Carreras examines the relative success of five U. S. companies operating in Venezuela at the turn of the century and their impact on U. S.-Venezuelan diplomatic relations. Using extensive archival material, Carreras painstakingly documents the fortunes of the New York and Bermúdez Company, the Orinoco Corporation, the United States and Venezuelan Company, the Orinoco Steamship Company, and the English-language newspaper, the Venezuelan Herald. The exploits of the New York and Bermúdez Company receive particular attention, as Carreras explores the confusion over its asphalt concession, its appeals to the U.S. government for assistance, and its involvement in the Matos rebellion.
Though this study provides insights into U.S. economic ventures, it is often unclear exactly what Carreras is attempting to achieve. He suggests, for example, that the companies’ economic and political problems “put a severe strain” on diplomatic relations between the two nations (p. 21). But it is not until chapter 6 that he states that the open break in U.S.-Venezuelan relations in 1908 was due to “the latter’s intransigence in not accepting arbitration in five diplomatic cases’’ (p. 203), i. e., the cases concerning these five companies. Given Venezuela’s earlier experience with U.S. arbitration in its border dispute with British Guiana, its reluctance to submit to arbitration again is hardly surprising. Lingering resentment over the loss of a hundred-mile-wide, mineral-rich section of territory must also have “strained” relations, yet Carreras mentions the boundary dispute only in passing and gives no indication of the outcome (pp. 3-4).
The work appears to be the author’s unrevised dissertation, which was submitted in 1971. There are no secondary sources later than 1969 and no index.
