¹ Calculated from The Mineral Industry: Its Statistics, Technology and Trade in the United States and Other Countries from the Earliest Times to the End of 1892 (New York, 1892), vol. I, pp. 548–549Google Scholar and Mariner, D., Historia de Chile. Historia económica (Santiago, 1929), pp. 224, 261, 299 and 313.$$$Google Scholar Data on fiscal income in Vayssière, P., Un siècle de capitalisme minière au Chili, 1830–1930 (Paris, 1980), p. 97.Google Scholar

² Calculated from Herrmann, A., La productión en Chile de los metales y ntinerales más importantes… (Santiago, 1903), pp. 49–52. These copper ores included crude and calcined ores and ores of copper mixed with other metals.Google Scholar

³ The monopsonistic gains obtained by smelters/refiners have been analysed for a variety of cases. See Radetzki, M., ‘Where Should Developing Countries’ Minerals be Processed? The Country View versus the Multinational Company View', World Development, vol. 5 (1977), pp. 331–322Google Scholar, Kñakal, J., ‘Transnationals and Mining Development in Bolivia, Chile and Peru’, CEPAL Review, no. 14 (Aug. 1981)Google Scholar, passim. The cases of monopsonistic profits in the processing of Bolivian tin and Peruvian copper are documented in Hillman, J., ‘The Emergence of the Tin Industry in Bolivia’, Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 16 (1984), pp. 421–425 and 437CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Kñakal, ‘Transnationals’, pp. 77–78.Google Scholar The monopsony/monopoly of the British Smelters Association during the nineteenth century has been amply documented in Toomey, R. R., Vivian and Sons, 1809–1924. A Study of the Firm in the Copper and Related Industries (New York, 1985), pp. 312–359Google Scholar and passim; Roberts, R. O., ‘The Development and Decline of the Copper and Other Non-Ferrous Metal Industries in South Wales’, in The Transactions of the Honourable Society of Cymrodorion, session 1956, pp. 113–115Google Scholar and ‘The Smelting of Non-Ferrous Metals since 1750’ in Williams, G. (ed.) Glamorgan County History, vol. v (Cardiff 1980), pp. 78–80Google Scholar; Newell, K., ‘The British Copper Ore Market in the Nineteenth Century with Particular Reference to Cornwall and Swansea’, Unpubl. D. Phil thesis, University of Oxford, 1988, pp. 223–248Google Scholar; and Valenzuela, L., ‘Challenges to the British Copper Smelting Industry in the World Market, 1840–1860’, Journal of European Economic History, vol. 19, no. 3 (Winter 1990).Google Scholar

⁴ An analysis of the current prices paid at Valparaíso in the period 1841–77 gives us the following averages: 17.23 pesos per quintal of copper bars, 7.19 pesos per quintal of regulus of 50% fine copper and 2.82 pesos pet quintal of copper ore of 25 % fine copper. As copper bars contained on average c. 96% fine copper, merchants were paying 17.95 pesos for a quintal of that copper, but only 14.38 pesos per quintal of fine copper contained in the regulus and 11.28 pesos for the fine copper contained in ores of 25% fine copper. It follows that the total fine copper exported by Chile in 1844–79, 24–8 m. quintales (1,122,350 tons), would have produced an income of 444.8 m. pesos if sold entirely in the shape of bars and only 279.5 m pesos if sold entirely in the shape of ores of 25% fine copper. The sources for the previous calculations are as follows: copper prices in Valparaíso for the period 1841–6 from ‘Memorandum in Connection with the Accompanying Return of Agricultural Produce, etc. at Valparaíso for the Quarter Ending…’, in vols. 45–62, FO 16, Public Record Office, London (hereafter PRO); for the period 1847–72 from ‘Precios corrientes en Valparaiso’, in El Mercurio de Valparaiso' hereafter EMV) for those years and for 1873–77, MS 11,125, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London.

⁵ Mackenna, B. Vicuña, El Libra del cobre y del carbón de piedra en Chile (Santiago, 1966 ‘1883’)Google Scholar, Pederson, L. R., The Mining Industry of the Norte Chico, Chile, Evanston, Ill., 1966Google Scholar and Vayssière, P., Capitalisms minière.Google Scholar

⁶ An interesting work touching upon the problem is Cavieres, E., Comtrcio chileno y comerciantes inglests, 1820–1880: Un circle de historia económica (Valparaíso, 1988), especially ch. 5. For the period after 1870Google Scholar see Przeworski, J. F., The Decline of the Copper Industry in Chile and the Entrance of North American Capital, 1870–1916 (New York, 1980). For the period 1825–33Google Scholar see Véliz, C., ‘Egaña, Lambert and the Chilean Mining Associations of 1825’, in Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 55 (1975), pp. 637–663.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The smelting activities of British nationals operating in Chile are analysed in Mayo, J., British Merchants and Chilean Development, 1851–1886 (Boulder and London, 1987), pp. 135–156, passim.Google Scholar

⁷ Valenzuela, L., ‘Challenges…’.Google Scholar

⁸ Chilean copper bars produced during the period under study consisted of those smelted in (old) blast furnaces (hornos de manga) and those produced in reverberatory furnaces. Although both were of uneven quality, those smelted in hornos de manga seem to have been particularly impure, containing a large amount of sulphur and fetching a lower price (10 to 20% less). See Vayssiére, P., Capitalisme minièe, p. 49Google Scholar; Pederson, L. R., Mining Industry, p. 198Google Scholar, and ‘Precios corrientes en Valparaiso’, in EMV for the late 1840s and 1850s. For the different qualities of Chilean copper bars smelted in reverberatory furnaces see p. 132, Memorandum Book, S I, Yorkshire Imperial Metals, University College, Swansea.

