Market failure, information asymmetries, and monopoly profits: the Barranquilla Railway and Pier Company in Colombia, 1888–1933

Primmer, A. (2025) Market failure, information asymmetries, and monopoly profits: the Barranquilla Railway and Pier Company in Colombia, 1888–1933. Enterprise and Society, 26 (2). pp. 677-708. ISSN 1467-2235 doi: 10.1017/eso.2024.18

Abstract/Summary

This article presents a business history of the Barranquilla Railway and Pier Company (BRPC) and its impact on Colombia’s Caribbean region. It explores the company’s operations, profitability, shareholders, infrastructure development, and competition with other coastal railways for insights into the role of foreign capital in regional growth. The BRPC’s railway and port infrastructure connected the coastal city of Barranquilla with the Colombian interior, allowing the city to supplant Cartagena as the country’s principal international port. Statistical analysis reveals the railway’s remarkable profitability, which attracted transnational investors, who consolidated majority control. The company’s ability to leverage engineering expertise and capital underscored its strategic significance, yet its interests centered on protecting its transport monopoly. The railway’s lack of visibility in London and information asymmetries shaped investor perceptions. Extending the pier demonstrated BRPC’s role in accommodating rising export volumes during Colombia’s “ despegue cafetero .” However, the railway faced obsolescence, as the government opened the obstructing Bocas de Ceniza sandbank and pursued railway nationalization. The railway’s redundancy, demographic shifts, and rise of Buenaventura underscore its eventual decline. This paper reveals the complex dynamics between foreign capital, infrastructure, and trade monopolies in shaping uneven development. It highlights the BRPC’s overlooked yet fundamental role in Colombia’s export economy and Barranquilla’s ascendancy.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/id/eprint/127300
Identification Number/DOI	10.1017/eso.2024.18
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Arts, Humanities and Social Science > School of Politics, Economics and International Relations > Economics
Publisher	Cambridge University Press
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