Prado y Ugarteche, Mariano Ignacio (1870–1946)

Mariano Ignacio Prado y Ugarteche (b. 1870; d. 1946), owner of the Santa Catalina textile mill in Lima at the turn of the twentieth century. As a member of the Civilista Party elected to the Chamber of Deputies to represent Lima, in 1906 he staunchly opposed the demands of labor for a workmen's compensation law. Despite his stubborn opposition, a law finally passed when the crowd observing the proceedings grew so large that the balcony railing broke, spilling spectators onto the house floor.

Between 1900 and 1914 some locals, like Prado y Ugarteche, believed it was in the best interest of the country to collaborate with foreign investors. He became the general manager of Empresas Eléctricas Asociadas (EE.EE.AA.), the oligopolistic provider of electrical power and rail service to Peru for much of the twentieth century. The Empresas Eléctricas was formed by a highly speculative 1907 merger of the major providers of rail and electrical power to Peru. Although the EE.EE.AA. and its creditors lost heavily when world markets collapsed at the start of World War I, by war's end the energy enterprise was producing over 47 million kilowatts of electricity per hour. In 1929 it had nearly doubled its capacity. By the 1930s the Banco Italiano, which in 1931 became a national bank, controlled its finances.

See alsoEconomic Development; Energy; Labor Movements; Peru: Peru Since Independence.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rosemary Thorp and Geoff Bertram, Peru 1890–1977: Growth and Policy in an Open Economy (1978).

Peter Blanchard, The Origins of the Peruvian Labor Movement, 1883–1919 (1982).

Additional Bibliography

Portocarrero S, Felipe. El imperio Prado, 1890–1970. Lima: Universidad del Pacífico, 1995.

                                          Vincent Peloso