⁹ Mariner, D., Historia de Chile, p. 133.Google Scholar

¹⁰ The trade statistics of the United Kingdom indicate an insignificant import of Chilean copper ore prior to 1834:40; tons during the 1820s, 937 tons from 183010 1833, 1,670 tons in 1834, and a rapid increase in the following years reaching 19,829 tons in 1843. See ‘Copper Imported into the United Kingdom in the year…’ in Parliamentary Papers (hereafter PP). In 1838 the British chargé de'afTaires in Santiago de Chile noted ‘the great increase of exports since the year 1834 especially of copper ore from the ports [of the provinces of Coquimbo and Atacama]… exported chiefly if not entirely on British account…’, Walpole to Palmerston, Santiago, 9 Oct. 1838 in FO 16/35, PRO. Unfortunately figures for the export/import of Chilean regulus are not specified in either our Chilean or British sources before 1844, in the case of the former, and before 1848, in the case of the latter. Presumably the Board of Trade included regulus under ‘ore’. As for the Chilean statistics, the Minister of Finance declared in 1850 that figures for regulus exports before 1844 were missing. See Memoria…de Hacienda… 1850, p. 81.

¹¹ Calculated from Herrmann, A., Productión en Chile, p. 49.Google Scholar

¹² The best recent accounts of smelting techniques and their transformation at the time are Pederson, L. R., Mining Industry, pp. 198–202 and 122–123Google Scholar and Vayssière, P., Capitalisme minièe, pp. 47–51.Google Scholar The classical account of this process is Mackenna, B. Vicuña, Libra del cobre, pp. 159–167 and 109–112, taken for granted by most students writing on copper mining and smelting in nineteenth-century Chile and much criticised by Pederson, but essentially sound. This account is basically confirmed by ‘J. V.’, ‘El cobre’, part I in EMV, 29 April 1863, which neither Pederson nor Vayssière mention. This article contains valuable additional information although, like Libra del cobre, dates given are imprecise or, to our knowledge, wrong.Google Scholar

¹³ Vayssière, P., Capitalisme minière, pp. 47–49.Google Scholar

¹⁴ J. V., ‘El cobre’.

¹⁵ Vayssière, P., Capitalisme Minière, pp. 47–49.Google Scholar

¹⁶ J. V., ‘El cobre’. This description corresponds almost exactly to the methods employed at Hafod works, Swansea, at the time. See ‘On Copper Smelting’, in The Mining Journal, London (hereafter MJ), 11 Aug. 1849 (Process III); the only fact omitted in this latter account is the crushing of the regulus. Another, later account, however, does mention it. See ‘Notes on Copper Smelting at Hafod Works, 1873’, in 15,116A, Vivian Papers, National Library of Wales.

¹⁷ David Lewis was a Welshman (from Swansea?) who arrived in Chile in c. 1826. By 1839 he was an independent smelter in the province of Coquimbo and by 1842 he was the owner of two copper mines and a copper works equipped with a reverberatory furnace and all the necessary implements. See Asencio Aliste c. d. David Lewis in no. 2, legajo 4, Archive Judicial de La Serena (hereafter AJLS) and Testamento de d. David Lewis, 28 July 1842, no. 45, vol. 89, Archivo Notarial de La Serena (hereafter ANLS).

¹⁸ J. V., ‘El Cobre’. The ‘secrecy’ theory adopted by both Vicuña Mackenna and J. V. is quite plausible in view of later activities of Lambert. For instance, by 1839 he had signed a contract with Pedro Dubois in which the latter promised not to reveal the methods used in the works to anyone else. See Pedro Dubois c. Carlos Lambert no 2, legajo no. 30, AJLS.

¹⁹ This debt was contracted in or later than 1926. See ‘Testamento’, 28 July 1842, no. 45, vol. 89, ANLS. Mackenna, B. Vicuña, Libra del cobre, pp. 209–210 indicates that the diffusion of the secret of the arenillas was ‘attributed to a disloyal or discontent employee [of Lambert]’.Google Scholar

²⁰ Mackenna, B. Vicuña, Libra del cobre, pp. 211–212Google Scholar; Pederson, L. R., Mining Industry, pp. 185 and 201–202.Google Scholar

²¹ Morales, L. J., Historia del Huasco (La Serena, 1981 1897–7), p. 259.Google Scholar

²² See ‘Provincia de Coquimbo. Relación estadística’ in El Araucano (hereafter EA), 11 Jan. 1853

²³ Pederson, L. R., Mining Industry, pp. 123–124n, 185–187.Google Scholar

²⁴ Mackenna, B. Vicuña, Libra del Cobre, p. 210Google Scholar; Véliz, C., ‘Egaña’, p. 648.Google Scholar

²⁵ Charles Darwin's Journal during the Voyage of H.M.S. ‘Beagle’ Round the World, 2nd edn. (London, 1901), p. 352. The transition from traditional to modern techniques of smelting lasted for a long period. This in 1845, only 125 out of 156 copper works were equipped with reverberatory furnaces. See Walpole to Aberdeen, 26 June 1845, FO 16/55, PRO and below, section on ‘The Chilean Copper Smelting Industry in Perspective’.Google Scholar

²⁶ Gay, C., ‘Sobre las causas de la disminución de los montes de la provincia de Coquimbo’, in EA, 20 April 1838.Google Scholar

²⁷ Walpole to Aberdeen, Santiago, 27 June 1845, FO 16/55, PRO.

²⁸ Calculated from Domeyko, I., ‘Apuntes sobre diversas medidas que pudiera tomar el supremo gobierno para el fomento de la industria mineral en las provincias del norte’, in EA, 11 July 1845, p. 7. The data analysed by Domeyko come from copper works in the province of Coquimbo, the cost of a quintal of firewood being 14.4 cents of peso.Google Scholar

²⁹ See Valenzuela, L., ‘Challenges’, p. 675Google Scholar; also ‘An Account of the Quantities of Copper Ore Imported in the Year 1844 and of the Quantities Charged with Duty…’, in PP, 1846, XLII, p. 71.Google Scholar

³⁰ See Walpole to Palmerston, 9 Oct. 1838, FO 16/35 and ‘Memorandum in Connection with the Accompanying Return of Agricultural Produce… During the Quarter Ending ‘30 June 1841’, in FO 16/44, PRO. During 1836–43 Chile exported 100,864 tons of copper ore. We do not know the final destination of this ore but the British statistics indicate the importation of 92,941 tons of Chilean copper ore during the same period. The United States statistics show no record of copper ore imports until 1844 while the French statistics show an importation of 1,591 tons of Chilean copper ore during that period. A time lag of c. four months for the transport of the ores (i.e. ore dispatched from the Chilean customs office in 1843 but arriving in Britain in 1844) might account for the difference. See ‘Copper Imported into the United Kingdom in the year…’, in PP, Administration des Douanes, Tableau général du commerce de la France avec ses colonies et les puissances étrangères. Pendant lannée…, and Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury Transmitting Statistics Showing the Commerce and Navigation of the United States for the year…, pertaining to these years.

