stein the anatomy of autonomy
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D. C. M. Platt: The Anatomy of "Autonomy"Author(s): Stanley J. Stein and Barbara H. SteinSource: Latin American Research Review, Vol. 15, No. 1 (1980), pp. 131-146Published by: The Latin American Studies AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2503096 .
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
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D. C. M. PLATT:
THE ANATOMY OF ''AUTONOMY''*
Stanley
.
Stein ndBarbara
. Stein
Princeton niversity
The concept of dependency,
Platt asserts, is
"scarcely sustainable" be-
cause its historical foundation s unconvincing. "Students of chrono-
politics history),"he
implies, findunacceptable
the notion that
"devel-
opment and expansion"
of WesternEurope's economy
dominated and
conditioned that of Latin America since the conquest.
The fact hat Dos
Santos' definition f
dependency denies the presence of autonomous
development n Latin
America s "critical."Economic autonomy, ccord-
ing to Platt, s the leitmotif f Latin America's
evolution, certainly o the
close of the nineteenth
entury,when there finally woke metropolitan
interest n the neglected
periphery."
The colonial era of threehundred years s summarily reated.The
economies of colonial
Spanish
America
were
"inward-looking":produc-
tion
was primarily or
ocal subsistence; mining and export
of
precious
metals was "only an
element"
in
them. So emphasis upon export-
oriented economies is "anachronistic,"
a view Platt sees supported by
Frank
Saffordon New
Granada. Further,
n
the half-century
fter
n-
dependence, Latin
America "remained outside world markets
to
any
significant egree" as
Spanish America "retired over the edge
of the
periphery." Exceptions
to
this
Latin American experience
were
Brazil,
Cuba, and ("afterthe opening of the guano trade") Peru. To at least
1860, Latin America
remained an insignificant
radingpartnerof Great
Britaincompared to the United States; the level
of imports
of British
manufactures
n
Mexico
and the Central and South
American
republics
"can
hardly
have
scratched
the surface of demand." Again
Safford
s
*The authors thank
the
editors for the
opportunity
o dissect
Platt's
"objections"
and to
clarify urther
atin
America's
secular
relationship
o theAtlantic
conomy.
The school
of
dependency
houses
students
of many
persuasions;
we
happen to have
come
to our view
by "historical nalysis" of Spain's eighteenth-centurytlantic mpireand ofnineteenth-
century atin
America-to
which we
limit ur focus
n
this
rejoinder.
131
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
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Latin
American
esearch
eview
cited as
"right
n
doubting
the
implications
of economic
dependency in
New Granada after he
breakaway
from
pain."
These assertions about trade are then extended by analysis to
international inance. Conceding
the role of merchantbanking by for-
eign firms,Platt minimizes their nfluence
as necessary
before
the
ap-
pearance
of commercial
banks,
neither sinisternor . . .
necessarily he
monopoly
of
foreigners."
hat Latin American
governments
n
the
1820s
had to borrow in the London
marketat relativelyhigh rates (between
double and triple that of the
Britishgovernment tself) s explained
as
"in line with the credit of other borrowers n a competitivemarket."
Concluding
that
"Spanish
America
during
the first
alf-century
f
po-
litical ndependence stood outside the currents f world trade and finan-
ce," Platt again charges
dependency analysts
with
misinterpreting
hat
happened later n the nineteenth entury nd extendingthis misappre-
hension to earlierperiods of Latin
American history.
The second part of Platt's
argument follows ogically from
hese
premises and reflects
preoccupation
with
Argentina
as
symbol
of
the
"neglected periphery."Autonomy rather han
pre-existing
ational and
international atterns f economic
relationsdeterminedArgentina'srole
in
the last third of the
nineteenth century. mproved transportwas
needed to provision the growing city of Buenos Aires while foreign
promoters nd investors ensed
that "financial uccess must depend
on
the extent
to which
.
. .
railways
might serve
the
needs
of the
Argen-
tines
themselves
nd of their
apital city"rather han
on
potentialprofits
from
xports
which
had "slight mpacton
eitherpromoters
r nvestors."
Argentina's "natural" evolution
toward an export-oriented conomy
was, furthermore,nly a matter f
operating on the principles
of com-
parative advantage. The
arguments
of
dependency,
informal
mperial-
ism, or colonial heritage re judged "unhistorical," view supported by
H. S. Ferns' observation that "It was so patentlyeconomically advan-
tageous
to
do what Argentina did that t seems a waste of time and a
profitless xercise to look for ny other
explanation of
what
happened."
Platt
closes his critique of
"dependency theory" by arguing-if
one may rephrase affirmativelyis rhetorical uestion-that at the close
of the
nineteenth
century
Latin
America's
economies
"shape[d]
them-
selves
along
lines determined
domestically,
n
the tradition f the self-
sufficiency
nforced
by
isolation from
world markets during the first
halfof the
nineteenth entury."
There could be no alternative conomic
routebut "to move in naturalprogressionfrom he gradual replacement
of
imports
o
the
complete satisfaction
f the domestic market nd .
..
finally o the disposal of the
surplus (if any) by export." The principal
factor
n
Argentina
and
Mexico
"as grain and beef producers was the
132
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DEPENDENCY
IN 19TH CENTURY
LATIN
AMERICA: COMMENT
supply
f the
home
market,"
hich upported he "whole structuref
railways,
f
public
utilities
ndof
city
modernization."
This
rejoinder
annot ake
cognizance
f all the misconceptions
f
Platt's
ritique. efore
ebutting
is major oints,
owever,
ertain
asic
clarifications
re n order.
