Immigration and Entrepreneurship in Chile during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries

ABSTRACT Based on census records (both of total population and commercial-industrial), and an extensive review and synthesis of the secondary literature, this article analyses the importance and impact of immigration on the economic development of Chile, in particular on entrepreneurship and the changing composition of the main business groups of the country. We provide a sketch of the main entrepreneurs among the immigrant groups, according to countries of origin and sectors in which they operated, who emerged as influential modern entrepreneurs in the country during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We also show how some of these foreign entrepreneurs (and their descendants) contributed to the renewal of the economic elites of Chile during these two centuries, by focussing on some case studies of the leading members of the most successful family business groups.