³¹ Valenzuela, L., ‘Challenges’.Google Scholar

³² Walpole to Aberdeen, Santiago, 4 July 1845, FO 16/55. PRO.

³³ Domeyko, I., ‘Apuntes’, p. 8.Google Scholar

³⁴ A letter received by H. Bath dated 15 Dec. 1844 stated that a Chilean miner had recently carried out successful experiments to smelt copper with coke. The British chargé de'affaires in Chile however stated in 1845 that ‘wood is the only description of fuel used in smelting (copper)’. See MJ, 12 April 1845, p. 137, document no. 15 and Walpole to Aberdeen, Santiago, 27 June 1845, FO 16/55, PRO.

³⁵ See Table 2; Walpole to Aberdeen, Santiago 25 Dec. 1842, FO 16/47; ‘Memorandum relating… to British coal… at Valparaíso’ by British Consul H. Rouse and ‘Return of the quantity of British coal imported at Coquimbo’ by British Vice Consul D. Ross in FO 16/48, PRO.

³⁶ Vice Consul D. Ross, ibid.

³⁷ Domeyko, ‘Apuntes’, passim. See also Walpole to Aberdeen, Santiago, 27 June 1845, in FO 16/55, PRO.

³⁸ The law was published in EA, 26 Sept. 1845.

³⁹ Intendente of Coquimbo to the Minister, 13 Oct. 1845; intendente of Atacama to the Minister, 14 Nov. 1845, vols. 213 and 206 respectively. Archive del Ministerio de Hacienda, Archive Nacional de Chile, Santiago (hereafter AMH).

⁴⁰ EA, 29 October. 1845; ECRC for the year 1846 and EA, 3 July 1846.

⁴¹ The decree appears in EA, 11 Feb. 1848.

⁴² See enclosure of a circular sent by A. Varas to H. B. M. Chargé d'Affaires, 16 Jan. 1855, FO 16/92, PRO, p. 8.

⁴³ See EA, 14 Jan. 1848, 25 Aug. 1848, 29 May 1855, 23 Dec. 1856 and 23 Feb. 1858.

⁴⁴ For instance, by mid-1847 a copper smelter of Coquimbo had ordered Swansea coal amounting to 6,000 tons per annum, that is over half the total amount of imported coal in the province of Coquimbo in 1848. See Mr C. Brownell answering Sir C. Lemmon, M.P. in MJ, 19 June 1845 and ECRC for 1848. This copper smelter was in all likelihood Charles Lambert, whose attorney declared in 1848 in the provincial court of law that Lambert had been using imported coal since 1845, importing four or five cargoes in the first years, a number which had been increasing progressively and in 1848 would amount to 24 cargoes: pieza 6, legajo 58, A]LS. The first two cargoes of foreign coal imported into Coquimbo by Lambert were per ‘Macleod’ on 15 Sept. 1845 and per ‘Brooke’ on 14 Oct. 1845 amounting to 309 and 356 tons. See inttndente to the Minister, La Serena, 12 Dec. 1845, vol. 213, AMH. In 1864 the four leading smelters of the province of Coquimbo used 19,360 of the 21,387 tons of coal imported into the province (all British), PP, 1865, LXIV, p. 10 and ECRC for 1864. See also Harris to Clarendon, 18 Oct. 1853, in FO 16/84; Thomson to Russell, 15 Sept. 1859, in FO 16/109; and same to same, 17 Oct. 1862, in FO 16/22, PRO.

⁴⁵ Ortega, L., ‘The First Four Decades of the Chilean Coal Mining Industry, 1840–1879’, in Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 14 (1982), p. 2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁶ Ortega, L., ‘First Decades’, p. 4.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Other contemporary outlets for Chilean coal included steam navigation, exports and, probably, its use in the Copiapó-Caldera railway. See L. Ortega, ‘First Decades’, pp. 2–4 and Del Barrio, P., ‘Noticia sobre Coronel y Lota…’, in EA, 17 Sept. 1859.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ In 1855 the intendente of Coquimbo in his annual report informed the government that the coal despatched to the province for the smelting works was as follows. In 1853 22,000 tons of foreign coal and 342 tons of Chilean coal and in 1854 12,073 tons of foreign coal and 4,118 tons of Chilean coal. See EA, 15 May 1855, also B. Vicuña Mackenna, Libra del cobre, pp. 260–1, 211 and 256.

⁴⁹ ‘Report by…British Vice consul at Talcahuano…for… 1859’, in PP, 1862, LVIII, p. 427.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ See Mackenna, Vicuña, pp. 260–261Google Scholar; Alison, R. E., A los accionistas de la Campañia dt Mejico j Sudamerica. Contestatión del señor Roberto Eduardo Alison…, 1856–7, Appendix 3.Google Scholar

⁵¹ Alison, R. E., A los accionistas, pp. 8–9.Google Scholar

⁵² Del Barrio, P., ‘Noticia sobre…Coronel y Lota’, in EA, 12 Sept. 1857. For other experiments showing the convenience of mixing Welsh and Chilean coal for smelting purposes see Thomson to Russell, 27 Oct. 1862, FO 16/122, PRO.Google Scholar

⁵³ This influential lobby consisted of the British Smelters' Association, copper mining companies operating abroad, copper manufacturers and British merchants trading in foreign copper ores. Their petitions, propaganda and lobbying are published or documented in MJ and The Cambrian in the years 1845–8 and in PP, 1847, LIX, pp. 59–97 and 1847–8, XXXIX, pp. 327–9. See also Valenzuela, L., ‘Challenges’.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ See the documents mentioned in note 53. They were obviously selected to convince the British government of the folly of the duties imposed in 1842 and can be suspected of bias. However, the same views were expressed by the British Chargé d'Affaires in Chile and he was not inclined to pass light judgements. See Walpole to Aberdeen, Santiago, 4 July 1845, FO 16/55, PRO, and compare with same to same, 14 Nov. 1843, FO 16/50, PRO.