First sPlatt's eculiarly
ariable efinition
fLatin
America. ra-
zil and
Cuba
are excluded s
alien to his autonomy
model from
he
beginning,
nd Peru after he
1840s. Bythis ngenious
nd inventive
exclusion
latt
eprives
ependencynalysts
f
their roperlynclusive
and generally ccepted
frame
f referencewhile
simultaneously
e
eliminates hreemportantrading artnersf GreatBritainrom 820-
1850.The dependency
oncepts then
given "some"'
elevanceo
"some
of the
smaller
Republics
n
the nineteenth
entury." nd "quite apart
from
he banana
Republics,'
there
were
times . . . when
dependency
is
sufficiently
escriptive-the uinine
boom
in Colombia
why
not the
tobacco oom
nd the offee conomy
ot
o mention old
mining
hich
long erved o
sustain olombia's
mport
rade?]J,
olivian
in,
Amazonia
rubber"-but
why separate
Brazil'sbrief ubber
oom from ts long
coffee ependency? nd
finally,
rom he
1880s,
atinAmericas
divided
into strong" nd "weakeconomies"defined rimarilyn terms f ex-
portables-measured
n
terms
f Britain's retained"
mports.
Where
then
s the utonomous
atin
America?
Second,
Platt
scribes
o
the
o-called dependency
heorists"n
assumption
hat ontinuity
eant
smooth ransition"
etween
olonial
and postcolonial
ealities.
ransitiont
was,
but
which istorians
all a
long
destructive
arfor ndependence
nd its equally
raumatic
fter-
math smooth ransition?he
relation etween
ontinuity
nd
change,
whether apid
and violent
r slow
and
evolutionary,
s found
n the
propensityfcertain re-existingtructuresrrelationshipsoemerge
as
constants
ndernewconditions.
hedependence
f
LatinAmerica's
neocolonial
lites
n exportables
o maintainocieties
f
essentially
u-
ropean
mprint as such
a structure.
Third s Platt's
attributionf conspiracy
heory
o
dependency
analysts.
Here we
can
only observe
hat he
dependency
oncept,
y
providing
xplanation
n
terms f enduring
nstitutions
nd
relation-
ships
from hich
ehavioral
atterns
erive,
ejects
ausality
n terms
f
"machinations,"
sinister ctivities,"
development lanned
n
River
PlateHouse," etc.,alongwith posteriorittitudes deploring" ailure
to
follow
alternative" atterns. hese
motes
n
Platt's
eye
seem
to
reflectheover-sensitivity
f
critic hoseeks o
award
o
hisautonomy
theory
he exclusive
virtue f
"natural" self-evidence
nd "common
133
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
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Latin
American esearch eview
sense."
British
pragmatism, however, despite
its
conceptual poverty,
has not
been inconsistentwith the
pursuit of
long-range policy imple-
mentedby short-term lan and, when necessary, d hoc plot. Britain's
Iberian
and Ibero-Americanpolicy
between 1790
and 1824, for
xample,
illustrates
he skill with which
English statesmen
as well as their on-
tinentalrivals) used
both plan and
plot, war and peace, to defend and
extend mercantile nd
manufacturing nterests.
The
principles
of
free
trade
draped the midwife of
national
sovereignty
n
Latin
America-
and they
were printedon British
ottons.
Beyond these examples of
conceptual
confusion, however, lies
thefundamentalweakness ofPlatt's basic argument:his conceptof au-
tonomy.Here there
s no evidence that he
has analyzed the
nternal nd
external structure f
Latin America's regional
economies either
n
the
colonial period or later.
And omitting uch an
analysis, he confuses
"domestic demand
and production" with
"autonomous economic de-
velopment."
In
all
economies, past as well
as present, domestic
requirements
of
food, housing,
clothing, mplements,
nd
transportation
igure arge
in rough
calculation of
gross national product.
Yet
this cannot eliminate
the criticalrole in colonial areas of those economic sectors and social
strata
directly
ut
also
indirectly
inked to the
international context."
Forcolonial Latin
America,
n
some
cases the export
ink
was
both
direct
and
visible, e.g., sugar plantations
n
coastal
areas;
in
others,
the
large
estate
appeared
to
supply
a
purely
internal market
when,
in
fact,
t
either
played
an
essential role
in
maintaining
nd
servicing
the
export
sector or
was
indirectly inked
to it in
provisioning
the
urban
centers
closely related
to
the
colony's exportfunction.
Iberian
colonialism n America had
many
facets,
but
its
core
was
the organizationand maintenance of economies profitable o the over-
seas
metropolises nd-what is often
overlooked-through them to
the
key
economies
of
northwestern
urope:
Holland, England, and France.
Major elements
of
this
nterlinked
olonial,
submetropolitan nd metro-
politan systemmaterializedwith the
creation of the
silver
mining
com-
plexes of Peru and Mexico-not to
mention he
sugar plantation
omplex
of
Brazil's Northeast-in
the sixteenth
century.
Fluctuations
of
silver
production
and export
in
colonial Spanish
America from
about
1570
culminating
n
the
extraordinary xpansion
of the
half-century reced-
ing thewars of ndependence should notobscure the persistent nder-
lying
structures.
Spanish America's
precious
metals flowed from ts
mines
out of its
ports
across
the Atlantic
directly
o
Spain for
re-export
to
western
Europe,
or
indirectly o
West Europeans
in
the
Caribbean
or
134
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DEPENDENCY
IN
19TH CENTURY
LATIN
AMERICA: COMMENT
operating hrough razil n the Rio de la Plata. Western urope, not
Spain (or Portugal) onstituted he core of the internationalystem;
Spain's dependenceupon what Adam Smith alled the "improving"
countries fEuropewas only hinly isguised ya policy estdescribed
as "pseudo-mercantilism."
