1 “History of Distribution of Nitrogenous Chemicals 1940–1945,” 8, Select Document File, Box 77, f. Nitrogen, RG 179, National Archives at College Park (NACP), Maryland, USA. The period covered is from 1 July 1941 to 30 June 1945. Philip Groggins, Chemicals and Food Production (Ann Arbor, MI, 1945), 17. The quote is from Karl Falk, “Chile’s White Gold Stages a Comeback,” Foreign Commerce Weekly, 5 Sep. 1942, 3.

2 For example, see Lizzie Collingham, The Taste of War (New York, NY, 2012), 81.

3 Testimony of Philip Groggins, US Congress, Senate, Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, Hearings before the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, 78th Cong., 1st sess., 5 Nov. 1943, 100–104.

4 Memorandum, “Fertilizer Requirements and Supplies, 1942–1943,” Office of Civilian Supply, Food Supply Section, 15 Aug. 1942, Select Document File, Box 75, f. Fertilizer, RG 179, NACP. A. L. Mehring, “Fertilizer Nitrogen Consumption,” Industrial and Engineering Chemistry 37, no. 3 (March 1945): 289–295. A. L. Mehring and Grace P. Vincent, Fertilizer Consumption in 1941 and Trends in Usage, United States Department of Agriculture Circular No. 689 (Oct. 1943).

5 US imports of Chilean nitrate were 600,000 tons in 1941 and 900,000 tons in 1942, equivalent to 96,000 and 144,000 tons of fertilizer nitrogen, respectively. Consumption of fertilizer nitrogen in the US was 456,000 tons in 1941 and 415,000 tons in 1942. In both instances, years refer to calendar years. US Department of Commerce, Monthly Summary of Foreign Commerce; War Production Board Requirements Committee Document No. 1899-SR1, “1943–1944 Program for Nitrogen,” Policy Doc. File 535.202, RG 179, NACP, 3.

6 Tracy Campbell, The Year of Peril (New Haven, 2020).

7 C. Kenneth Horner, “Ammonium Nitrate from War to Peace,” Domestic Commerce 33, no. 10 (Oct. 1945), 42.

8 Author’s calculations based on “History of Distribution,” RG 179, NACP; entries for Corporación de Ventas de Salitre y Yodo de Chile in Moody’s Manual of Investments, 1943–47; United States Tariff Commission, Recent Developments in the Foreign Trade of Chile (Washington, 1945), 13; United States Tariff Commission, The Foreign Trade of Latin America, Part II, Vol. 1 (Washington, DC, 1942), 117; Chilean Gazette, no. 18 (Sep. 1946), 32; United Kingdom Department of Overseas Trade, Chile: Review of Commercial Conditions December 1944 (London, UK, 1945), 9, 13; José Díaz, Rolf Lüders, and Gert Wagner, “Economía Chilena 1810–1995,” Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Documento de Trabajo No. 186 (Dec. 1998), 102, 117.

9 Secretary of War Robert Patterson to Secretary of State Cordell Hull, 1 Aug. 1942, President’s Secretary’s File, Box 26, f. Diplomatic Correspondence, Chile: 1942, FDR Library, Hyde Park, New York, NY, USA (FDRL).

10 Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles to President Roosevelt, 3 Aug. 1942, President’s Secretary’s File, Box 26, f. Diplomatic Correspondence, Chile: 1942, FDRL. Memorandum of Conversation between President Roosevelt and Chilean Ambassador Rodolfo Michels, 5 Aug. 1942; Memorandum of Conversation between President Roosevelt, Sumner Welles, Rodolfo Michels, and Chilean Ministro del Interior Raúl Morales Beltramí, 17 Dec. 1942; Memorandum of Conversation between Sumner Welles, Raúl Morales Beltramí, and Rodolfo Michels, 22 Dec. 1942, with attached secret copies of spy communications. Sumner Welles Papers, Box 169, f. 9, FDRL. For example, a spy cable sent 8 May 1942 states, “The Ogontz, gray, for Iquique and USA, carrying 6000 saltpetre.” U-103 sunk the Ogontz 19 May 1942 in the Gulf of Mexico and nineteen crew perished. This cable was shared with the Chilean government. For a discussion of this period, see Raffaele Nocera, Chile y la Guerra 1933–1943 (Santiago, 2006), and Max Paul Friedman, Nazis and Good Neighbors (Cambridge, UK, 2003).