⁵⁵ Letter to C. Brownell, Valparaiso, 15; July 1844; letters from J. Waddington, Valparaiso, 6 Jan. 1845, 5 Oct. 1845, 27 Nov. 1845 and from A. P., Pampa, 18 July 1845, in PP, 1847, LIX, pp. 76, 85, 86, 88 and 89.

⁵⁶ Letter from Coquimbo, J. H., 7 Aug. 1845Google Scholar; David Ross to Joseph Hegan, Coquimbo, 20 July 1845, PP, 1847, LIX, pp. 89–90. During 1844 and 1845 Chile exported 55.4 and 65.5% of its production of copper bars to the United States and 10.4 and 14.9% to China. See ECRC for those years.

⁵⁷ This is implicit in a letter by Waddington, Templeman and Co., Valparaíso, 7 April 1845. See PP, 1847, LIX P. 83. ‘We understand that ores from Coquimbo, Copiapó and Huasco had fallen off about 45% in the last 12 months, and the next period we fear will be more discouraging if the duties at home are not suspended, and some improvement in price takes effect’. During 1844 and 1845 Chile exported 99.6 and 93.4% of its copper ore production to Great Britain.

⁵⁸ Letter from Waddington, Templeman and Co., Valparaíso, 1 Aug. 1845, in PP, 1847, LIX, p. 86.

⁵⁹ On 28 Jan. 1847 J. Waddington wrote to C. Brownell, ‘The “Conrad” is now loading, but to complete we shall have to take copper bars on freight, for all hands are smelting… I should not be surprised if the exportation (of ore) is suspended so soon as they can reckon upon a regular supply of combustible or fuel’. See PP, 1847–8, XXXIX, p. 329. The imports of copper bars to the United Kingdom increased from an average of 198 tons p. a. in 1834–43 to an average of 1,200 p. a. in the period 1844–50. See ‘Copper Imported into the United Kingdom in the year…’, in PP, several years.

⁶⁰ See sources in notes 53 and 54.

⁶¹ See MJ, 19 June 1847 and ECRC for 1846.

⁶² See letter from Waddington, Templeman and Co., Valparaíso, 17 May 1845 which indicates that the company had ‘already remitted 24,000 firebricks, iron, etc. for the purpose of erecting the furnaces, having contracted with an English furnace builder to erect six furnaces for the present’, PP, 1847, LIX, PP. 83–4.

⁶³ Garteaud, J. S., ‘A Dependent Country: Chile, 1812–1861’, PhD diss. (Univ. of California, San Diego, 1981), p. 72.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ See PP, 1847, LIX, p. 187.

⁶⁵ A letter to EMV 15 May 1847 suggested that the Lirquén establishment was about to close. In any case J. Edwards put his establishment up for sale through adverts in EMV 30 March 1847 to 28 April 1847.

⁶⁶ Letter by J. Edwards to the Minister of Finance in EA, 16 Aug. 1849.

⁶⁷ Walpole to Aberdeen, Santiago 27 July 1845, FO 16/55, PRO; and intendente of Coquimbo to the Minister, 5 Nov. 1848, vol. 215, AMH.

⁶⁸ Statement of Lambert's attorney to the Provincial Court of Law of La Serena, pieza 6, legajo 58, AJLS; intendente of Coquimbo to the Minister, 4 Sept. 1847, Archive del Ministerio del Interior, Archive Nacional de Chile (hereafter AMI).

⁶⁹ Calculated from ‘Relación de pagarés existentes en la Tesorería de la Aduana General de Coquimbo’, several volumes dealing with the province of Coquimbo for the period concerned, AMH.

⁷⁰ Alison, R. E., A los accionistas, p. 89.Google Scholar

⁷¹ R. E. Nevill to Michael Williams, 20 Aug. 1846, IX, Nevill Records, National Library of Wales.

⁷² Field, F., ‘Análisis del cobre refinado del establecimiento del Sr. Alison en Coquimbo’, in Anales de la Universidadde Chile, vol. 7 (1850), p. 385.Google Scholar See also Gillis, J. M., The U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition to the Southern Hemisphere, During the years 1849–52 (Washington, D. C, 1855), p. 280.Google Scholar

⁷³ MJ, 31 March 1849, ‘Estado de las personas que han entrado y salido por el puerto de Coquimbo en Enero de 1848’, vol. 238, AMI; EA, 13 Nov. 1852; Gillis, J. M., U.S. Naval Astronomical Expedition, pp. 279–280.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ The Cambrian, 1 Oct. 1847; Davies, M., ‘The South Australian Mining Association and the Marketing of Copper and Copper Ores, 1845–1877’, MA. diss. (University of Adelaide, 1977), pp. 123–127 and 134.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ EA, 13 Nov. 1852; Brown, N. and Turnbull, C. T., A Century of Copper (London, 1899–1900), part I, p. 16Google Scholar; Herrmann, A., Producción en Chile, p. 47.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ ‘On Copper Smelting’, in MJ, 11 Aug. 1849.

⁷⁷ ‘Pedro Dubois con d. Carlos Lambert sobre disolución de una companñía’, 15 Aug. 1839, pieza 2, legajo 30, AJLS.

⁷⁸ ‘An Account of the Family of “Bath” compiled by Edward Henry Bath…’ (1905) in Swansea City Archives; ‘Statement Contained in a Letter Received from H. Bath and Son, dated Swansea, 15 Dec. 1845’, in PP 1847, LIX, p. 72. The statement does not mention Lambert by name, but given the information presented in this article, it clearly refers to him.

⁷⁹ Intendente of Coquimbo to the Minister, 4 Sept. 1847 and 5 Nov. 1848, vols. 239, AMI and 215, AMH respectively.

⁸⁰ Mayo, John, ‘British Interests in Chile and their Influence, 1851–1886’, PhD thesis (Univ. of Oxford, 1977), p. 211Google Scholar; MJ, 12 Dec. 1857.Google Scholar

⁸¹ MJ, 15 Dec. 1855; ‘Report by British Vice Consul on the Trade of Caldera and Atacama for 1864’, in PP, 1866, LXIX p. 113 and Alison, R. E., Letter from Mr R. E. Alison, to the Shareholders of the Mexican and South American Company (London, 1858), p. 4.Google Scholar

⁸² Walpole to Aberdeen, Santiago, 27 June 1845, FO 16/55, PRO; EA, 22 Aug. 1849; Mackenna, B. Vicuña, Libra del cobre, p. 287 and no. 78, 30 Jan. 1854Google Scholar, vol. 105, Archive Notarial de Valparaíso, Archive Nacional de Chile, Santiago.

