Chapman’s study of the Mexican Railway Company, Ltd., Mexico’s first major railroad construction project, describes the history of that enterprise from the first concession in 1837 to the completion of the line from Veracruz to Mexico City in 1873. A brief chapter covers the initial period of operation from 1873 to 1880. The book is a translation into Spanish of a Ph.D. dissertation submitted to the University of Texas in 1972. It is one of the best studies available of Mexican business enterprise in the nineteenth century and compares very well with Randall’s valuable account of the Real del Monte mine or Pletcher’s accounts of foreign mining and railroad entrepreneurs in the period of the restored republic.
The book is organized chronologically to follow the history of the Veracruz-Mexico City enterprise. Only a few miles of track were actually laid, despite various federal and state government efforts at promotion, until the French invasion and the arrival of Maximillian. The chief promoters of the project in Mexico were members of the Escandón family who acquired the concession in 1856. Little progress occurred, however, until after Antonio Escandón traveled to London in 1864 to form an English company to carry out the project. Although construction proceeded rapidly for the first time during the next two years, Chapman shows that most of the funds came from the Escandóns and the Mexican government. Work was suspended with the fall of Maximillian, but renewed when the Juárez government, despite vociferous opposition, granted a new concession and new construction subsidies in 1867.
Much of Chapman’s work deals with the complex relations between changing Mexican governments and the railroad’s promoters. Historians of Mexico will find this a useful case study of the traumas faced by entrepreneurs under conditions of extreme political, social and international conflict.
Chapman does not pretend to discuss the economic, social or political impact of his railroad, although he does essay some judicious comments. His only significant error lies in the assertion (pp. 190-191) that this “was the only railroad in the nineteenth century to have mainly Mexican employees.” All the railroads employed more Mexicans than foreigners (and a few employed no foreigners at all), mainly in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs. Aside from this error (and the omission of Chapman’s 15 page bibliography) one can complain only of the narrowness of the book’s focus. Readers will want to know more about the Escandón family, their other activities, and the place of railroad enterprise in their collective portfolio. Or about entrepreneurs, the impact of the railroad on the region it transversed, or its effects on social and economic life more generally. There is little in Chapman’s work of analytical (as opposed to descriptive) interest. It is nonetheless a welcome addition to the still very sparse literature on business conditions in Mexico before the Porfiriato.
