I read with fascination Tony's email about a possible publication of 
the Chilean nitrate industry. There has been some literature published 
on this in both Spanish and English, although as can be seen from the 
bibilography I have attached below, much of this is quite old. 
Therefore, it seems timely to have a new history of an industry that 
was pivotal in Chile's economic development.

My own interest springs from the Cornish involvement in nitrates, 
particularly that of two important people in the discovery and 
exploitation of beds of caliche and the subsequent development of 
nitrate oficinas: Sir Robert Harvey and George Hicks. This is covered 
in my PhD: 'Cornish Migration to Latin America: A Global and 
Transnational Perspective', University of Exeter, 2003.

The old nitrate oficinas of the Norte Grande are amazing places to 
visit - I was fortunate to have spent some time touring these as well 
as the mining districts around Huasco, Copiapo, Calama and Tocopilla in 
2005. I echo Noel Kirshenbaum's hopes of having a future mining history 
conference in Chile, which apart from allowing some amazing field 
trips, would raise the profile of the importance of industrial 
acrchaeology there.

I would very much like to see the work of Dr. Ronald Crozier published 
as this would be a valuable contribution to the history of mining in 
Chile and I really hope that Tony is successful in this endeavour. 

Dr Sharron P. Schwartz

Some published works:

Billinghurst, G, Los capitales salitreros de Tarapacá, Santiago de 
Chile, 1889.
Blakemore, H., British Nitrates and Chilean Politics, 1886-1896, 
London, 1974.
Blakemore, H., From the Pacific to La Paz: the Antofagasta (Chili) and 
Bolivia Railway Company 1888-1988, Frome, 1990.
Bulnes, G., Guerra del Pacifico, 3 Vols, Valparaiso, 1911-1919.
Dennis, W.J.  Tacna and Arica: an account of the Chile-Peru boundary 
dispute and the arbitration of the United States, New Haven, 1931.
Russell, W.H., A Visit to Chile and the Nitrate Fields of Tarapacá, 
London 1890.
Sater, W. F., Chile and the War of the Pacific, Nebraska, 1986.
Semper E. and Michels, E., La industria del salitre en Chile, Santiago 
de Chile, 1908.

Papers
Donald, M.B. ‘History of the Chile Nitrate Industry’, Annals of 
Science 1, 1936, 
pp. 29-47 and ‘History of the Chile Nitrate Industry’, Annals of 
Science 2, 1936, pp.193-216.
Greenhill, R.G. and Miller, R., ‘The Peruvian Government and the 
Nitrate Trade, 1873-1879’, Journal of Latin American Studies 5:1, 1973, 
pp. 107-131. 
Hardy, O., ‘British Nitrates and the Balmaceda Revolution,’ Pacific 
Historical Review XXII, 1948, pp. 171-180 and ‘British Nitrates and the 
Balmaceda Revolution’ Pacific Historical Review XVII, 1948, pp. 165-
180.
Harvey, R., ‘Machinery for the Manufacture of Nitrate of Soda at the 
Ramirez Factory, Northern Chili’, Journal of the Royal Institution of 
Cornwall Vol. 9, 1889, pp. 276-284.
Kiernan, V.G. ‘Foreign Interests in the War of the Pacific’, Hispanic 
American Historical Review 35, 1955, pp. 14-36.
O’Brien, T., ‘The Antofagasata Company: A Case Study of Peripheral 
Capitalism’, Hispanic American Historical Review 60:1, 1980, pp. 1-31.



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