The Origins and Determinants of Technological Change in Late Nineteenth Century Mexico

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

Investigators

Abstract

SES 0217001 -- The Origins and Determinants of Technological Change in Late Nineteenth Century Mexico Edward Beatty, University of Notre Dame Where domestic invention and subsequent innovation largely underlay early industrialization in Britain and the United States, later industrializing nations relied heavily on the importation of technologies from abroad. Yet new machines and processes rarely transferred across national borders without substantial friction and adaptation in new environments. Moreover, transfer did not always or automatically lead to the diffusion of productivity gains and, in many places, had little impact on domestic technological capabilities. This historical project uses late nineteenth century Mexico to explore current conceptions in the economic and social construction literature about technology transfer and its impact on domestic capabilities. First, the project reconstructs Mexico's late-century experience of technological change. Historians of Mexico have long known that new productive technologies lay at the center of accelerating economic and social change in these decades. But they have conventionally viewed this experience as one dominated by foreign technologies, initiated by foreign entrepreneurs, and limited to a relative handful of industries and regions. Railroads, electricity, and metallurgy provide the classic cases in a limited and anecdotal literature. Most assert that there was little diffusion of know-how, arguing implicitly or explicitly that imported foreign techniques had little or no impact on domestic capabilities. Yet no systematic work on these issues has been done. Using quantitative evidence and several case studies, this project traces and explains central patterns of technological change. Second, the project explores those factors which shaped the relationship between technology transfer and domestic technological capabilities. This requires moving beyond attention to the physical importation of machines and processes. Disparities between imported technology and the local environment (including the economic, political, and socio-cultural context) condition whether technology transfer leads to dependence or to an increased capacity to invent, improve, and innovate. In late nineteenth century Mexico, these disparities were substantial, and the question remains, to what degree did they retard diffusion and domestic capacity or, in contrast, were surmountable? Recent work suggests that in some cases (but not all) socio-cultural differences were malleable and technology transfer could effectively stimulate an initially laggard domestic capacity. Based upon the archival research supported by this award, the project makes contributions to the study of Mexican economic history as well as to historical studies of technology. The PI adopts insights from both economic and social approaches to technological change and ultimately seeks to integrate these in publications and teaching. Collaborative work with scholars in Mexico and Spain broadens the reach of this work. In addition to detailed case studies, one by-product includes a computer database of 11,000 Mexican patents registered between 1850-1910. The database is to be made available to researchers in Mexico and elsewhere. Other projected outcomes of the project include a series of articles and a university press monograph.