Lawrence A. Clayton, director of the Latin American Studies Program at the University of Alabama, has written an enthusiastic chronicle on W. R. Grace & Co. and the Grace family (from the origin of the firm to 1930), set against a background of Latin American political and social history. Clayton was raised in Peru (his father worked for W. R. Grace & Co.); his book shows his fondness for both country and company.
The Grace saga began in 1851 when, at the age of 19, William R. Grace arrived in Peru from Ireland. He worked for a firm that was a purveyor of naval stores. Eventually, he acquired and expanded this company. After 1866, Grace was stationed in New York, and was ably assisted in Peru by his younger brother Michael and, in time, his nephew Edward Eyre. In its early years, Casa Grace was a small, aggressive (and apparently very profitable) trading firm handling a growing line of different goods. Clayton discusses its identification with railroad building in Peru and Costa Rica and its role in Chilean nitrates and Peruvian sugar, in shipping, and in the Brazilian rubber trade.
The early twentieth century saw a great expansion of the family-run firm. Casa Grace handled shipping and banking; it became more involved in nitrates and sugar; it participated in electrical utilities in Peru. By 1918, it was the leader in textile manufacturing in Peru. In fact by the end of World War I, it was “one of the largest import-export firms operating in the United States, with offices in Australia, South Africa, the Ear East, Europe, and the East Coast of South America ” (p. 273), as well as its traditional operations on the West Coast of South America. It had “become a worldwide factor in rubber, sugar, hides, hemp, pig bristles (China), rice (Southeast Asia) and myriad other products” (p. 274). It had overexpanded, and its global business fell apart in the economic crisis of 1920-21; the company returned to its earlier concentration on business on the West Coast of South America and, most particularly, in Peru. In 1928-1929, with Pan American, it was a pioneer in aviation in Latin America.
The best parts of this book use the W. R. Grace & Co. papers in Columbia University Library and Marquis James’s unpublished history of the company (Clayton does not tell his reader why this 1948 book never saw the light of day). Without question, Clayton’s work shows the importance of W. R. Grace & Co. in the history of Latin America.
In his introduction, Clayton explains that accounting details and data on profits and losses will he “mentioned only in passing” (p. ix). Yet can the story of a company’s role as “a promoter of change and development” (p. ix) be fully told without such evidence? The book contains no profit and loss statements. Also missing are details on the British connections. Baring Brothers is mentioned several times, but British finance (and the W. R. Grace & Co.’s use of British capital) is neglected. I wanted to know how many people W. R. Grace employed in the United States, Latin America, and elsewhere, as time passed. How did the company rank as an employer in Latin America? There are some impressive, but isolated figures on employment; nothing systematic. These reservations aside, this book contains more material on the history of W. R. Grace & Co. than has been published anywhere else, and thus it should be read.