In
the eighteenthenturyhe Spanish and now thePortuguese)
mining omplexes emained ynamic
enters
fthe
colonial
conomies;
but
clearly he "pull"
or
demandof WestEuropean conomies or
new
as well
as
old commodities-sugar, yestuffs, ides-supplemented
and
reinforcedhe centuries-old attern f mineral xports o pay for
importedmanufactures,uxuries nd foodstuffs.ighteenth-century
modificationsrew Argentina, enezuela, nd Cuba into the nterna-
tionaleconomy. n Argentina's ase therebegan reorientationf the
RiverPlate from upplying attle,horses, nd mules to the Peruvian
mining omplex o hide exports o Western urope and jerkedbeef
shipments
o
Brazil nd Cuba whileEuropeanmanufacturesnd African
slaves
ontinuedobe funnellednand silver ut.Atthepeakof olonial
output
f
metals, oth Spanish and British rade tatistics-despite
ll
caveats-point to thebasic trade atterns hichpoliticalndependence
would
revealmore
learly.1
Such a "model" of thecolonialsystem, implifyingnd exag-
geratingtructurallements,s not ntended oneglect heexistence
f
relativelyutonomous egional conomies-from hosevirtuallyutside
a market
conomy o those onlytangentiallynvolved n the principal
exchange conomy. o
state hat
hey
were
t most ncillary
nd at
east
irrelevanto the key structuresf the berian olonialworld s
not
to
deny heir xistencewithintscontext.
In
emphasizing subsistence" nd
in
calling he mining ector
"only
n
element"
n an
otherwise utonomous conomy,
latt
ails
o
comprehendhepivotal oleofsilverneconomies tructuredromhe
beginning pon
the
xchange
f
precious
metals or
mported
ommodi-
ties which llowed
colonial-as well
as
peninsular-elites o pursue
a
life-style
nd
statusto
which
theyremained ommitted. espite
the
limited
roportion
f the
population
nvolved
n
mining
nd
refining
preciousmetals, he mpact f silver pon Spanish colonial conomies
and
upon
their mmediate
metropolis as vastly
ifferentrom hat
f
such
export
ommoditiess
sugar.
For
silver, y
ts ntrinsicharacteris-
tics-highvalue,
ow
volume, mmunity
o
deterioration,ransportability
andconvertibilitynto rnament r specie, nd itsconsequent niversal
exchangeability-affected
ar
more
profoundly
he
Spanish
world han
the
developing
world
of
Europe
or
the economies
of
Asia.
And the
trauma hat
ccompanied
he
eparation
f
Spain
and its
major
olonies
135
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
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LatinAmerican esearch eview
was
in
many
ways an index of the extraordinary
ilver addiction that
both had
long
experienced.
Obvious
problems n the analysis of the
first ifty ears
of
national
sovereignty
n Latin America
stem
from he
fundamental nstability nd
transitional haracter of the period.
Following
the destructionof the
wars
against
berianrule came the destruction
hat ccompanied
internal
and international onflict s ex-viceroyalties
issioned,new regional
for-
mations were tried nd failed,
and territorial oundaries were arranged
or rearranged. Meanwhile,
within
the
new territorial nits
reconstruc-
tion was delayed by the struggle
of formerviceroyal subregions
for
autonomy againsthegemonic tendenciesof the former olonial capitals,
the new nations'
primate ities
pursuing colonial patterns f monopoliz-
ing distribution,
oncentrating
evenue and expenditure,public
works
and
general (if
few) services. New polities suffered
frombureaucratic
discontinuities, nefficiency,nd
corruption ften
fueled by foreign
mer-
chants
in
search
of privilege and
preference. Only
Great
Britainwas
capable
of
lending
to
newly
formed
governments
which
it did
very
briefly),
while
the
economies of
western
Europe
were
themselves
re-
coveringfrom ecades
ofwarfare nd
coping
with the
power
of
Europe's
first ndustrialnation.
National accounts of
foreign rade,
at least until the last
decades
of the nineteenth
entury,
re usually unreliable
or
simply
nonexistent
in
Latin America.
Fortunately, here
exist the UnitedKingdom's
Annual
Reports of Revenue,
Population
and Commerce (Porter'sTables)
cover-
ing the years
1801-52; these
provide data on volume, real (current)
value, origin
and
destination.
However, while they formthe most
re-
liable
index
of Latin America's
economic activity nd the most
visible
link
to the nternational conomy,
he volume of tradewith Great
Britain
can be misleading since Britain's role as supplier of manufactures s
obscured
by that of intermediaries
uch as Jamaica
n re-exports o for-
mer
Spanish
colonies, Brazil
n handling re-exports o Argentina,
Chile
in
re-exports o Mexico's west
coast ports,2 or the
U.S. in forwarding
goods
to
both Cuba
and
Mexico.
Further,
he
sudden appearance
in
Britain's annual trade
statistics
f
Latin American destinations
where
formerly
uch goods seemed destined only
for
Spain,
Portugal
or
"Southern
Europe"
could
suggest
to
the unwary
nvestigator ew,
sud-
denly opening
markets ratherthan further roof
that the Iberian
me-
tropolises had been mere costly intermediaries n a pseudo-colonial
pact.
The
fact that British rade
statistics mitted
silver imports may
explain
but does not
ustify
latt's failure
o
perceive
the critical
unction
136
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8/17
DEPENDENCY IN 19TH CENTURY LATIN
AMERICA: COMMENT
of
mining before
independence and its continuing mportance
n
the
decades immediately ollowing.4
et t s clear that
Mexico, for xample,
for t least twenty-five ears after 825, paid for mportsfrom ts prin-
cipal
supplier, Great Britain,with a gradually rising
export of silver-
admittedly elow the peak
years before1810.5
In
turn,the composition
of
imports continued the pre-1810 pattern of cotton,
woolen, and silk
textiles
nd clothing.Comparable statements ould be
made
with refer-
ence to
the foreign rade of other ex-colonial areas
whose importswere
based on
the miningof
precious metals.
Further,British tatistical
materials suggest conclusions differing
from
hose of Plattregarding he significance f Latin
America's mports
of Britishmanufacturescompared with those of Britain's other major
tradingpartner
n
the
hemisphere,the United States.
