Trading nations: architecture, informal empire, and the Scottish cast iron industry in Argentina
Date
05/07/2018Author
Juarez, Lucia Jimena
Metadata
Abstract
Bridges, railways stations, warehouses, bandstands, fountains, shop fronts, lamps,
gates and other cast-iron elements can still be found throughout Argentina. Some
of these elements are impressive, others humble; some are abandoned, others are
still in use. Many are part of important monuments; others are so incorporated
into the urban landscape that they almost go unnoticed. When one’s attention is
drawn to these features, however, a company nameplate and place of origin –
‘London’, Liverpool’, ‘Glasgow’ – is usually visible. These elements are so far
from Argentina that their appearance begs several questions: why are most of the
visible nameplates British? Are they the same as those found in London,
Liverpool and Glasgow, or in former British colonies like India, South Africa or
Australia? If so, why? Can we think of these elements as British imperial
architecture in Argentina? In what context can their arrival in Argentina be
understood? Who commissioned and designed them? Are there more Scottish
nameplates than English, or any other? Does it matter? Did these elements act as
models that were later copied or imitated by local manufacturers? Did they affect
architecture and urban development in Argentina? If architecture reflects the view
of a society, what do these elements reflect?
Considering the wider context of British cast iron manufacturing, this dissertation
asks what role Scotland’s burgeoning cast iron industry played in the export of
British iron products to Argentina during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. If in recent years historians have reconsidered the specific
contributions of Scotland and its people to the growth and expansion of Great
Britain as an imperial power, this dissertation takes this analysis into the realm of
cast iron as an export industry. If British cast iron was ubiquitous throughout the
developed world during this period, how do we begin to understand the Scottish
cast iron industry as a major contributor to this trade? Here Argentina is used as a
micro-study in an attempt to measure and understand that contribution. In
addressing some of the above questions, the dissertation attempts to form a
coherent analysis of the architectural, historic, cultural and economic dimensions
of the phenomenon of Scottish architectural ironwork in Argentina. In so doing,
the study hopes to shed light on larger questions concerning British ‘informal’
imperialism, considering exports of cast iron as a significant component in
Britain’s attempts at economic leverage and coercion in Argentina during that
country’s most dramatic period of development and urbanisation.
The dissertation arrives at the conclusion that British cast-iron elements found in
Argentina are the same or similar to elements found in Great Britain and its
colonial empire because they arrived in Argentina through a process of
commercial expansion that involved imperial trade routes, global networks,
cooperation between British architects and engineers, as well as migration and the
assistance of the pro-British elite in Argentina. It is argued that British iron in
general, and Scottish in particular, contributed to the expansion of British power
and influence in the region through helping shape the architectural and urban
environments of Argentina.
To reach this conclusion, the thesis is structured in three sections dealing with the
three most significant aspects of the thesis: informal empire in Argentina, the iron
trade, and Scottish cast-iron architecture in Argentina.