11 The existing literature overwhelmingly focuses on the so-called ciclo del salitre (the nitrate era) running from the War of the Pacific to the demise of Chilean Nitrate Company (COSACH) in the early 1930s. Marc Badia-Miró and José Díaz-Bahamonde, “The Impact of Nitrates on the Chilean Economy, 1880–1930,” in The First Export Era Revisited, ed. Sandra Kuntz-Ficker (New York, 2017); Robert Greenhill, “Managed Decline, Headlong Retreat or Entrepreneurial Failure? British Nitrate Producers and the Withdrawal from Chile, 1920–1930,” in Capitalists, Business and State-Building in Chile, ed. Manuel Llorca-Jaña, Rory Miller, and Diego Barría (New York, 2019); Markos Mamalakis, “The Chilean Nitrate Sector, 1880–1930,” in Government and Economic Development, ed. Gustav Ranis (New Haven, 1971); Rory Miller and Robert Greenhill, “The Fertilizer Commodity Chains: Guano and Nitrate, 1840–1930,” in From Silver to Cocaine, ed. Steven Topik, Carlos Marichal, Zephyr Frank, Gilbert M. Joseph, and Emily S. Rosenberg (Durham, 2006); Rory Miller, “Riding on a Roller Coaster: The Rise and Decline of the Anglo-South American Bank,” in Capitalists, Business and State-Building in Chile, ed. Manuel Llorca-Jaña, Rory Miller, and Diego Barría (New York, 2019); and Thomas O’Brien, “Rich Beyond the Dreams of Avarice,” Business History Review 63, no. 1 (Spring 1989): 122–159. The exceptions are limited. Alejandro Soto Cárdenas’s volume on British influence in the industry includes one chapter about the COVENSA period, and four recent publications have emphasized the durability of the industry post-crisis in terms of its impact on northern Chile’s demography, nitrate workers’ real wages, technical progress, and clearing agreements. Alejandro Soto Cárdenas, Influencia Británica en el Salitre (Santiago, 1998); Rodrigo Rivero-Cantillano, Juan Navarrete-Montalvo, Cristian Ordenes, and Manuel Llorca-Jaña, “The Demographic Consequences of the End of Chile’s Nitrate Boom, c. 1907–1940,” Bulletin of Latin American Research 39, no. 4 (Sep. 2020): 483–499, Mauricio Casanova, “Real Wages of Saltpetre Workers after the Crisis,” Bulletin of Latin American Research 41, no. 5 (Nov. 2022): 739–753, Damir Galaz-Mandakovic Fernández, “The Guggenheim Process,” Revista de Historia 27, no. 2 (Dec. 2020): 179–209, Mauricio Casanova, “El nitrato como estrategia de compensación,” Diálogo andino 64 (March 2021): 243–254.

12 Paul Koistinen, Hugh Rockoff, and Mark Wilson all have outstanding treatments of war mobilization and bureaucracy, including the War Production Board, Government-Owned, Contractor-Operated plants, and the synthetic rubber program, among other topics, but none delves into foreign procurement. Paul Koistinen, Arsenal of World War II: The Political Economy of American Warfare (Lawrence, KS, 2004), Hugh Rockoff, America’s Way of War (Cambridge, UK, 2012), Mark Wilson, Destructive Creation: American Business and the Winning of World War II (Philadelphia, 2016). In the Cambridge History of the Second World War, David Edgerton’s contribution on resources focuses on petroleum, coal, and iron ore. Jeffrey Fear, in his chapter in that volume, has a short discussion of nitrate, copper, and bauxite supply chains during the war. David Edgerton, “Controlling Resources,” in The Cambridge History of the Second World War, vol. 3, ed. Michael Geyer and Adam Tooze (Cambridge, UK, 2017); Jeffrey Fear, “War of the Factories,” in The Cambridge History of the Second World War, 118–120. Robert Konkel studies geopolitical dimensions of the strategic minerals trade, including in World War II. Robert Konkel, “Building Blocs” (PhD diss., Princeton University, 2022). There are several article-length studies, including those on carbon black, tin, petroleum, and tungsten. David Foord, “Industrial Transitions in the Black: US Government–Business Relations in the Mobilization of Carbon during World War II,” Enterprise and Society 24, no. 2 (June 2023): 395–424; John Hillman, “Bolivia and British Tin Policy, 1939–1945,” Journal of Latin American Studies 22, no. 2 (May 1990): 289–315; Leonard Caruana and Hugh Rockoff, “A Wolfram in Sheep’s Clothing,” The Journal of Economic History 63, no. 1 (March 2003): 100–126; Stephen Randall, “Harold Ickes and United States Petroleum Policy Planning, 1939–1945,” Business History Review 57, no. 3 (Autumn 1983): 367–387.

