British Lions And Mexican Eagles

British Lions and Mexican Eagles

British Lions and Mexican Eagles
Business, Politics, and Empire in the Career of Weetman Pearson in Mexico, 1889–1919

Paul Garner

;

Stanford University Press Stanford, California

Stanford University Press Stanford, California ©2011 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All rights reserved. This book has beenpublished with the assistance of The School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Leeds. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written permission of Stanford University Press. Printed in the United States ofAmerica on acid-free, archival-quality paper Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Garner, Paul H. author. British lions and Mexican eagles : business, politics, and empire in the career of Weetman Pearson in Mexico, 1889-1919 / Paul Garner. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-8047-7445-1 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Cowdray, Weetman Pearson, Viscount, 1856-1927.2. Engineers— Great Britain—Biography. 3. Businessmen—Great Britain—Biography. 4. Corporations, British—Mexico—History. 5. Great Britain—Relations— Mexico. 6. Mexico—Relations—Great Britain. 7. Mexico—History— 1867–1910. 8. Mexico—History—Revolution, 1910–1920. I. Title. TA140.C67G37 2011 624.092—dc22 [B] 2011009656 Typeset by Westchester Book Group in 10/12 Sabon

For Louise

Table ofContents

Acknowledgments, ix Introduction, 1 1. Weetman Pearson in Historical and Historiographical Context: British-Mexican Relations, Informal Empire, Mexican National Development, and the Rise of Global Business in the Late Nineteenth Century, 6 2. British Lions: Business and Politics in Late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, 31 3. The Foundations of a Business Empire: The Gran Canal in Mexico,1889–1900, 61 4. The Extension of Empire: The Tehuantepec National Railway, 1896–1918, 94 5. The Birth of El Aguila and the Apotheosis of Empire, 1901–10, 138 6. The Empire Strikes Back: Revolution and Counter-Revolution, 1911–13, 165 7. The Unravelling of Empire: Civil War and World War, 1914–19, 201 Conclusions, 230 Appendix, 241 Notes, 243 Bibliography, 301 Index, 311

Acknowledgments

I amdeeply indebted to a number of institutions and individuals who have helped me in the research and writing for this book. I appreciate the support of the Nuffield Foundation, the British Academy, the Central Research Fund of the University of London, Pearson PLC, and the Leverhulme Trust in sponsoring different periods of research and writing over the past decade. I am grateful to my formeremployer, Goldsmiths, University of London, for obliging me to give an inaugural lecture in which I first explored the connections between the UK and Mexico in the late nineteenth century, and used the case of Pearson/Cowdray to connect Mexico to the development of Hispanic Studies in the UK. Special thanks go to Eric Van Young and Wayne Cornelius of the University of California, San Diego, forinviting me as a Guest Scholar in 2002–03 to the Center for US-Mexican Studies, where the project began to take shape. In Mexico, Javier Garciadiego, Guillermo Palacios, Carlos Marichal, and Ariel Rodríguez have generously invited me at different times to take advantage of the superb research facilities of the Centro de Estudios Históricos at the Colegio de México. Roger Bartra invited me to present myideas to the Seminario de Estudios Avanzados in the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales at UNAM in 2005. The current and former directors of the Pemex Historical Archive, Eduardo Clavé and Alberto García López Galindo, generously allowed me access to the archive’s significant holdings on El Aguila in 2005 and 2007. I am also grateful to the University of Leeds for appointing me to the Cowdray...