Primmer, Andrew Title: Capital, Monopoly and Economic Nationalism A History of British Railways in Colombia, 1902-1930 General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. 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Capital, Monopoly and Economic Nationalism: A History of British Railways in Colombia, 1902-1930 Andrew Thomas Primmer A dissertation submitted to the University of Bristol in accordance with the requirements for award of the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Arts Supervisors: Professor Matthew Brown and Dr. Julio Decker Department of Historical Studies Bristol University 2018 Word Count: 79,938 Abstract: This PhD thesis focusses on British railway companies in Colombia during 1902-30. It explores the impact of instability, insecure property rights, business culture, civil conflict, regionalism, national politics, and contractual instability on British overseas investment. It also evaluates whether British railway companies represented economic imperialism. The first chapter introduces the research question and evaluates the present state of the historiography. The second chapter explores attitudes towards foreign investment within national politics, focussing on the dominant verdad de la deuda doctrine, concluding that the loss of Panama led to national sovereignty taking precedent over economic development within public policy. The third chapter explores the history of what are termed the ‘Northern Railways’: a group of companies conceived to connect the north-east of the interior with the capital city Bogotá. The fourth chapter explores the Colombian National Railway Company, which connected Bogotá with the Magdalena River. The fifth chapter investigates the railways of the Caribbean coast, which linked the ports of Barranquilla and Santa Marta with the Magdalena River. The sixth chapter focusses on the Dorada Railway Company, which bridged the Lower and Upper Magdalena river valleys, monopolising a vital trade route linking the Caribbean railways and those of the interior. The thesis illustrates that rather than geography, it was principally institutional and political factors which inhibited British investment. This is accomplished through detailed empirical analysis of primary source material, which sheds light on the everyday experiences of British railway companies operating in the country for the first time. Furthermore, the organisation and experiences of British railways, both in terms of their shareholders and administrators, closely parallels the concept of ‘gentlemanly capitalism’. As such, the thesis presents a hitherto unknown intersection of imperialism within Britain’s Latin American ‘informal empire’. II With Eliana, For Michael and Victoria. III Acknowledgements: Over the five years writing this thesis, I have received help from many people. This assistance was fundamentally important to enabling me to write this history of hitherto unstudied British economic interests in Colombia. First and foremost, I must thank Matthew Brown for his consistent and calm stewardship of my investigative process over the last five years, and Julio Decker for linking my project to recent scholarship on imperialism. Anything this study contributes is thanks to their supervision, and any errors and failings are my own responsibility. As with any project relating to interests in remote areas of Britain’s ‘informal empire’, an important requirement has been the capacity to navigate the relevant archives. I am indebted to many people for their assistance in this task, both in the UK and in Colombia. First of all, I must acknowledge the role played by my wife Eliana, who over the years spent many hours with me in the AGN and BLAA in Bogotá. With regards to the AGN, I must give special thanks to Mauricio Tovar González, who assisted me many times navigating through the archives. This was particularly important in uncovering Santiago Pérez Triana’s correspondence from his time at the Colombian Consulate in London. I would also like to give thanks to all the staff at the National Archives in Kew, the Guildhall Library, the British Library, and the BLAA. Special thanks are due to Tacy Rickard, who received me at her home in Teignmouth to revise the personal papers of Shirley Jenks. Thank you to the Historical Studies department of the University of Bristol for awarding me the Deas scholarship which funded the final two years of my PhD, and two periods of public engagement in Colombia in 2016 and 2018. I also thank the Deas family for their bequest which financed the scholarship programme. Thank you to Santander Bank and the HiPLA department at Bristol for the Santander Travel Grant, which funded research in 2014 and 2015. Thank you to Los Andes University, Xavier Durán and Carlos Dávila, for organising the exchange, during which I wrote the fourth chapter. This time was particularly important in conceptualising the importance of the Jenks family’s relationship with local political actors. I thank Adolfo Meisel, Juliana Jaramillo, and María Teresa Ramírez for their comments on preliminary drafts of my thesis, and Salomon Kalmanovitz for his suggestions relating to my second chapter. I am appreciative of Mark Casson and Rory Miller for advice on the content, sources, and direction of my thesis. Special thanks go to Elsa Laverde and Ivan Olarte, for their assistance in Honda and Mariquita visiting the British enclave. I thank Carlos Nicholas for providing the family photos of his father which have been used in chapter six, and Jaime Torres for inviting me into his home in Honda which served as Cisneros’s and the DRC’s organisational hub during the 1890s. IV I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University's Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate's own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. SIGNED: ............................................................. DATE:.......................... V Table of Contents Abstract II Dedication III Acknowledgements IV Declaration V Table of Contents VI List of Tables VIII List of Figures VIII Note on Translation XII Abbreviations XIII 1. Chapter 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Context 4 1.3 The Central Problem 10 1.4 The Historiography 12 1.5 Methodology 19 1.6 Contextual and Theoretical Framework 25 2. Chapter 2. The Politics of Foreign Investment 33 2.1 Introduction 33 2.2 A Century of Default – “La verdad de la deuda’ 35 2.3 Crises 61 2.4 The Quinquenio, 1904-09 68 2.5 Conclusions 89 3. Chapter 3. The Northern Railway Companies 91 3.1 Introduction 91 3.2 Origins 92 3.3 Finances and Shareholders 95 3.4 Crises: 1899-1904 106 3.5 Quinquenian Expansion: 1904-09 106 3.6 The Rise of Nationalism, 1909-14 118 3.7 Legal Disputes and Expropriation, 1914-25 138 3.8 Conclusions 145 4. Chapter 4. The Colombian National Railway Company 151 4.1 Introduction 151 4.2 Origins 152 4.3 Crises, 1899-1904 163 4.4 Finances and Shareholders 166 4.5 The Quinquenio, 1904-09 183 4.6 Towards Nationalisation 1909-23 195 4.7 Conclusions 206 5. Chapter 5. The Coastal Railways 214 5.1 Introduction 214 VI 5.2 The Barranquilla Railway and Pier Company 216 5.3 The Santa Marta Railway Company 238 5.4 Conclusions 272 6. Chapter 6. The Dorada Railway Company 275 6.1 Introduction 275 6.2 Origins 277 6.3 Finances and Shareholders 280 6.4 Crises, 1899-1902 296 6.5 Quinquenian Expansion, 1904-09 302 6.6 Post-Quinquenian Expansion, 1909-22 305 6.7 Towards Nationalisation, 1923-56 323 6.8 Conclusions 328 7. Chapter 7. Conclusions 333 7.1 Profitability 333 7.2 Nationalism and Liberalism 336 7.3 Political Economy and Public Policy 337 7.4 The Market versus Institutional Incentive 339 7.5 Conflict 341 7.6 Credit Worthiness 342 7.7 Contractual Instability 342 7.8 Imperialism, ‘Gentlemanly Capitalist’, and Transnational 343 Capitalism 7.9 Business Culture 344 7.10 Regionalism 345 7.11 Final Considerations 346 Bibliography 349 VII List of Tables 1.1 Normalized extension of railways in service in Latin America, 1913 2 3.1 The Colombian Northern Railway Company Accounts F/Y 1905/6-1924/5 96 3.2 Claims of the national government for damages from the CNoRC relating to 142 receipt of subvention bonds for 23km of track which were not constructed. 3.3 Claims of the national government for damages from the CNoRC relating to 142 occupying the camino del norte mule trail, 1921.