13 Mirko Lamer, The World Fertilizer Economy (Stanford, 1957), 454–463. For additional context, there are several important studies of food and agriculture. Lizzie Collingham, “The Human Fuel,” in The Cambridge History of the Second World War, vol. 3, 149–173; Collingham, The Taste of War (New York, 2012); Walter Wilcox, The Farmer in the Second World War (Ames, 1947); Bela Gold, Wartime Economic Planning in Agriculture (New York, 1949).

14 Important works in this literature include From Silver to Cocaine, ed. Steven Topik, Carlos Marichal, and Zephyr Frank (Durham, 2006), Paul Gootenberg, Andean Cocaine (Chapel Hill, 2008); Heidi Tinsman, Buying into the Regime (Durham, 2014); Gregory Cushman, Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World (Cambridge, UK, 2013), and John Soluri, Banana Cultures (Austin, 2005).

15 Rebecca Herman, Cooperating with the Colossus (Oxford, 2022): 6.

16 Inter-American Affairs 1945, ed. Arthur Whitaker (New York, 1946), 255. Nearly $100 million was spent on nitrates alone. Calculated from Norman Burns, “Subsidy on Imports of Chilean Nitrate of Soda,” 14 June 1945, 837.6374/6-1445, RG 59, NACP, 4.

17 Tanya Harmer, Allende’s Chile (Chapel Hill, 2011); Eric Zolov, The Last Good Neighbor (Durham, 2020); Rebecca Herman, Cooperating; The New Pan-Americanism and the Structuring of Inter-American Relations, ed. Juan Pablo Scarfi and David Sheinin (New York, 2022).

18 Vidal and de Castro were Chilean, Graham and Whelpley were American (Whelpley was Canadian born), and Blair was British. Lists of directors and management are from minutes of the Chilean Nitrate and Iodine Sales Corporation, Fondo Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, vols. 645, 779, 823, and 869, covering Aug. 1941 to Dec. 1945, Archivo Nacional de Chile (ANC), Santiago, Chile, and Moody’s Manual of Investments. Graham’s quote is from Confidential Memorandum of Conversation, enclosed in Dispatch No. 75 from the US Embassy in Chile to the Secretary of State, 3 Feb. 1948, 825.6374/2-348, RG 59, US National Archives in College Park, Maryland (USNA). Graham contrasted the nitrate companies to the US copper companies, that he said, “refused to permit a Chilean employee to rise above a certain level” and “had as little to do with the Chilean public as possible.”

19 US House of Representatives, Committee on Appropriations, Hearings on the National War Agencies Appropriation Bill of 1945, 78th Cong., 2nd sess. (Washington, 1944), 918. Graham’s testimony took place on 13 Apr. 1944. US Ambassador Claude Bowers wrote in early 1942, “Communism is strong among the workers in the mines on the northern pampa. When Germany attacked Russia the improvement in the willingness to work was noticeable.” Dispatch 2599 from Bowers to the Secretary of State, 12 Feb. 1942, 811.20 Defense (M) Chile/106, RG 59, USNA. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted a survey of the Maria Elena and Pedro de Valdivia nitrate plants in late 1943 and reported no evidence of any sabotage or espionage activity. The plant engineer “attributed this to the fact that a very large percentage of all workers in the nitrate plants is communistic and, consequently, pro-Allied at the present time.” Federal Bureau of Investigation Report by William Nichols, Chile-Plant Survey, 30 Dec. 1943, enclosed in letter from J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director, to Adolf Berle, assistant secretary of State, 26 April 1944, Confidential Files, 810.60/304, RG 59, USNA. As far as labor unrest during the war, there was a seventeen-day strike at the Maria Elena and Pedro de Valdivia (Guggenheim) plants in Feb. 1944 that was tied to wage negotiations.

20 Minutes of the Chilean Nitrate Sales Corporation, 4 Dec. 1942, 19 Apr. 1943, 20 Sep. 1943, 6 Dec. 1943. 31 Jan. 1944, 21 May 1945, 23 Nov. 1945. On 6 Dec. 1943 the firm reported thirty of its salaried employees had departed to serve in the military.