If
we
look at
Latin
America as a whole, i.e.,
aggregatingthe declared
value of exports to
"Central
and
South
America
including
Brazil" and
those listed under
"Foreign
West Indies" (mainly
Cuba and St. Thomas) in the period
1820-50,
Latin
America
ranks
close to the
U.S. as importer
f British
goods.6
"The
upward
trend
s
fairly teady,"
conclude
Gayer, Rostow,
and
Schwartz
in
summarizing trade
(1817-48)
with
Central and South
America, "except for the
abnormal peak
in
1825."7
To this
conclusion
must be added the consideration that since by farthe largest single
categoryof Latin
America's
importswere textileswhose unit price
fell
by
approximately one-third with the progress of
the industry,Latin
America
absorbed a rising volume of British otton
goods, much of it
directed to low-income
consumers.8 This
performance s all the more
remarkable
n
view of political nstability nd slow
population growth
n
the area
compared with that ofthe U.S. One may
hardlyconsider Latin
America
"over the edge of the
periphery."
Important s was Latin
America as consumer of British xports
of
manufactures,Platt's position on the role of Latin Americain Britain's
foreign
rade
obscures the
real
issue.
In
the first
lace,
while
the U.S.
absorbed an
increasingvalue and
volume of British oods,
it
proceeded
to
develop autonomously,
notably
n
the
field
of industrial
diversifica-
tion,
n
textiles nd metallurgy,
nlike
Latin America.
Second,
to
Britain,
Latin
America was one of
many trading areas;
but to Latin
America,
Britainwas the most mportant
f all tradingpartners.Put
anotherway,
the
mpact
of
British oods
upon each of the economies of Latin America
was
critical
n
their
growth, s is clear
in
the case of
Mexico and Argen-
tina whichPlattmakes thecenterpieceof his argumentfor utonomy.
It
is
Argentina which offers n example of
how adaptation
to
domestic
inter-regional onflict nd the
transformation f capitalism
abroad failed to
produce
autonomy.
In
the two decades, 1810-30, the
137
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
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LatinAmericanesearch eview
northwestern rovinces ost Bolivian markets
nd access to silver
while
the Litoral cattleranchingeconomy was disrupted by
civil and
interna-
tional conflict. hereafter, anchingrelocatedwest and south of Buenos
Aires to become
the source of the
port's foreign
rade and contacts.
After
1830 Buenos Aires expanded trade with the major purchaser
of its
hide
exportsand the principal supplier of its imports,Britain.9 t was British
entrepreneurs
who
improved the quality and
increased the size of
sheep
flocks nd raw
wool
exports
to Britain ordomestic
consumption
nd
re-
export.'0 Between 1830
and
1850, Argentina's grupoganadero
onsoli-
dated the port's hegemony over the provinces
nd
expanded
its
multiple
contacts with
Britain.
When Rosas-the
cattlemen's
representative-
fledto exile, he went aboard a Britishvessel to retirement ear South-
ampton.
It
is
no
exaggeration to say that British
rade and
shipping-
important
n
the two decades before 1810-played
a decisive role
in
Argentina'sreorganization nd growth hereafter.
Turning o Platt's other major example of autonomy
and
discon-
tinuity,Mexico,
one
discerns again,
in
the decades
between
1821 and
1856, economic patterns
ooted
n
the colonial period.
Between 1825 and
1849, silver coinage rose from five-year nnual average of 9.2
to
15.6
million pesos,
while
registered
ilver
(and gold) exports oscillated
be-
tween 7.4 and 10.7 million; only war with the U.S. and its effect pon
production nterrupted he slowlyrising rend fsilver xports.
1
Viewed
as a percentage
of
total exports, silver constituted 79 percent for the
period 1821-28;
the
next year forwhich we have data, 1856, showed
a
percentage
of
92.12
If
the role of silver
n
Mexico's exports repeated a
colonial
pattern,
so
did
its imports
in
which
Britishyard goods and
clothing averaged 69 percent over the years 1821-28 and,
in
1856,
60
percent.Given thequalityofthis merchandise,there s littledoubt
that
it was sold to low-income Mexicans and there s evidence to view such
imports as the major factor n the containmentof the Mexican artisan
and
fledgling ndustrial cotton manufacture.'3 One need hardly note
thatGreat Britain hroughout hese decades was Mexico's principal rad-
ingpartner.14
The case
of
Colombia offers o greater ubstantiation f Platt's au-
tonomous growth oncept.
n
citing rankSafford'swork on nineteenth-
century
Colombia
he
does the authora
distinct
isservice
n
quoting
him
out
of context
nd
apparently
without
consulting
his
original
contribu-
tions,
which elaborate the
experience
of Central Colombia
in
consider-
able detail.
5
But even inhis rejoinder o Bergquist, itedby Platt,Safford
emphasizes
that "the
question is not whether economic dependency
existed but its meaning." Safford's riticism f the "dependency matrix"
is directed to its historical oversimplifications. tressing his primary
138
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
10/17
DEPENDENCY IN 19TH CENTURY LATIN AMERICA: COMMENT
concern
with the manner n which "values mediate between
structures
and
social actions" he concluded that n the middle years of the nine-
teenth century, Colombia's economic growth depended on changed
circumstances,
ver
which Colombia had little ontrol," .e., the appear-
ance of a viable and enduring export,
offee.16
Platt's insistence on the long isolation of Latin America from
he
Atlantic conomy permitshim to initiatehis analysis of the last quarter
of the
nineteenth centuryby asking, "What
.
..
finallybrought Latin
America nto contact with the world economy?" His ingenious reply s
that
production for xport .. [developed] out of productionprimarily
intended forLatin America's domestic market" which was responsible
for
the whole structure f railways, of public utilities, nd of citymod-
ernization" as
well
as "for the first tages in the introduction f foreign
capital.
.
. ." To buttresshis position, Platt relies heavily on Argentina's
development after1850 and particularly n the role of the railroad. Ig-
noring the voluminous literature n Argentine conomic history f the
nineteenthcentury-e.g., the works of Burgin, Giberti,
and
more re-
cently Halperin Donghi, Gallo and Cortes Conde, Scobie'7-he
leans
instead upon Ferns and an articleby Paul Goodwin. Here it s sufficient
to show how his handling of Goodwin's article xemplifies proclivity
to misconstrue ources in order to substantiate he notion of economic
autonomy and the primacyof the domestic market.
