Abstract

LUCAS, Isabelle. The Swiss capital in Argentina , 1890-1980. Ciclos hist. econ. soc. [online]. 2017, vol.28, n.48, pp.1-20. ISSN 1851-3735.

The Swiss capital was strongly present in Argentina throughout the 20th century. Between 1945 and 1980 Switzerland was the second or third biggest foreign investor in the country, behind the United States and Great Britain . However, their involvement is hardly known, because of the characteristic discretion of the small European country. This article identifies and analyzes the four main stages of the export of Swiss capital to Argentina between 1880 and 1980. The first part describes their main investments and the sectors where they settled. The second part shows that the development of the Swiss financial market brought a crucial advantage for the thousands of businesses willing to defend, successfully, their interests in the Argentine market. The electricity industry in Gran Buenos Aires deserves particular attention in this paper, which deals in detail with the financial role of Swiss actors in the Compañía Argentina de Electricidad (CADE) and the Compañía Italo Argentina de Electricidad (CIADE). In addition to providing novel results in the historiography of this subject, it allows to launch a debate on the existence of a kind of Swiss imperialism in Argentina , a white-gloved imperialism based in strategic niches.

Keywords : Argentina, Switzerland, capital, investments..

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