21 United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Report on the Fertilizer Industry (Washington, 1922), 28–30. J. K. Clement, “The Future of Nitrogen Fixation in the United States,” Chemical Age (May 1922): 197. The FTC reported that between 40–55 percent of nitrate imports were for fertilizer and the remainder for manufacturing.

22 Clement, “Future of Nitrogen Fixation,” 197; Juan Ricardo Couyoumdjian, “El Mercado del Salitre durante la Primera Guerra Mundial y la Postguerra, 1914–1921,” Historia 12, no. 1 (1975): 16. US Ambassador to Chile Claude Bowers to the Secretary of State, enclosed “Memorandum re: Post-War Competition of Natural and Synthetic Nitrates,” 1 Aug. 1942, 837.6374/1468, RG 59, NACP.

23 Charles Brand, “Some Fertilizer History Connected with World War I,” Agricultural History 19, no. 2 (Apr. 1945), 106. The Nitrate Executive was an Allied planning committee. Importing firms were agents for the government in the sale and distribution of the fertilizer. Brand portrays the experience as a success, but Herbert Gibbs, of the British firm Anthony Gibbs and Co., viewed their American counterparts as displaying “abysmal ignorance.” Herbert Gibbs to F. W. Evans, partner in Valparaiso, 28 August 1918, Gibbs MS 11115/2, London Metropolitan Archive. I would like to thank Rory Miller for sharing this information. Also see Couyoumdjian, “El Mercado,” 13–55.

24 Brand, “Some Fertilizer History,” 106-111; Timothy Johnson, “Nitrogen Nation: The Legacy of World War I and the Politics of Chemical Agriculture in the United States, 1916–1933,” Agricultural History 90, no. 2 (Spring 2016): 209-229; Anthony Travis, Nitrogen Capture: The Growth of an International Industry, 1900–1940 (New York, 2018).

25 United States Tariff Commission, Chemical Nitrogen, (Washington, 1937), 66.

26 William Martin, “Public Policy and Increased Competition in the Synthetic Ammonia Industry,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 73, no. 3 (Aug. 1959): 375. Willard Cope, “Capacity to Produce Nitrogen Compounds,” Chemical and Engineering News 23, no. 3 (Jan. 10, 1945): 244. United States Tariff Commission, Chemical Nitrogen, 179–186.

27 United States Tariff Commission, Chemical Nitrogen, 206.

28 Donald McConnell, “The Chilean Nitrate Industry,” Journal of Political Economy 43, no. 4 (Aug. 1935): 506–529; Miller, “Riding on a Roller Coaster”; Sergio González Miranda and Diego Lizama Gavilán, “La Cosach y la Crisis de la Industria Salitrera,” Tiempo Histórico 22 (Jan.–June 2021): 39–55, O’Brien, “Rich Beyond the Dreams.”

29 See Moody’s Manual of Investments (1936, 1937) for Anglo-Chilean’s and Lautaro’s debt readjustment plans. For COSATAN, see materials that firm submitted to the US Export-Import Bank in March 1941, in 825.6374/1413, RG 59, NACP.

30 COVENSA assumed responsibility for some of the COSACH debt. After debt service and the government share, COVENSA turned over remaining profits to the producing firms. COVENSA assigned quotas, which were 24 percent for Anglo-Chilean, 34 percent for Lautaro, and 31 percent for COSATAN in 1942. The remainder was for a handful of small independent firms that never adhered to COSACH. The board of directors of COVENSA was stipulated by statute. Five directors were Directores Fiscales, including the superintendent of Nitrate, one member of the council of the Central Bank of Chile, and three people chosen by the president of Chile. Five other directors were selected by the producing firms in proportion to their quotas. A supermajority of eight directors elected a president of the corporation, who in practice was the minister of Finance. See articles 6–20 of the law. Chile, Ministro de Hacienda, La Industria del Salitre de Chile (Santiago, Chile, 1935).

31 The company’s minutes indicate that there were offices in New Orleans and Shreveport, LA; Gulfport, MS; Mobile and Montgomery, AL; Panama City, Pensacola, Tampa, and Jacksonville, FL., Savannah, GA; Charleston, SC., Wilmington, DE; Raleigh, NC; Norfolk, VA; Baltimore, MD: Philadelphia, PA; Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA: Portland, OR and Seattle and Tacoma, WA

32 These included Elias Cappelen Smith, the engineer who was most responsible for the Guggenheim process technology; Carroll Wilson, the general counsel for Guggenheim Brothers; and Medley Whelpley, who was president of both the Anglo-Chilean and Lautaro companies until his retirement and replacement by Horace Graham late in the war. See Moody’s Manual of Investments (1940), and the minutes of the Chilean Nitrate Sales Corporation from 1939–1945. The granulated nitrate produced at the Guggenheim plants was much more widely sold in North America than the crystallized nitrate from the Shanks plants, which was marketed heavily elsewhere, especially in Europe.