⁸³ MS 11,033/3, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London.

⁸⁴ Domeyko, I., ‘Apuntes’, pp. 6–7; Walpole to Aberdeen, Santiago, 27 June 1845, FO 16/55, PRO, from which the quotation is taken.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ De Copiapó, Compañia Ferrocarril, Informe de las operaciones del año 1881 y memoria de las 30 años 1852–1881 (Valparaíso, 1882), pp. 17–18 and table 19.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ MJ, 1 Dec. 1855, p. 769.

⁸⁷ Espech, R., Eljubileo de Atacama (Santiago, 1897), p. 28. It should be noted that prices of copper ores of 25% purity were c. three pesos at Copiapó during the 1850s so that prior to 1851 the cost of transport to the coast very considerably increased the total cost of production.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ See Table 5. The negative correlation of coal and freight rates for 1858–64 is analysed in Menadier, J., ‘Estudios económicos sobre el carbón de piedra’, in Boletin de la Sociedad de Agricultura, vol. 1, no. 2, 3 March 1869, pp. 17–29, passim. See also annual shipping reports in The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, London for the years 1858 and 1859 (1 Jan. 1859 and 4 Jan. 1860), which single out the rise of the freight rates for Peruvian guano as a reason for the decline in the outward freight rates of coal to the West Coast of South America. See also Harris to Clarendon, Santiago 10 Oct. 1853, FO 16/84, RPO.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ They were the bad harvest of 1853, the Australian demand for shipping and, more lastingly, the Crimean war, whose abrupt end in 1856 ‘threw out of employ a vast multitude of ships which had been used directly and indirectly for the purpose of the war’. See ‘The Shipping Trade’ (annual reports), in The Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, 3 Jan. 1855, 31 Dec. 1855 and 2 Jan. 1857.

⁹⁰ See EMV, 18 Feb. 1853 and 1 March 1853 and its fortnightly quotations for 1853.

⁹¹ Mackenna, B. Vicuña, Libra del Cobre, pp. 260–261 and EMV, 30 June 1854, 17 June 1854 and 23 Aug. 1854. Another reason for the adoption of Chilean coal in the copper works of the north was ‘the almost incredible improvement in the quality of native coal since March 1854’, R. E. Alison, A los accionistas, appendix 3.Google Scholar

⁸² EMV, 12 April 1854; EA, 12 Sept. 1857.

⁸³ The four largest smelters of the province of Coquimbo, Charles Lambert, J. Edwards, the Mexican and South American Company and the Compañía Chilena de Fundiciones, were exporting, in 1856, 929 tons of copper bars, 6,855 tons of copper regulus and 4,445 tons of copper ore. Calculated from ‘Estado que demuestra la cantidad de minerales I cobre en barra esportados por la provincia de Coquimbo en el año 1856’, vol. 328, AMH.

⁹⁴ Thomson to Russell, Santiago, 27 Oct. 1862, FO 16/122, PRO and EA, 12 Sept. 1857.

⁹⁵ Przeworski, J. F., Decline of the Copper Industry, pp. 174–188.Google Scholar

⁹⁶ Valenzuela, L., ‘Challenges’; see also Table 9 below.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ ibid.

⁹⁸ A well-informed writer, J. V., in EMV, 4 May 1863, estimated refining costs as over nine times higher in Chile than in South Wales, and the price of coal as between four and eight times higher in Chile than in South Wales. Non-systematic information seen by us suggests that the price of coal was two to four times higher in Chile than in South Wales. See also Harris to Clarendon, Santiago, 10 Oct. 1853, FO 16/84, PRO who notes the higher price of coal and bricks in Chile. As for labour, R. O. Roberts suggests a relatively stable rate of 305. (c. 7.5 pesos) per week for skilled refiners and half of that for other workers in the copper works of South Wales during the nineteenth century. These wage rates were roughly the same as those paid in the works of P. F. Vicuña and R. E. Alison in the 1850s. See Roberts, R. O., ‘Smelting’, p. 65Google Scholar; Vicuña, P. F., Resumen analitico que de los cargo s que de sus mis mas cuentas se deducen contra A. Hemmenivay i Campania (Santiago, 1859)Google Scholar, documento no. 3, and Alison, R. E., A los accionistas, p. 154.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Export costs have been calculated based on data provided by ‘Protection to the British Miner’ document no. 51, in MJ, 12 April 1845. For ores of 25 % fine, items have been changed to allow for the conditions prevailing in the 18505 as follows: carriage from the mines to the coast £2.4s. (£2.15s. in the original), freight rates £4 (£5.5s.), export duty in Chile £0.15s. (£0.10s.), insurance £0.12s. (£o.12s.6d.), preparing for sale and commission £1.18s.6d. (£1.18s.6d.). For ores of 12.5% and regulus of 50% most of the charges remain the same but insurance and export duty have been halved and doubled respectively.

¹⁰⁰ Prices of Chilean bars (smelted copper) from ‘Last Current Prices of Metals’; in MJ for those years. Cost of transforming a ton of Chilean bars into a ton of tough copper from 11 Jan. 1887, Memorandum Book of George Nancarrow, Kirkham 2, University College of Swansea, which puts the cost of refining Chilean bars (96% fine) into tough copper at £1.5s. plus 3.5% of loss of copper at say £100, equals £3.10s.

¹⁰¹ Annual Accounts, to W. Gibbs and Co., Tacna, London, 24 Aug. 1858, MS 11,471/1, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London.