Paul Goodwin's
article,
ited
n
note 39, is interpreted
s
proof
of
the minimalrole of
export onsiderations mong
the motivesbehind
the
creationof the Central ArgentineRailway begun in 1863 to link Rosario
with
Cordoba.
Yet
Goodwin sees that
railway
as
contributing
o a
"pro-
cess of
development and transition" which began at the end
of the
colonial
period and "was stimulatedby the introduction
f new
exports
withhigh growthrates." t was the cartroad rather han therailroad,he
argues,
which
"contributed o Argentina'seventual transformation
nto
an
export-oriented ountry. . . By 1850 it became increasingly
lear
to
Buenos Aires merchants hat the maintenance of theirprofits
rom he
export
of
produce demanded
a
more efficient
nd economical
formof
land
transportation....
Between
1854,
when Rosario was
opened
to
foreign rade,
and
1863,
the
year
the
Central ArgentineRailway
drove
its
first pikes, the town blossomed bidding fair o compete successfully
for
portion
of
the
foreign
ommercewith
Buenos Aires'.
.
. ." It s
clear
fromGoodwin's remarks bout Rosario as well as from cobie's analysis
of
Buenos Aires'
growth hatrailroadswere undertaken o enhance
their
export
potential.18
But even were we to
imagine
that
Argentine ailways
were
first aid
to
supply
Buenos Aires consumers with
hides, wool,
139
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
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Latin
American esearch
eview
meat, nd
wheat,willPlatt
lso
maintain hat he
English
uilt
he
Sao
Paulo-Santos
ailroad oprovision
aulistas
r
the
Veracruz-Mexico
ity
linetosupply hat apitalwith-pulque?
Thus,excluding
major
reas of
Latin
America,
elegating
thers
to
a
nebulous sometimes"
ependency,
isregarding
r
misinterpret-
ing the
economichistory
f yetothers
Venezuela,Chile,
Colombia),
and
above all
overlookingmining
n colonial nd
postcolonial
panish
America hile
gnoringhe ocial
nd
politicalomplexitiesf
he
berian
empires
n
their
nternal
nd external
elationships,
latt
deates an
autonomy hat an
only
ppearfancifulo the cholar
eeking
o
under-
stand
hehistoryfthispart f
the
world.
Yet, trangely,t s
notprimarilyhe
facts hat
re
n
dispute
n
the
present
ontroversy.
reading
f
Platt's revious
ublications
n
British
foreign
olicy
nd
trade
eveals
urprisinggreement
n the haracterf
British
ommercialegemonyn
nineteenth-century
atin
America:
fter
enjoying
a
"profitabletrade
with
colonial Latin America . .
.
through
Spain
and
Portugal, or
. ..
by
contraband .
.
the end
of the
Spanish
Empire
rought
ewbusiness o
Britishraders nd
manufacturers,"ut
following
brief
uphoric
eak, nhospitable
onditions
rought
low,
vacillating rowth ntil a secondhoneymoon" n the 60s and '70s,
"when demand
now existed or
he
primary roduce
f
the
Republics"
and
"capital, ttracted
y the
new market
pportunities
lowed nto
Latin
American ailways,
portworks, tilities nd
processing lants,
opening
he
way
for
vastly
nlargedmarket f
British
manufactured
goods."19
Aside
from
ivergence n the
timing nd
degree
of
British
penetration,his
summaryoincides
ubstantially
iththe
"textbook
version
f theBritish
onnection
withLatin
America"which
Platt-
oddly-calls a "position
.. entirelyifferentn
nearly very espect."20
Whence,then,the dramatic iscrepancyn the "critical"ssue, au-
tonomy?
Whythe shift
n Platt's
nalysis rom
LatinAmerica
which
was
"one
ofthe
most mportant
utlets or ritish
rade nd
investment
throughouthe
nineteenth
entury"1968)21
o a Latin
America
over
the dge
oftheperiphery"
1979)
until he ast
quarter fthe
nineteenth
century?
The
answer
merges rom
review f Platt's
ole as
historianf
nineteenth-centuryritishrade
policy nd
particularly
rom
isearly
rejection f
Hobson's
critique fBritish
mperialism.
n theground
hat
"Hobsonand hissuccessorswere n factooking tfinancialiplomacy
from
he point
of view of the
journalist
r of the
gleanerof
casual
information,"22
latt ndertook
he ittle
xplored ield f
"therelation-
ship
between
inance,
rade,
nd
politics
n
the
conduct
f
British
or-
140
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
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DEPENDENCY IN
19TH CENTURY LATIN AMERICA: COMMENT
eign policy"
in
order to extirpate
from
the
historiography
f
Britain's
"century
of . .
. leadership in
world trade and finance" the notion of
economic imperialismmade current y Hobson. The task was made all
the more imperativeby the rapid contagion of the Gallagher-Robinson
thesis of the imperialismof free
trade in describingBritain'srelation o
noncolonial peripheral reas. An
Oxford hesis 1962), threebooks (1968,
1971, 1972) and several articles
resulted from this effort,much of
it
devoted to Latin America.
Platt's basic thesis is clear:
national security nd free trade
alone
guided Britishpolicy during the
middle half of the century
nd were
only gradually and partially uperseded by "fair trade" and protection
as British "paramountcy" declined toward the end of the century.23
"Economic imperialism s a politicalrather han an historical abel [since]
politicalpolemicists
know
what they
want
to say long
before
they
have
the evidence to
support it," he
wrote
in
1968 to answer
"the
charge
of
economic
mperialism
n
the Western
Hemisphere."24
There could be
no
"informaldependence" in Latin
America because it was "a-political,"
apparently meaning that unlike such areas as China
it did not
oppose
foreign
conomic
penetration-not
strange onsidering
hat
oreign
rade
had been the raison d'etre of Spanish America since the conquest.25
Significantly,t thistime Plattstill onsideredLatin Americaof farmore
than
tangential nterest o Great
Britain-after all,
he
had made "British
Capital,
Commerce and
Diplomacy
in Latin
America"
the
subject
of his
Oxford
thesis.