33 There has not been any attempt in the literature to estimate the relative econometric importance of the Great Depression and competition from synthetic nitrogen on demand for Chilean nitrate during this period.

34 Articles 4 and 5 of the Disposiciones Transitorias of the Statutes of COVENSA; Chile, Ministro de Hacienda, La Industria, 1679–1680; Bowers to Hull, 16 July 1940, 825.6374/1378, RG 59, NACP; Anglo-Chilean Nitrate Corporation’s annual reports (1940 and 1941).

35 George Adams, American vice consul in Antofagasta to Hull, 19 July 1940, 825.6374/1380, RG 59, NACP; memorandum “Chilean Nitrate of Soda,” 18 Mar. 1943, Fondo Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, file 629, ANC.

36 The NDAC’s Industrial Materials Division led nitrogen policy. The Chemical Advisory Committee consisted of executives from America’s leading chemical companies, including Allied Chemical, Dow, and DuPont. Leo Brophy, Wyndham Miles, and Rexmond Cochrane, The Chemical Warfare Service (Washington, DC, 1959), 248–249; memorandum, “Meeting of Ammonia and Nitric Acid Subcommittee,” 1 Oct. 1940, Policy Documentation File, 535.2212, RG 179, NACP.

37 The quoted material is from “Meeting of Ammonia and Nitric Acid Subcommittee,” 1 Oct. 1940, Policy Documentation File, 535.2212, RG 179, NACP, 3. The production capacity of synthetic ammonia in 1940–41 was 490,000 tons, and the construction program was projected to increase it to 610,000 tons in 1941–42; memorandum from E. R. Weidlein to E.R. Stettinius Jr., 25 Sep. 1940, Select Document File, Box 77, RG 179, NACP; United States Civilian Production Administration, Minutes of the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense (Washington, DC, 1946); 16 Oct. 1940, 100–101, 18 Oct. 1940 (Record of Executive Session), 102–103.

38 Memorandum from Florencio García, manager of COVENSA, 25 Sep. 1942, “Situación del Salitre frente al Programa de Producción Sintética de Azoe en Estados Unidos,” Fondo Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, file 629, ANC. The Guggenheim interests hired chemical engineers to investigate possible defense uses for Chilean nitrate, and made presentations to the Ordnance Department and inquiries with State and NDAC. This initiative appears to have failed, given that there was no large-scale use of Chilean nitrate for munitions during the war. Whelpley to Hull, 4 Jan. 1941, 825.6374/1404, and memorandum of conversation between Whelpley, Weiss (chemical engineer), Woods (CNSC), Doetsch (Anglo-Chilean), Collado (State), and Rooker (State), 8 Jan. 1941, 825.6374/1405, RG 59, NACP.

39 Welles to Stettinius, 19 Nov. 1940, 825.6374/1396A, RG 59, NACP.

40 Welles to Stettinius, 19 Nov. 1940, 825.6374/1396A, RG 59, NACP; Stettinius to Welles, 19 Nov. 1940, Policy Documentation File, 535.20131, RG 179, NACP; Welles to Jesse Jones, 22 Nov. 1940, Defense Supplies Corporation, General Records, 1940-1949, Nitrate of Soda, RG 234, NACP; Jones to Secretary of War Henry Stimson, 30 Nov. 1940, Defense Supplies Corporation, General Records, 1940-1949, Nitrate of Soda, RG 234, NACP; Jones to President Roosevelt, Nov. 29, 1940, with handwritten approval by Roosevelt on the letter, Defense Supplies Corporation, General Records, 1940–1949, Nitrate of Soda, RG 234, NACP.

41 Leon Henderson, Director of the Office of Price Administration, to Claude Wickard, Secretary of Agriculture, 8 May 1941, Policy Documentation File, 535.2017, RG 179, NACP. Chilean Nitrate Sales Corporation Minutes, 15 July 1941; 25 July 1941; 7 Aug. 1941; 4 Sep. 1941; COVENSA Minutes 8 Aug. 1941, 22 Aug. 1941, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, file 645, ANC; Woods to Milliman, 20 March 1942, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, file 692, ANC. The second page of that letter contains excerpts of the letter that the Chilean Nitrate Sales Corporation sent to its customers justifying the price increase.

