A Primitive Export Sector: Guano Production in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Peru
What sorts of institutional arrangements governed guano extraction and loading? What size of labour force was required, and how was it recruited? How were the workers treated, and what range of tasks were they required to perform? What were the costs of guano removal? What was the scale of inefficiency and waste? These are some of the questions to which answers will be sought. The main concern overall, however, will be with the general economic implications of the system of extraction. Material used in the body of the paper will be brought together in the final section in an attempt to evaluate the impact of guano production on the Peruvian economy at large.1 It is intended that at least three very important points should be established. First, that the export sector was a remarkably primitive one in terms of the production techniques employed and of the size, treatment and remuneration of the labour force. Second, that because of this, the positive, direct effects