Constants and variables 41
Repooflican commentators are attributing Venezuela's failure to Socialism.

Nope. Wrong variable. It's just good old oil. The resource curse.

When you focus a country on one abundant resource and abandon all others, you guarantee failure. The sola petrolea doctrine is necessary for Arabia because Arabia doesn't produce anything else; but it was entirely wrong for Venezuela.

How did Venezuela make money before oil? A look at agricultural exports in 1904 (p. 178 of this PDF) shows an astonishingly rich variety of high-value crops:

Venezuela produces annually about 1,000,000 bags of coffee, and present statistics place her in the second rank among coffee-growing countries. ... The annual production of cacao is about 8000 tons. Total production of corn about 60,000 tons...

Wheat, indigo, coconuts, sugar, rubber and tobacco were all major exports. The book lists 145 TYPES of 'ornamental woods', from Acapro to Zapatero, all produced in various quantities. A wide variety of gums and resins, fibers, oils, and medicinal plants.

When did all of those profitable resources disappear? Around 1922, under Juan Vicente Gomez who was a standard Latin American dictator. Not a socialist. A pure Randian capitalist who ran the country efficiently and ruthlessly to maximize his own personal riches.

It was the blowout of the Barroso No. 2 well in Cabimas in 1922 that marked the beginning of Venezuela's modern history as a major producer. This discovery captured the attention of the nation and the world. Soon dozens of foreign companies acquired vast tracts of territory in the hope of striking it rich, and by 1928 Venezuela became the world's leading oil exporter. Oil ended Venezuela's relative anonymity in the eyes of world powers, making it a linchpin of an ever-expanding international oil industry and a new consideration in global policymaking. Venezuela's oil production became a major factor in policy making in Washington before the Second World War.

Not Marx. Rand. Plus a little Graybill as well. Oil locked Venezuela into the embrace of globalism, where its government and economy were monopolized by US refiners. Globalism always narrows down the local range of skills and resources. The colonial master sees you as a supplier of one product or service, and maximizes that one product.

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Sidenote: Scanning through those 145 ornamental woods showed a remarkable amount of learning and skill among Venezuela's carpenters and cabinetmakers. Nearly all had a specific use. Most have Injun names; one obvious Spanish name caught my eye.

BORRACHO. (Piscidia erythrina) A light wood which resists the attacks of insects on account of a poisonous substance contained in the sap. It is used for ordinary cabinetwork.

Sounds highly useful, but why drunk? Looked up the Latin name, found that it's commonly known as fishfuddle [Wonderful word!] in English. The poisonous substance is rotenone, definitely a good insecticide.... and those Injuns used the wood to 'sedate' fish for easy catching. Thus fishfuddle, and presumably thus borracho. Seems like it would still be a good export. There's a market for naturally insecticidal wood!

Labels: Constants and Variables, skill-estate

  ¶ 3:37 AM