A Peruvian business history: From Galleons to Multilatinas

This chapter analyzes the formation of the Peruvian business system from the colonial period to the first decades of the twenty-first century. The study is based on three actors: the Peruvian State, multinational corporations and large family businesses. The first actor, despite its institutional weakness, had a significant role in the formation of the Peruvian business system due to its control over trade, monetary and natural resource policies. It can also be seen how foreign direct investment tended to displace capital from extractive industries such as mining. Finally, although it is true that it is not always the same large families that control the Peruvian economy throughout the period studied, their investments are characterized by a strong degree of diversification toward both the domestic and foreign markets. The logic of this diversification is more commercial than productive and is strongly influenced by the government’s economic policy and external economic cycles.