Industry and Underdevelopment: The Industrialization of Mexico, 1890–1940 by Stephen H. Haber

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 179 the relatedness of custom and innovation. Moreover, there is a warmth and appreciation, even affection, for the cloth workers which makes this keenly perceptive book one to savor both for its insight and contribution to knowledge as well as for its style. Jennifer Tann Dr. Tann is professor of innovation studies at the University of Birmingham and author of several papers on the West of England woolen cloth industry Industry and Underdevelopment: The Industrialization of Mexico, 1890— 1940. By Stephen H. Haber. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1989. Pp. xv + 237; tables, notes, bibliography, index. $35.00. Now that Mexico wishes to integrate its economy into world markets, it is well to review what happened the first time around. Economists and political scientists often forget that Mexicans once before undertook the economic reforms necessary to invite in foreign investment and technology. During the Porfiriato (the long reign of President Porfirio Diaz from 1876 to 1911), Mexico underwent an intense experience at technological renovation. The opening ushered in a period of extensive development of primary exports, but domes­ tic industrialization was also initiated. This first period of capitalist development was followed by the Mexican Revolution (1910—20), the first social upheaval of the 20th century. Stephen Haber reminds us that industrial development by domestic private capital was inhibited neither by the export dominance of the Porfirian economy nor by the social reforms of the Revolution. Foreign capitalists developed the costly infrastructure of the Mexican economy—railways, mining, and public utilities. Mexican landowners remained largely responsible for growth of agricultural production for export and domestic consumption. Both groups suffered from revolutionary reforms. A domestic group of industrialists—many of them of immigrant origin—established factories to manufacture beer, soap, cement, cotton textiles, cigarettes, paper, glass, and steel. If anything, they have been pampered by the party and government that consolidated the Revolution, as Haber demonstrates. Technology played a large role in how that industrialization played out. The first industrialists imported the advanced capital equipment of the age. At the turn of the century, the Mexican economy was more than three generations behind that of the United States and Western Europe. Yet the new industrialists purchased the most advanced technology. It proved to be too efficient for the underdeveloped Mexican market. The new plants all had excess capacity because Mexican consumers were too few and too indigent for modern industrial competition. Mexican workers also were less productive 180 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE than those in the industrialized world. Therefore, the leading man­ ufacturers in each industrial sector cooperated to establish monopo­ lies and oligopolies, dividing up the markets. Prices tended to be high, and profits sufficed but hardly abounded, says Haber. Permanently unable to compete on international markets, the domestic industrial­ ists kept pressing the government to continue tariff protections. Having its own reasons for industrial self-sufficiency (i.e., economic nationalism and labor concessions), the government before and after the Revolution acquiesced to its inefficient manufacturers. Mexican industry had ossified by the 1940s. It did not make enough profit to warrant reinvestment in the latest technology available. Nor did Mexican industry produce its own technology. Haber’s is a perceptive book, although the author occasionally attributes too much agency to his subject. Where he asserts that “the path of industrialization that Mexico has followed over the last century has in large part determined the development of the nation’s polity and society” (p. 8), a critic might actually reverse the cause and effect. The Porfirian state in the 1890s had promoted economic modernization because the industrialized world was passing Mexico by. Mexican elites and politicians feared for their positions if the United States overwhelmed Mexico or if a weakened Mexican polity came apart. Therefore, they sought capitalist economic development. Mexicans sought industrialization, although the latter did not turn into the dynamic, self-sustaining, competitive capitalism for which they had yearned. This is precisely the position in which Mexico now finds itself. Mexican elites and politicians once again are attempting economic reform. Haber’s book will aid the economist and political scientist in understanding where this renewed effort might lead. Jonathan C. Brown Dr. Brown teaches...