¹⁰² On 17 April 1852 MJ notes ‘For some time Mr Lambert has sent coal from [Swansea], as ballast, to Coquimbo to smelt the ore there, and it is now, we learn, his intention to continue this practice only so far as the first stages of the process are concerned, and to bring in the state of regulus [the copper] to this country, to be converted into pure copper’. See also the answers of Mr Lambert Jr to the Royal Commission on Noxious Vapours in ‘Mr Charles [J.] Lambert Examined’, in PP, 1878, LIV, p. 463. Gillis, J. M., U.S. Naval Astronomical Expeditions, p. 272 and MJ vol. 25 (1855), p. 389 also suggest a reduction of the Lambert works in Chile in the mid-1850s.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Data compiled from ‘Latest Foreign Arrivals’, The Cambrian, 1853–9. The total figure of the cargoes mentioned by The Cambrian is around 80% of the ore and c. 75% of the regulus imported into Swansea according to ‘Copper imported into the United Kingdom in the year…’, in PP, several years.

¹⁰⁴ Data calculated from ‘Estado…’, cited in note 93.

¹⁰⁵ Calculated from ‘Relación de los pagarés por cumplir existentes en caja en fin del presente mes’, volumes for the province of Coquimbo during these years, AMH.

¹⁰⁶ See Boletín de la Sociedad de Fomento Fabril, vol. I (1884), pp. 123–124.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ Roberts, R. O., ‘Enterprise and Capital for Non-ferrous Metal Smelting in Glamorgan, 1694–1924’, in Morgannrvg, vol. 23 (1979), p. 58.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁸ ‘Scale of Working at Sundry Copper Works’ and ‘Number of Vessels sheeted at [London], Liverpool and the Clyde’, in Memorandum book, S I, Yorkshire Imperial Metals Mss, University College, Swansea, passim.

¹⁰⁹ MJ, 29 Nov. 1856, p. 802. The editorial of EMV, 14 Feb. 1850 suggests that copper sheet production in Lambert's works was aimed at providing sheeting for ships.

¹¹⁰ Roberts, R. O., ‘Enterprise’, p. 58Google Scholar; ‘Mr. Charles [J.] Lambert examined’, in PP, 1878, XLIV, p. 507.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Consular report for the province of Coquimbo for 1872, in PP, 1873, LXV, p. 43.

¹¹² EMV, 19 Feb. 1863 and our own estimates from ‘Latest Foreign Arrivals’, The Cambrian for those years.

¹¹³ Although with ups and downs, from the 1850s to the 1870s Lambert's operations at Brillador seem to have been much more dynamic than his smelting concern at Compania. His mines at Brillador were reported to employ 189 men in the early 1850s, 300 in 1862, 250 in 1864, while in 1878 the mines were described as having ‘large exploitation works with powerful machines’. See Mayo, J., British Merchants, p. 153Google Scholar; ‘Estado que manifiesta el numero de minas…’, La Serena, 4 Sept. 1862, vol. 443, AMH; consular report for the province of Coquimbo, 1864, in PP, 1865, vol. LIV, p. 10; and Antonio Alfonso al ministro, La Serena, 29 March 1878, vol. 974, AMH.

¹¹⁴ ‘privileges exclusivos concedidos en Chile’, in Boletin de la Sociedadde Fomento Fabril, vol. 5 (1888), pp. 353–354 and 419Google Scholar; EMV, 31 March 1863Google Scholar; consular report for the province of Coquimbo, 1866, in PP, 1867–8, LXVII, p. 4.

¹¹⁵ See Véliz, C., ‘Egaña, passimGoogle Scholar; Mayo, J., British Merchants, pp. 152–155Google Scholar; and, especially ‘Mr Charles [J.] Lambert examined’, in PP, 1878, XLIV, pp. 506–508.Google Scholar

¹¹⁶ Mackenna, B. Vicuña, Libra del cobre, p. 366, J. V., ‘Elcobre’, part III, in EMV, 4 May 1863. We have found no evidence that Lambert participated in the monopsonic activities of the British Smelters Association to manipulate the price of copper ore. As a copper importer he was a natural enemy of the monopsony, but his entrance into the British copper smelting industry was preceded by other independent smelters, and by 1851, when he started erecting his works, the difference between the price of refined copper and that of the copper ore had been severely reduced (see below, especially Table 9). On the other hand, there is at least one piece of evidence which proves his participation, along with the major British smelters, in fixing the price of refined and manufactured copper according to the price of Chilean bars, an agreement which of course did not damage the interest of the Chilean miners. See ‘Trade Meeting’, 14 Dec. 1868, Memorandum Book, S I, Yorkshire Imperial Metals Papers, University College, Swansea.Google Scholar

¹¹⁷ Imports of Chilean bar copper into the USA from 1 Oct. 1834 to 30 June 1846 amounted to US$4,663,515 or 11,945 tons at 16 cents of dollar per Ib. The total export of Chilean copper from 1835–43 was 29,384 tons. See Letter from the Secretary of the Treasury transmitting statements showing the Commerce and Navigation of the United States for the year…, several years and sources in Table I.

¹¹⁸ See ECRC for those years.

¹¹⁹ Douglas, James, ‘Historical Sketch of Copper Smelting in the United States’, in Mineral Industry, vol. IV (1895), pp. 269–286, passim.Google Scholar

¹²⁰ Douglas, J., ‘Historical Sketch’, pp. 273 and 275Google Scholar; Taussig, F. W., Some Aspects of the Tariff Question (Cambridge, Mass., 1915), p. 161.Google Scholar

¹²¹ MJ, 12 April 1845, p. 138, document no. 31; and 6 March 1847, p. 99.

¹⁸² French purchasers of copper were mainly manufacturers who preferred bar copper which was then refined and manufactured. Some manufacturers, however, used a mixture of coarse (i.e. unrefined) copper and rich copper ores to produce manufactured copper and were thus also smelting and refining. See G. L. M. Gibbs to Hayne, London 1 Aug. 1864 in MS 11,037/1, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London; and Direction des Mines, Ministère de l'Agriculture, du Commerce et des Travailles Publics, Resumé des travaux statistiques de l'administration des mines en… for the years 1847–60.

¹²³ See L. Valenzuela, ‘Challengers’, Table 3; and letter by ‘A. B.’ in MJ, 6 March 1847, which states that Chilean copper ‘is taking the place of English copper in the French, American and Indian markets’. See also ‘Report on the state of the metal trade for 1847’, MJ, 9 Jan. 1847.

