United States Trade and Latin America: The Wilson Years

Abstract

W ORLD WAR I offered the United States a unique commercial opportunity, not only to supply the European belligerent powers with needed goods but also to gain control of trade in the world-particularly Latin America-that had long been dominated by England and Germany. While historians have given much attention to the role of the United States as a merchant for the belligerent powers, they have all but neglected the worldwide commercial thrust of Americans during this period. Yet to government officials as well as to influential business leaders the prospect of an extensive trade on a permanent basis with markets hitherto dominated by Europe was at least as enticing as the temporarily enlarged trade with Europe, which, they realized, would be drastically reduced once the war ended. Secretary of Commerce William C. Redfield had already laid the basis for extending the nation's trade even before the outbreak of hostilities. One of the neglected figures of Woodrow Wilson's administration, Redfield had reorganized his department soon after taking office, especially its Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce. He had turned it into a highly efficient agency for foreign commercial development. He had also brought about close business-government cooperation in trade matters, a relationship which had previously been lacking. As a result of Redfield's efforts and certain measures passed during the first year of Wilson's administration, the United States was already prepared when the war began to challenge Europe's commercial hegemony in Latin America. While the opening of the struggle in August 1914, at first threatened to bring ruin to the nation's economy, the crisis was short lived. Even as the nation encountered financial difficulty, business and administration leaders sensed the opportunity which the war afforded them in Latin America. In-