Peru, 1914: Transportation and Economy
The activity of the Government of Peru during 1912 in the promotion and development of means of communication and transportation is succinctly outlined by Sr. Don F. A. Pezet, the…
From: 1912 C.E. To: 1914 C.E.
Location: Peru
Note: This article has been excerpted from a larger work in the public domain and shared here due to its historical value. It may contain outdated ideas and language that do not reflect TOTA’s opinions and beliefs.
From Peru; General Descriptive Data Revised in April 1914 by The Pan American Union, 1914.
The activity of the Government of Peru during 1912 in the promotion and development of means of communication and transportation is succinctly outlined by Sr. Don F. A. Pezet, the Peruvian Minister to the United States, in an able article which appeared in the February, 1913, issue of Export American Industries (New York), from which the following excerpt is quoted:
"In a country such as Peru—divided by nature into three distinct zones, each with special climatic conditions, producing mineral and agricultural and animal sources of wealth varied and distinct, and containing populations specially adapted to each of them—the questions of transportation and of means of communication become of the greatest importance and call for immediate attention on the part of the Government.”
“No wonder then that the last two administrations should have devoted so much attention to what I may call a ‘transportation policy,' and thereby prepared the way for the great development of the country by means of extended railroad construction, coastwise and river navigation and the building of roads and highways. Peru boasts of having within its territory some of the most magnificent railroads from a scenic point of view and also some of the most daring from an engineering point of view.”
“The two great trunk lines: 'The Central Railway of Peru,' and 'The Southern Railway of Peru,' are considered among the greatest engineering feats which have been accomplished, in any country and at any time.”
"During the past year both of these Railroad Systems have been extended, while important surveys have been done in furtherance of the project to eventually make them join and form one great system.”
"The 'Central' is being carried on to Ayacucho, from its present terminal at Huancayo. The 'Southern' is being extended towards the north from its present terminal at Cuzco. From each of these systems branches of more or less importance are being built or are under survey to be constructed in the near future.”
“Perhaps the most important of these is the line to the Madre de Dios river which has been contracted for by the Peruvian Corporation, Ltd.. and which will open up one of the most wonderful agricultural regions within the Amazonian watershed.”
"In the north of Peru, the following lines have been surveyed and contracts for their construction have been given: Piura to Catacaos (the latter is the town where the Panama hat industry is carried on); Catacaos to Sechura (the latter is the center of the large salt industry); The Pimentel-Pomalca-Lambayequc Railroad, with concession to build a pier at Pimentel; which line will open up a very rich rice and cane region which needs a direct outlet to the ocean.”
"The Pacasmayo to Cajamarca, still under survey—is a very important line which will open up a rich mineral region. The Trujillo-Salpo-Quiruvilca, under agreement with the Peruvian Corporation for survey, is another line which will be of great benefit to a very rich gold and copper district where mining is being carried on with success.
"The Sayapullo-Ascope-Malabrigo is to be for the present a private line for the company which is exploiting the rich copper and coal deposits of the district of Sayapullo.”
"The Chimbote-Recuay is one of the railroads which is to do for the development of Peru more than perhaps any other of the lines under construction. To understand what this line means it should be known that Chimbote, the port from which it starts, is one of the finest natural harbors in the whole world, located at a point of the Peruvian coast where flows the Santa River, the one river which carries the greatest volume of water and which is known to carry gold-bearing gravel. In other words the valley of the Santa is the best suited of the coast valleys for irrigation works on a large scale; while 20 to 40 miles inland are to be found some of the finest anthracite coal mines in the country; and up the valley the mineral wealth and the agricultural vie with each other as to which is the greater.”
"Chimbote is destined to become in the near future the great industrial port of Peru and I would not be surprised that some day it will be the port of the Amazon-Pacific Railroad, now more commonly known as the Ucayali Railway. This line is to be the great artery which is to connect the Pacific with the Atlantic by way of the mighty Amazon through its no less great affluent the Ucayali. The construction of this railroad is in the hands of an American company and there is every reason to believe that it will be built within the specified time. Of its importance there is not any doubt because the country which it will go through is rich in mineral and agricultural resources—but its special importance will be in that it will effectively and strategically bind the Amazonian fluvial system with the Pacific coast, and thereby make Peru a nation of incomparable transportation facilities which will be a boon to its commerce and industrial development.”
"By water Peru has not neglected the transportation question and the fine fleet of steamers of the Peruvian Steamship Company, pioneers as oil-burners and as equipped with turbine engines—shows to what an extent our country is progressive and is awake to its possibilities as a maritime and commercial nation. Our steamers ply along the Pacific between Valparaiso in Chile and Panama. They are fitted with wireless and have every modern improvement so as to insure the comfort and safety of the passengers.
"On our rivers we have also improved navigation through more river-boats, launches, and a better service; while we have entered into several contracts for the improvement of Iquitos, our principal fluvial port, some 2,500 miles up the Amazon, and which will be of the utmost benefit to the region.
"Several works for the improvement of harbors are being carried on in Peru, and lighthouses have been established in points along the coast where they were most needed."
Relative to the progress of the mining industry of the country, Minister Pezet writes as follows:
"The increase of the output of copper, coal, silver, gold, petroleum,lead, salt, borax, vanadium, etc., during 1912 proves to what an extent the mining industries are flourishing in Peru. The number of mining claims denounced in the country reaches to something like 23,000.
“Hydraulic gold mining is attracting great attention just now, and some good results are expected from the works in operation. The Ferro-Vanadium from the Ragra mine in Peru is being worked by the American Vanadium Company of Pittsburgh. This is at present the greatest discovered deposit of vanadium ores in the world, and through the very up-to-date methods being used at the vanadium works in Bridgeville, belonging to the American Vanadium Company, the use of vanadium steel in the engineering industries has very largely increased, much to the satisfaction of the manufacturers of articles in the composition of which strength and elasticity are essentials to their lasting qualities.”
"Tungsten, bismuth, mercury, molybdenum, and antimony are likewise being mined in Peru. Chlorides, salts, borates, nitrates, limes, and natural cements, marbles, granites, and several kinds of volcanic stones are everywhere to be found throughout the length and breadth of Peru.
Recently a report was current that an emerald mine had been located in the vicinity of Cuzco; while pearls have been found along the coast of Sechura.”
"Iron ores are known to exist in regions where coal is plentiful, and as the western and eastern slopes of the Andes abound in waterfalls there seems to be no end of water available for power, and consequently it is not out of the way to predict that within a few years Peru will become one of the industrial nations of the American continent."
The Pan American Union. Peru; General Descriptive Data Revised in April 1914. Govt. Print. Off., 1914.
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