Curiously, lthough Africa
nd Asia had been the subject of most
of the debate on
nineteenth-century
nformal
mperialism, atin America
provided a "natural" arena for heexponents of nformal mperialism s
propounded by Gallagher and Robinson. Britain's tance of respect for
national sovereignty,
onintervention, ree trade and laissez-faire
had
evolved in no small measure fromEngland's commercialand political
relations
with
the Iberian
nations and their colonial possessions
in
America between 1700 and 1820. British spirations fordirect and un-
fettered rade
with Iberian
America, pursued
with consummate
diplo-
macy during the Napoleonic wars and the
struggles
for
Latin
America's
independence precipitatedby
them, were realized
in
the
ambience of
post-Napoleonic power
relationshipsthrough
the
doctrinesof
national
sovereignty, onintervention,
nd
free
rade. Political
nd
economic
dis-
organization
which followed
ndependence further alidated
these
poli-
cies. Pressures could be applied to the new, weak governmentsthat
Platt
defines as "a-political."
Claims
of
over-aggressive
British raders
and
disappointed speculators
could
be
eschewed
by
the mediation of
foreign
service career
officials oncerned
with
"haute
politique"
and
141
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
13/17
LatinAmericanesearch eview
consularagents
handling such
mundane tasks as debt-collection.26
ny
judicious threat
or
application
of force could
be
justified
under inter-
national law. Finally, free trade and noninterventionwere peculiarly
compatible with
Britishrelations with
the
United States
as
important
economic partner
but early
rival
n
Latin America.
Thus,
for
Platt,
Latin
America provided
a clear refutation f
the
political mplications
of in-
formal
mperialism.
But he had
yet
to
deal with
its
economic
implica-
tions.
By 1972,
however,
n
a revisionof his dissertation nder the title,
LatinAmerica
nd
British rade, 806-1914,
he
dea of Latin
America's
economic
autonomy
is
briefly ounterposed
to the
concept
of neocolo-
nialism under Britishhegemony presented by the Steins.27The follow-
ing year a new
critique of Gallagher
and
Robinson expanded
on the
insignificance f
Latin America
in
British trade and on continuity
f
isolation and
autonomy. He thereby denied a "third assumption" of
imperialismof
free trade, "the subordinationof primaryproducers,
as
suppliers
of
foodstuffs
nd
raw materials
o Britain
n her
chosen
role
as
'Workshop of the World."'28The apparent logic
is clear:
no
trade,
au-
tonomy; utonomy plus trade, no
dependence-hence,
no
informal
m-
perialism, political
or economic.
Thus
Platt
moved from
mphasis
on a
presumed abstentionfrom active governmentntervention" o empha-
sis
on Latin
America's presumed autonomy, shift
necessitated by
the
evident vacuity
of
his earlier definition f economic
imperialism
nd of
Latin
America as
"a-political."
Yet, after
emodellinghis thesis to answer
Gallagher and Robin-
son,
9
Plattnow
must confront he dependency analystswho have given
informal
mperialism new dimension. In presenting view from he
periphery, hey
have
focused
not on
"chrono-politics"
but
on "chrono"-
economics and
even
on
"chrono"-sociology.
Their
subject s
the nternal
and external aspects of structural nequality,subordination,and ex-
ploitation mplicit
n
the exchange between
developed
and underdevel-
oped capitalistnations. Their
emphasis
is
not
on bilateral
relationships
but
upon constraints
mposed by
an internationalmarket over
a
long
period
of
time.
It
is far more difficult or
Platt
to
combat colonialism
f
free trade
than imperialismof free trade.
Where dependency analysts
postulate persistent asymmetricalparticipation
n
the world
market,
Platt
postulates the impersonal and equitable
functionof the interna-
tionaleconomy.
He
is thus led to
his present absurd
assertion
of
Latin
America's economicautonomy nthemid-Victorian ears and to project
it
both backward
and forward.
n
this sense he
emerges as the current
paladin
of
imperialism
refurbished.The difficulties f his position may
explain
the hubris of
his
present critique, he resort o neologisms such
142
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
14/17
DEPENDENCY IN 19TH CENTURY LATIN AMERICA: COMMENT
as "structuration,"
he characterization
f dependency
nalysts s fo-
menters f
"confusionism,"nd the nvocation
fconspiracy.
Polemic mong historianss warrantedf t eads to clarification
through urther
esearch.n this nstance,
uantification
o doubtwill
be one element n theagenda.
Also needed
willbe rigorous et magi-
native nalysis o pursue
critical lements f the hegemony
nd subor-
dination
f mperialism ormalnd informal:
he secularpersistence
f
racism n Europe
nd America, aithn the
natural" aw
ofthe nterna-
tionaldivisionof labor under
capitalism
oupled with acceptance
f
LatinAmerica's echnological
assivity,hemyriadways
n which atin
America's liteshave consciously
nd unconsciously
earned,
ultivated,
and expandedcollaboration ith external orces o the detrimentf
LatinAmerica's
masses-in brief, hesuperhighways,
ocal routes, nd
footpaths
f
dependence.
NOTES
1. For the importance
of Spanish
re-exports
f European goods to the American
colo-
nies, especially
textiles,
ee Resumen
e a balanzadel
comercio
xterior
e
Espanfa
n1792
(Madrid, 1803) and
Balanza
de comercio e Espana
con osdominios e
SM en
America
n el
anio e 1792
Madrid,
1805). Growth of
British
xportsof woolen and cottontextiles
o
Spanish
possessions
in and around
the Caribbean,
1785-1800,
can be discerned
in
the spurt n exportsto theBritishWest ndies registeredn E. B. Schumpeter, nglish
Overseas
Trade Statistics, 697-1808
(Oxford,
1960), p.