¹²⁴ See Brown, and Turnbull, , A Century of Copper, part I, p. 14Google Scholar, which states that the increase of bar production in Chile during 1856–65 ‘enable ‘d’ the continental consumers to draw their supplies direct, instead of having to purchase refined copper from the English smelters under somewhat arbitrary conditions’. Roberts, R. O., ‘Development’, pp. 114–115 documents these ‘arbitrary conditions’ during the late 1850s. The British Consul General in Chile explained the increase of copper exports to France in 1858 by the large contract (almost 1,000 tons) entered into by a major Chilean miner with the agents of the ‘Crédit Mobile’. See Thomson to Russell, Santiago, 26 Sept. 1859, FO 16/110, PRO.Google Scholar

¹²⁵ Calculated from ECRC for these years.

¹²⁶ See L. Valenzuela, ‘Challenges’.

¹²⁷ Mayo, J., ‘Before the Nitrate Era: British Commission Houses and the Chilean Economy, 1850–80’, journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 11 (1979), pp. 292–296CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rector, J., ‘Transformaciones comerciales producidas por la independencia de Chile’, Rcvista Chilena de Historia y Geografia, no. 144 (1976), p. 72.Google Scholar

¹²⁸ Valenzuela, L., ‘Challenges’.Google Scholar

¹²⁹ A. P. Vivian business note book, pp. 121ff, D/DGV-1A, Vivian Collection, West Glamorgan Area Record Office, Swansea.

¹³⁰ J. C. Hayne of W. Gibbs and CO., Valparaíso to Messrs W. Gibbs and Co., Tacna, 28 April 1857, MS 11,469/2, p. 296, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London.

¹³¹ G. L. M. Gibbs to H. Bath 23 July 1863; same to A. Druce, Chairman of the Associated Copper Companies, London, 4 May 1863, MS 11,037/1, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London.

¹³² Messrs A. Gibbs and Sons to Messrs W. Gibbs and Co., London, 8 April 1859, Annual Accounts, MS 11,471/1, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London. The net price received by the Chilean exporters consigning to A. Gibbs and Sons in 1858 was 9.5 pesos per quintal of regulus of 50% fine copper and 3.20 pesos per quintal of ore of 19.5% fine copper. This compares favourably with prices in Chile in 1858. See ‘Precios corrientes en Valparaíso’, in EMV for that year.

¹³³ Private annual accounts, A. Gibbs and Sons to W. Gibbs and Co., 2 March 1860 and 29 Jan. 1864, MS 11,471/1, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London.

¹³⁴ G. L. M. Gibbs to Hussey Vivian, 11 June 1863, MS 11,037/1, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London.

¹³⁵ G. L. M. Gibbs to H.Bath, London, 25 May 1863, MS 11,037/1, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London.

¹³⁵ See Accounts of William Gibbs and Co., Valparaíso 1848–57 and 1858–62, MS 11,033/3 and MS 11,033/4, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London; L. Valenzuela ‘Challenges’, Table 3; and ECRC for those years.

¹³⁷ G. L. M. Gibbs to Hayne, 1 Aug. 1864, MS 11,037/1, Gibbs Papers, Guildhall Library, London; and The Economist, 14 March 1868.

¹³⁸ For the whole of this section we have relied, unless otherwise stated, on the same sources as for Table 3. Data for 1847 come from ‘Informe del intendente Melgarejo al ministro del interior’, La Serena, 4 Sept. 1847, vol. 239, AMI.

¹³⁹ Mackenna, B. Vicuña, Libra del Cobre, pp. 192–193Google Scholar, Alison, R. E., A los accionistas, pp. 139–140.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁰ Source referred to in note 93; and Alison, R. E., To the Shareholders, p. 13.Google Scholar

¹⁴¹ EA, 23 Oct. 1858; MJ, 17 Sept. 1859.

¹⁴² Intendente to the Minister, 19 May 1865, vol. 473, AMI.

¹⁴³ BT 31,283/965, PRO.

¹⁴⁴ Herrmann, A., Productión en Chile, p. 48. He was until 1854 or 1855 an employee of Vivian and Sons, large copper smelters of Swansea.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁵ García, C., ‘Metalutgia del cobre en la ptovincia de Aconcagua’, in Anales de la Universidad de Chile, Oct. 1861, pp. 451–502Google Scholar, passim, especially appendix; and Mackenna, B. Vicuña, Libra del cobre, pp. 301–342, passim.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁶ This was certainly the case for the period 1844–59 wrien correlations between selected variables were as follows: Percentage of fine copper exported in the shape of copper bars/prices of copper ore in Swansea, — 0.91; copper bars/freight rates to Swansea, — 0.07; copper bars/price of copper ore in Valparaíso, — 0.71; copper bars/prices of British coal in Chile, — 0.33; copper bars/total regulus and ore exported through the Copiapó exporting zone, — 0.72.

¹⁴⁷ EMV, 7 Sept. 1858 and 10 May 1860.

¹⁴⁸ The Economist, 14 March 1868, quote in p. 20.

¹⁴⁹ Davies, M., ‘South Australian Mining Association’, pp. 204–216.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁰ ‘Memoria del intendente de Coquimbo’, in EA, 15 May 1855.

¹⁵¹ Ortega, L., ‘First Decades’, p. 13Google Scholar and passim; Przeworski, J. F., Decline of the Copper Industry, pp. 180–185. According to our calculations, based on Thomson to Russell, 17 Oct. 1862, FO 1/122, PRO, there were no advantages, quite the contrary, in purely smelting in the province. The ratio ore (or 10% copper content) to coal used to smelt it into bars was 10 to 9, therefore, freight rates being equal, it was more convenient to smelt close to the mines. The ratio regulus (of 50%) to coal to produce bars was even less advantageous: 10 to 6.75. Unfortunately we have no data on the fuel used for the refining of copper in Chile but A 15,166, Vivian Papers, National Library of Wales, indicates that the furnaces of Vivian and Sons were able to smelt 10 tons and refine 15 tons in 24 hours. If we assume the consumption of the same amount of fuel in both types of furnace and apply it to the Lota works, the ratio between copper regulus to refined copper would be 1 to 1.25. It is only in that case (smelting and refining regulus) that there seem to have been advantages in the location of the copper works close to the coal, and the Lota works did produce refined copper. An added bonus or, rather, a necessity for the company, was probably the fact that, as they delivered coal to the northern provinces, a back cargo was necessary for their ships in order to keep costs low and furnace material was the only bulky commodity produced in the mining regions which would have a use in the south.Google Scholar

