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This article examines the local and international collaboration of farm machine-making between Argentines and Americans. These collaborative interactions provide insight into the multiplicity of design, invention and innovation at the local and international level. Drawing on nearly 100 oral histories, collective memory, more than 60,000 invention patents in a newly created data set, and visual and material culture, the collaborative approach of designer-users and manufacturers/makers demonstrate that the long, arduous task of tinkering and collaborating required participants to believe that building machinery was meaningful, important work. Second, it shows that local oral tradition and community culture mattered to the making of local technology and taking it to the international stage.

In spite of important recent work on the history of technology and the dynamics of technological change in Latin America, the literature in this field remains relatively undeveloped. In part, this is due to a relative scarcity of available sources for conducting research. This research note argues that national patent records are an important and untapped source for a wide range of studies on technology and technological change. The research note announces the creation of major new comprehensive databases of patent records in several Latin American countries, part of a larger, ongoing project to compile and make publically accessible patent records across the region. We also provide an introduction to the history of patents in Latin America, followed by a discussion of both the use (and misuse) of patents as historical evidence and recent advances in collecting and using patent evidence in Latin America. Resumen A pesar de valiosos trabajos sobre la historia de la tecnologia y las dinamicas del cambio tecnologico en America Latina, no se puede afirmar que exista una extensa historiografia sobre el asunto. En parte, esto se debe a la escasez relativa de fuentes de investigacion. Este articulo sostiene, precisamente, que los registros nacionales de patentes han sido muy poco explotados y pueden constituir una importante fuente para una amplia gama de estudios sobre la tecnologia y el cambio tecnologico. En concreto, se anuncia la creacion de nuevas y exhaustivas bases de datos historicas de patentes en varios paises de America Latina, como parte de un proyecto en curso, de mayor envergadura, que pretende compilar y hacer accesible al publico los registros de toda la region. Se aporta, en suma, una introduccion sobre la historia de las patentes en America Latina, seguida de un analisis de las ventajas e inconvenientes de su uso como evidencia historica, asi como de los ultimos avances en su recopilacion.

Between 1890 and 1930, Argentina's manufacturers invested in imported machinery. Although they aligned with political allies to advance and protect their companies, their dependence on imported machinery, raw materials, fuel, and expensive skilled labor were obstacles to their success. Two factors slowed the progress of these entrepreneurs: their lack of technological capabilities and the absence of government policies to address the problems entailed in importing foreign machinery. Several political factions supported industry's efforts to reduce dependence on imported products and to diversify the economy. While these supporters hoped to promote industry through the passage of legislation to raise the tariff rate, their strategy represented a compromise that stifled the drive to innovate that is so necessary for long-run economic growth and industrial development.

This study focuses on the management strategies and profitability of 59 manufacturing companies across ten sectors in Argentina between 1904 and 1930. The manufacturers under study developed strategies best to control their environment. Common methods were diversification, self-financing, merging and political lobbying. The overall intent of these strategies was to protect their investment and better manage their companies by concentrating their sector and eliminating competition.

This article examines the connections between financing, reputation, and industrial development in Argentina. It analyzes five leading merchant finance groups through a newly created data set of 1,282 directors and shareholders of fifty-nine manufacturing companies across ten sectors from 1890 to 1930. Merchant finance groups formed to pool capital for manufacturing investment in the absence of developed domestic banking institutions and equity markets. The leading five groups under study secured access to diverse sources of capital by developing personal connections and by their reputations. Although these five groups successfully adapted to an environment that lacked efficient credit markets, most manufacturers' companies were capital-starved due to the lack of industrial credit. Insufficient industrial credit resulted in dominant firms owned by a few merchant finance groups controlling the noncompetitive manufacturing sector. El presente articulo analiza los vinculos entre las fuentes de financiamiento y las conexiones personales en el desarrollo industrial en Argentina. Se examinan cinco de los principales grupos financieros mercantiles a partir de una base de datos que contiene 1,282 directores y accionistas de cincuenta y nueve empresas manufactureras en diez sectores durante el periodo 1890–1930. Los grupos financieros mercantiles se crearon con el objetivo de reunir capital para invertir en el sector manufacturero, esto a la falta de instituciones bancarias domesticas y mercados de valores lo suficientemente desarrollados. Estos cinco grupos aseguraron su acceso a diversas fuentes de capital mediante el establecimiento de conexiones personales basadas en la reputacion. A pesar de que estos cinco grupos pudieron adaptarse exitosamente a la falta de mercados crediticios eficientes, la mayoria de las companias manufactureras padecieron escasez de capital debido a la falta de credito industrial. Esta carencia de capital industrial contribuyo al surgimiento de un sector manufacturero no competitivo dominado por unas pocas empresas propiedad de unos pocos grupos financieros mercantiles.