67. Moreover,British
extiles
also
flowed to the Spanish colonies as U.S. re-exports
o
that
area. For
example,
the
percentage
of domestic
exports n total
U.S.
exports to Spanish
Americadropped
sharply 1803-1808)
from
4 to
15 percent
nd
it s reasonable to
presumere-exports
consisted largely
of British extiles.
See
the
suggestive
article
by J.
H. Coatsworth,
"American
Trade with European
Colonies
in the Caribbean
and South America,
1790-1812," William
nd MaryQuarterly,
rd ser.,
24 (Apr. 1967):243-66.
The relative
position
of
Spanish
imports
o re-exports f
European manufactures
s
suggested
by
Woodbine
Parish,
BuenosAyres nd
the Provinces f the
Rio de la
Plata ... (London,
1839), appendix 11.
2. Parish reported,
for
xample, thatover
the period
1829-37 "a considerable
portion
of
the articles sent to Chile are intended forthe supply of the West coast of Mexico."
BuenosAyres, .
415.
3. See
references
o Spanish
balances
of trade,
note
1.
4.
"Of the
[silver
nd gold coin
and bullion]
importations
no Account
can be rendered
fromthis Department,
the articles
n
question
being by Law
being exempted
from
Entry nwards at the
Custom-house."
Great Britain.
arliamentary
apers,
854 xxxix),
p.
439.
Similarly,
n the
eighteenth
entury anyone
who
pleased might
mport
oin
and
bullion
without
making any return
f
the
transaction,
nd hence no
recordwas
kept
of the
gold and
silver
brought n."
T.
S.
Ashton,
n
Schumpeter, nglish
Overseas
TradeStatistics, .
7. One
must recall that the
English
East India Company's
annual
deficit
n merchandise balance
with China,
until
Britishmerchantspushed
opium
into that
country,was covered
by "[Spanish]
American silver
currency riginally
broughtto China by the East India Company." See FredericE. Wakeman's contri-
bution
n D.
Twitchett nd
J.K. Fairbanks,eds.,
Cambridge
istory fChina
10 (1978),
p.
164.
5.
See note
11.
143
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
15/17
LatinAmerican
esearcheview
6.
In the
following able, "Foreign
West ndies" are considered
a Latin American desti-
nation since Cuba and Puerto Rico were the principal importers. Latin America
received 86.5 percent
f the value ofU.S.
imports
f British omestic
xports, 820-49
-by no means insignificant.
Britishomesticxportsy estination,820-1848L000,000)
Central
-
(Platt)
South
m.
Foreign Brazil
Brazil W. ndies
Total U.S.
Spanish
m.
1820-29
42.8 9.4 52.2
57.9
1830-39 49.0
11.5
60.5
79.2 43.4
1831-39)
1840-49
49.6
10.7 60.3 63.3 51.5
Total 173.0 200.4
Sources:
A. D.
Gayer,
W
W
Rostow,
nd A.
J.
Schwartz,
he
Growth
nd Fluctuation
f
theBritish
Economy,790-1850,
vols.
Oxford,953), :182, 15, 51,
82, 14;
D. C. M.
Platt,
Further
bjections
to an 'Imperialism
f Free
Trade,"'Economicistory
eview,
nd
ser.,
36
(Feb., 1973):91, ppendix.
Platt's SpanishAmerica" ncludes uenosAires,Chile,
Colombia, cuador,Mexico,Montevideo,
Peru, nd Venezuela.
7.
Gayer
et
al.,
British
conomy
:783.
8. United ingdomottonPiece) oods xportso rincipalestinations,electedears000,000 ds.)
1820 1830
1840 1850 1860
Yds. % Yds. % Yds.
% Yds. % Yds. %
America*
(except
U.S.)
56.0 22.3 140.8
31.6 278.6
35.2 360.4 26.5 527.1 19.7
U.S. 23.8
9.4
49.3
11.6
32.1
4.0 104.2 7.6 226.8 8.4
Europe 127.7 50.9 137.4 30.9 200.4
25.3 222.1 16.3 200.5 7.4
Total 250.9
100
444.6 100 790.6 100 1358.2 100 2676.2 100
Source: homas llison, heCottonradefGreat ritain1886] New York, 968), p. 63-64.
*Most o
destined,
ne
may ssume,
went
o
Latin
America.
9. Britain's
rade
with
Argentina
s
suggested by
the
following:
Trade
f
he
io
de
a Platawith reat ritain,831-40: Year verage
nnual olume
rValue
Exports
Imports
Years
Hides
no.)
Wool
lbs.)
Cottons
Yds.)
Woolens
L;s)
1831-35 107.664 462.340 14.006.422
111.813
1849-53 270.308 2.674.341 31.549.624 281.985
Source:Great
ritain,arliamentaryapers,
842
xxxix), . 375;
1854-55
Lii).
144
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
16/17
DEPENDENCY IN
19TH
CENTURY LATIN AMERICA:
COMMENT
10.
Commenting
on the extraordinary
psurge
in Argentine wool exports,
1830-37,
Parish
credited the "intelligent
foreigners
who] introduce and cultivate a
better
breed.... Mr. Sheridanand Mr. Harratt re the ndividuals towhomBuenos Ayres
is principally
ndebted
for his
new source
of wealth" (Buenos
Ayres, p. 358-59).
Ac-
cording to Frank
Safford,
British esidents
n New Granada
had
a similarly nnovat-
ing
effect n
promoting
obacco
and coffee
for xport.
"Commerceand
Enterprise
n
Central
Colombia, 1821-1870" (Ph.D. dissertation,
Columbia
University, 965),
pp.
187-200, 300.
11. There
is a steady
rise
in
Mexican
silvercoinage
and
a fluctuatingevel of
precious
metals
exportsover the
period1825-49.
The export evel, 1845-49,
was
depressed
by
the
U.S. war with
Mexico.
Silver
oined
Silver/Gold
xports
5-Yearnnual 5-Year nnual
Years
Averagesmill.
s)
Averages
mill. s)
1825-29
9.2
8.7
1830-34
11.3
10.7
1835-39
11.5
7.4
1840-44
12.4
9.7
1845-49 15.6
7.7
Sources:
A.