¹⁵² This view of the effects of the British smelters' monopsony/monopoly (i.e. stimulating copper smelting in the mining regions) is far from being widely accepted. Toomey, , in Vivian and Sons, pp. 68–73Google Scholar, by avoiding the critical years 1842–5, is led to the conclusion that these monopolistic practices ‘had a very limited influence on the growth of foreign copper smelting’ (c. 4%). Craig, R., in ‘The Copper Ore Trade’, in Alexander, D. and Ommer, R. (eds.), Volumes Not Values: Canadian Sailing Ships and World Trade (Saint John, Newfoundland, 1979), pp. 282–283Google Scholar, by omission, dismisses the importance of the monopsonistic collusion of the British Smelters Association. More cautiously, Roberts, R. O., ‘Development’, p. 115Google Scholar and Newell, E. ‘“Copperpolis”: The Rise and Fall of the Copper Industry in the Swansea District, 1826–1931’, in Easiness History, vol. 32, no. 3 (1990), p. 85, consider these practices as an influence in encouraging smelting in the mining regions. For the case of Chile in the period 1845–7, we have calculated that the impact of the monopoly prices imposed by the British smelters accounted for over 20% of the loss of rents suffered by the Chilean miners. The rest of this loss was an effect of the duty applied in Britain on the import of foreign copper ore (34%), and the diseconomies of transport implicit in paying high freights for a low added-value product (46%).Google Scholar See Valenzuela, L., ‘Monopolistic Practices in the International Copper Market. British Smelters and Foreign Mines. 1840–1860’, unpubl. ms. (Swansea, 1988), available in the library of the University College, Swansea.Google Scholar

¹⁵³ Calculated according to Valenzuela, L., ‘Challenges’, table 5.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁴ Valenzuela, L., ‘Challenges’, table 5Google Scholar; Davies, M., ‘South Australian Mining Association’, appendix 28.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁵ Davies, M., ‘South Australian Mining Association’, passim, especially pp. 212–216 and appendices 11 and 18.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁶ See The Cambrian, 24 Oct. 1862, p. 5, and ‘Latest Foreign Arrivals’ in the same paper, several years. This shows imports of 34,082 tons of copper ore and 2,852 tons of regulus sent by the Royal Copper Mines of Cobre Association from Cuba to Swansea in the period 1863–9. The figure of the Board of Trade for regulus imported from Cuba (probably the real amount of the imports of the company) was 4,254 for 1863–9. See ‘Copper Imported into the United Kingdom During the Year…’, in PP, several years.

¹⁵⁷ Valenzuela, L., ‘Challenges’.Google Scholar

¹⁵⁸ Company's meeting, reported in MJ, 2 May 1846. For the difficulties faced by copper mining companies trying to smelt their own ores see M. Davies, ‘South Australian Mining Association’, pp. 204fT., and MJ, 25 June 1853, p. 387.

¹⁵⁸ See company meetings reported in MJ. The smelting operations were entrusted to its twin company the Copiapó Smelting Company with works at Caldera (see above).

¹⁵⁹ See Radetzki, M., ‘Developing Countries’, pp. 332–333Google Scholar; Kñakal, J., ‘Transnational’, p. 79Google Scholar; Hughes, H., ‘Economic Rents, the Distribution of Gains from Mineral Exploitation, and Mineral Development Policy’, in World Development, vol. 3 (1975), pp. 822–823.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Lim, D., ‘Industrial Processing and Location: A Study of Tin’, World Development, vol. 8 (1980), pp. 205–212, who ‘…finds no economic case for greater processing to be carried out in the tin producing less developed countries’.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹⁶¹ This is suggested by the imports of these articles into Chile during the period. During the years 1844–9 tne annua' average of the imports of copper sheets and nails was 55.2 and 6.6 tons respectively (or a combined value of over £7,000). This fell to 14.1 and 3.2 tons in 1851 and to an annual average of 0.1 and 1.2 tons for the years 1852–3 respectively, recovering their former level only in the last half of 1854. See ECRC for those years. In 1884 the Sociedad de Fomento Fabril recommended a state subsidy for such an industry, and its president, Roman Espech, advocated a massive programme of substituting national copper products for parts of machines or engines. See Przeworski, J. F., Decline of the Copper Industry, pp. 37–38.Google Scholar

¹⁶² Kirsh, H. W., Industrial Development in a Traditional Society. The Conflict of Entrepreneur-ship and Modernisation in Chile (Gainsville, 1977), p. 32.Google Scholar Herrmann indicates that until 1894 almost all the copper sulphate was imported since the copper sulphate manufactured in Chile was too contaminated with iron. He estimates that Chilean average annual production was 9 tons. However the mining engineer H. Sewell, who actually saw the manufacturing process at Compañía, describes the product as ‘chemically pure’. Herrmann, A., La Producción, p. 56Google Scholar; Sewell, H., letter to the MJ, 24 Feb. 1877, p. 196.Google Scholar

¹⁶³ González, M., ‘El carbón de piedra en Chile’, part III, in EMV, 30 May 1862. For the period under study we have seen records or ores of 9.8% fine being exported, during 1856 when the price of copper ores at Swansea was very high. The majority of the ores exported that year were over 15% fine. See ‘Estado que demuestra la cantidad de metales i cobre en barra esportados pot la provincia de Coquimbo en el ano 1856’, in vol. 328, AMH. At that time Chilean smelters processed grades of ore as low as 6% or 7%. See for instance no. 154, vol. 169 and no. 273, vol. 113, ANLS.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁴ Ortega, L., ‘First Decades’, p. 7Google Scholar; EMV, 17 Nov. 1858, 15 Sept. 1869 and 21 Jan. 1871.Google Scholar

¹⁶⁵ For the industrial and other investments of some of the major copper smelters see for instance Mackenna, B. Vicuña, Libra del cobre, pp. 36–38; and ‘José Tomás Urmeneta’, ‘Maximiano Errázuriz’, ‘Matías Cousiño’ and ‘Luis Cousiño’Google Scholar in Figueroa, P. P., Diccionario biográfico de Chile, 3 vols. (Santiago, 1897–1901).Google Scholar