Gómez-Galvarriato, Aurora. “Networks and Entrepreneurship: The Modernization of the Textile Business in Porfirian Mexico.” Business History Review 1885, no. Autumn (2008): 475–502.
This article forms part of a study on the time period between 1876-1910 as part of my MA thesis research.
Aurora Gómez Galvarriato is the former head of the Mexican National Archives and at the time of this writing a professor in the Department of Economics at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, A.C. in Mexico City.
This paper looks at how transportation networks, particularly the railroads during the Porfiriato (1876-1910) helped to modernize the textile industry. Specifically, it looks at how French immigrants from Barcelonnette were able to successfully use family and social networks in the textile industry. Family networks involved extended families, many times involving back and forth transit between Mexico and France. These groups shared attitudes and goals, which functioned well in a legal framework whose property rights were relatively weak.
Large quantities of foreign capital were necessary in order to fund the railroads, modernize textile mills, and to move from hydroelectric to steam power. The combination of these developments, in concert with vertically integrated businesses with strong networks that were able to utilize banks and investor capital to their advantage, contributed to the success of the textile business in Mexico. Social networks allowed for training of apprentices, who worked their way through the familial system and gave them access to better opportunities.
This is an insightful piece recommended for anyone working on social and economic history during the Porfiriato.
Aurora Gómez Galvarriato is the former head of the Mexican National Archives and at the time of this writing a professor in the Department of Economics at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, A.C. in Mexico City.
This paper looks at how transportation networks, particularly the railroads during the Porfiriato (1876-1910) helped to modernize the textile industry. Specifically, it looks at how French immigrants from Barcelonnette were able to successfully use family and social networks in the textile industry. Family networks involved extended families, many times involving back and forth transit between Mexico and France. These groups shared attitudes and goals, which functioned well in a legal framework whose property rights were relatively weak.
Large quantities of foreign capital were necessary in order to fund the railroads, modernize textile mills, and to move from hydroelectric to steam power. The combination of these developments, in concert with vertically integrated businesses with strong networks that were able to utilize banks and investor capital to their advantage, contributed to the success of the textile business in Mexico. Social networks allowed for training of apprentices, who worked their way through the familial system and gave them access to better opportunities.
This is an insightful piece recommended for anyone working on social and economic history during the Porfiriato.
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