Resumo

MARTINEZ DELGADO, Gerardo. The Network Era: Public Services, Big Business and International Finance in Early 20^th Century Mexican Cities. Hist. mex. [online]. 2021, vol.70, n.4, pp.1599-1660.  Epub 04-Maio-2021. ISSN 2448-6531.  https://doi.org/10.24201/hm.v70i4.4239.

In the first decade of the 20th Century, Mexico was the site of the accumulation and investment of domestic and foreign capital dedicated to the construction of infrastructure or the provision of public services in cities across the country. This was a key moment in the country’s urban, technological, economic and business history: it was the era of financial networks, networks of public services and the expansion of businesses. This article studies the entrepreneurial environment of those years, paying special attention to the Compañía Bancaria de Fomento y Bienes Raíces and the interests of the businessman Enrique Schöndube, as well as Weetman Pearson and The Mexican Light and Power Company, analyzing their importance compared to other enterprises of lesser reach. This article follows the process of their founding and the rules of capitalist expansion under which they acted in order to explain changes that occurred on the urban and economic levels, as well as analyzing their operational mechanisms, the diversification of their investments, their international connections and their relationship with other companies. In the end, it analyzes their scope and outlines the new business environment that arose out of the Mexican Revolution, particularly reflecting on the state of Mexico’s cities and the project to provide them with service networks. Through the bibliographic analysis of particular cases, official and private documentation, statistical series and press clippings, among other sources, this article contributes to the knowledge of business history and articulates lines of comparative interpretation, allowing us to offer a more complete vision of Mexico’s cities as a whole and the presence of networks, whether business or financial, of services or of technicians, technologies and agents.

Palavras-chave : Big Business; International Finance; Public Service Networks; Mexican Cities; Porfiriato.

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