Soetbeer,
delmetall-produktion
nd
werthverhaltniss
wischen old und
silver
.
(Gotha, 874), .
55;
M. Lerdode
Tejada,
Comercio
xteriore Mexico
esde
a
conquista
asta oy
(1853) Mexico:
ancoNacional e
Comercio
xterior,967),
ocumento
o. 52.
12. Ines HerreraCanales,
El comercioxterior
e Mexico,
1821-1875
(Mexico, 1977),
p. 60.
13.
That
Latin
America's ower classes
had long been
a prime
market orBritish
ottons
s
clear
from
ontemporary
mercantile
records as well
as recentresearch.
Cf.
Herrera
Canales,
Comercio, p.
26, 34, 113 and
Safford,
Commerce
and
Enterprise," p. 191,
240.
14.
Laura
Randall,A Comparative
conomic istory
fLatin
America, 500-1914.
I. Mexico
(Ann
Arbor,1977), p.
237.
15.
In
addition to
Safford's
Commerce and
Enterprise,"
ee his The dea
of the
Practical:
Colombia's truggle
oForm Technical lite Austin,
1976) and
his
"Trade (1810-1940),"
in
Helen
Delpar, ed.,
Encyclopedia
fLatinAmerica
New York,
1974), pp.
589-92.
16.
"On
Paradigms and
the Pursuit of
the Practical:
A Response,"
LARR
13, no.
2
(1978):253-55.
17. For example,
R. M. Ortiz,Historia
con6mica
e a
Argentina,
850-1930,
2 vols.
(Buenos
Aires,
1955);
M.
Burgin,
Economic
spects f
Argentine
ederalismCambridge,
1947);
H.
Giberti,Historia
con6mica
e a
ganaderia
rgentina
Buenos
Aires,
1954);
T
Halperin
Donghi,
"La
expansion
ganadera
en la campana
de Buenos
Aires,"
Desarrollo
co-
n6mico
(1963):57ff,
nd
his
HistoriaArgentina.
e la revoluci6n
e
independencia
la
confederaci6n
osista Buenos
Aires,1972); J.
Fodor
y
Arturo
O'Connell,
"La
Argentina
y
la
economia atlantica
en la
primera
mitad del siglo
xix,"Desarrollo
con6mico
3
(1973):3ff;
.
Gallo and
R.
Cortes Conde,
Historia rgentina.
a republica onservadora
(Buenos Aires,
1972); J.
R.
Scobie, Buenos
Aires.Plaza to
Suburb,
870-1910 New
York,
1974).
On
railroads, A. Bunge,
Ferrocarriles
rgentinos.
ontribuci6n
l estudio
el pat-
rimonio acionalBuenos Aires,1918);R. M. Ortiz, El ferrocarriln a economiargentina,
2nd
ed.
(Buenos
Aires,1956);
H. J.Cuccorese,
Historia
e
osferrocarriles
n a Argentina
(Buenos
Aires, 1969).
18.
Paul
B.
Goodwin,
Jr.,
The
Central
ArgentineRailway
and
the
Economic Develop-
ment of
Argentina,
1854-1881," Hispanic
American
istorical
eview
57,
no.
4
(1977):
618-19.
As Scobie
has
put it,
"The
building
of
railroads
responded
largely
to
the
145
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8/17/2019 Stein the Anatomy of Autonomy
17/17
LatinAmerican esearch eview
potential or arryingides,
wool
and
grains....
In
1862,
for
xample,
group f
British esidents
nBuenosAires ormedheSouthern ailroad
o serve
he
heep-
and
cattle-growing
ones." Britishnvestors
were
obviously hinking
f
exports.
Buenos ires, . 92.
19. D. C. M. Platt, atin
mericandBritishrade, 806-1914London, 972).
20. "Afterndependence,
n rresistiblelood fBritish
oods..... Local ndustries
ere
'destroyed,' nd Britishraders nd manufacturers
onsolidated ... monopoly
over
a
significant
mport rade
..
theyearsof Britain'shegemony'
f the im-
perialismfFreeTrade'."
Platt, atin mericanndBritish rade, . 312.
21. D. C. M.
Platt, inance,
rade ndPoliticsn Britishoreignolicy,815-1914
Oxford,
1968), . 308.
22. Ibid.,pp. 76-77.
23. Ibid.,pp. 83-84.
24. Ibid.,pp. 76,308.
25. Ibid.,p. 312.
26. Ibid.,p. 41. On the amepage Platt,ronically,erceived hatwhile therulewas no
'official'
r
authoritative'ntervention
.
.
'good
offices'
f
British
iplomatists
..
must
have
been
difficult
ndeed o distinguishromnqualified iplomatic
nterven-
tion."
27. Platt, atin mericandBritishrade, p. 3-4.
28. "Further bjectionso an ImperialismfFree
Trade,"'Economicistoryeview,
nd
ser.,
6
1968):
7 andpassim.
29.
It s an
irony
f
Britain's
mperial ate hatRonaldRobinson,o-authorf he
oncept
of
he
mperialism
ffree rade
o
describe ritain's id-Victorianegemony
n Latin
America nd elsewhere-and
prime arget f
Platt's fforts
o
disprove hat oncept
-could
write n 1972
hat he collaborative
echanism
.
. worked onstructively
so
that
hese olonies South
Africa
nd
Latin
America] ventually
took ff" and
by
mid-twentiethenturythe ollaborativeystem ad done tswork; or hewhite x-
colonies-the UnitedStates nd
Latin
America
],
together
iththe British
do-
minions'-hadbecome xpansiven their wnright
n pursuit f heir wn
manifest
destiny."'R. Robinson, Non-European oundations
f European mperialism:
Sketch or
Theory
f
Collaboration,"
n W.
R. Louis,ed., mperialism:heRobinson
and
GallagherontroversyNew York, 976), .
136.
146
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