Customer Reviews

Casa Grace in Peru (Multinational corporations)

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I recommend Casa Grace in Peru if you are studying Latin American economics or history. It is about the operations of Grace and Company in Latin America. This is a good resource with alot of information about the economic history of sugar, textiles and trade in the area.

In the 1950s and 1960s the National Planning Association sponsored a series of studies about American business abroad. The intention was to identify lessons applicable to other businesses as they developed internationally. Consequently the books largely ignored individual management personalities in order to focus on general themes.

Casa Grace in Peru follows the operations of the W.R. Grace and Company in Latin America and more specifically Peru. The company was originally founded by William Russell Grace (1832-1904) as a trading company in Peru. Subsequently it evolved into a well known ocean shipping and airline business. However it retained the textile, food and sugar interests in Peru that are the center of this book.

The book itself is divided into four basic sections: a quick overview of Peru, a description of the Grace businesses, a fuller description of the labor practices (particularly on the Company's sugar plantations), and a brief summary.

Unfortunately the book, by Eugene Burgess, is not the strongest in the NPA series. The writing is fairly flat, the political background largely ignored and the analysis of the Casa Grace experience poor. Although the material is comparable to other NPA books, Grace's sugar plantations in Peru are similar to Firestone's rubber plantations in Liberia, the latter is a far more interesting read.

Readers interested in the history of American business investment or labor practices in Latin America might have some interest in the book. However, even then, I suspect that it would not be more than a secondary source.