"Origins and Expansion of a big company: Compañía General de Fósforos,1889-1929"

BADOZA, MARÍA SILVIA Y BELINI, CLAUDIO FABIÁN

Utrecht, The Netherlands

Congreso; XVth World Economic History Congress. 2009; 2009

International Economic History Association, Utrecht University, International Institute of Social History

This paper studies the history of the Compañía General de Fósforos, one of the first industrial stock companies in Argentina, during its forty years of existence, from 1889 to 1929. We aim at analazing the company's productive and finantial strategies, based on a research using the company archives.  Compañía General de Fósforos started its operations at a time when modern industry started to developed in Argentina, based on the substitution of imported commodities, like matches. Our research intends to produce new evidence on the role of big companies in the industrial growth before 1930, paying special attention to issues like the formation of capital, industrial profiability and corporate strategies.