42 Henderson to Wickard, 8 May 1941, Policy Documentation Files 535.2017, RG 179, NACP. DuPont cut output of uramon and ammonia liquors for mixed fertilizers by about fifty percent to divert capacity toward products suitable for munitions plants. Memorandum from S. Nelson to J. Douglas Brown, Office of Production Management, 22 Aug. 1941, Policy Documentation Files 535.2017, RG 179, NACP. If sufficient Chilean nitrate could not be obtained, the plan was to reduce its use in agriculture. Memorandum from E.W. Reid to William Batt, Director of the Materials Division of the Office of Production Management, 17 Nov. 1941, excerpted in “Nitrogen: Chronological Record,” Policy Documentation Files 535.2001, RG 179, NACP.

43 H. H. Meyers and Felix Stapleton to W. Y. Elliott, 10 Oct. 1941, Policy Documentation Files 535.201, RG 179, NACP. Meyers headed the Nitrogen Unit in the Chemicals Branch at the Office of Production Management (OPM). Elliott was Deputy Chief of the Stockpile and Shipping Imports Branch of OPM. Memorandum from Elliott to E.W. Reid, head of OPM’s Chemicals Branch, 17 Nov. 1941, excerpted in “Nitrogen: Chronological Record,” Policy Documentation Files, 535.2001, RG 179, NACP. In 1941 the government regulated imports through control of shipping. David Horton, Import Policies and Programs of the War Production Board and Predecessor Agencies, May 1940 to November 1945 (Washington, 1947), 57-68.

44 United States Civilian Production Administration, Industrial Mobilization for War: History of the War Production Board and Predecessor Agencies (Washington, 1947), 368, 542. Memorandum, “Ordnance Ammonia Plants, Completion Dates as Advised by Mr. Howard on July 31, 1942.” Policy Documentation Files 535.21422, RG 179, NACP. “History of Distribution,” Select Document File, Box 77, RG 179, NACP.

45 The War Production Board succeeded the Office of Production Management in January 1942. “History of Distribution,” Select Document File, Box 77 RG 179, NACP, 3-5, 10; General Preference Order M-62, 7 Fed. Reg. 312 (16 Jan. 1942); General Preference Order M-163, 7 Fed. Reg. 4162 (2 June 1942); General Preference Order M-164, 7 Fed. Reg. 4163 (2 June 1942); General Preference Order M-165, 7 Fed. Reg. 4164 (2 June 1942). T.E. Milliman, “The Fertilizer Industry-Government Hitch-Up,” Fertilizer Review, April-May-June 1942, 8.

46 “War Production Board Establishes Standard Grades for 33 States,” Fertilizer Review, July-Aug.-Sep. 1942, 5-10, Food Production Order 5, 8 Fed. Reg. 947 (21 Jan. 1943). Chilean Nitrate Sales Corporation, Chilean Nitrate, 1941–1943 (New York, 1943), 7. “History of Distribution,” Select Document File, Box 77, RG 179, 9, NACP.

47 Norman Burns, “Subsidy on Imports of Chilean Nitrate of Soda,” 825.6374/6-1445, RG 59, NACP. The Office of Price Administration established maximum retail margins through Maximum Price Regulation no. 108, 7 Fed. Reg. 2153 (19 March 1942).

48 Henderson to Jones, 9 April 1942, Defense Supplies Corporation Commodity Procurement Files, 1942–1949, Box 29, RG 234, NACP. See Medley Whelpley’s presentation to the COVENSA board, COVENSA minutes, 31 March 1942, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 645, ANC, and comments by Albert Woods to the CNSC board, CNSC minutes, 10 April 1942. Jones approved Henderson’s request, and it was also approved by the executive level Board of Economic Warfare, and subsequently signed by President Roosevelt. Jesse Jones to Henry Mulligan, President of the Defense Supplies Corporation, 22 May 1942, Defense Supplies Corporation, General Records, 1940–1949, “Nitrate of Soda,” RG 234, NACP.

49 COVENSA minutes, 5 June 1942, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 645, ANC. COVENSA manager Florencio García’s summary of his telephone conversations with the New York office.

50 Florencio García reading cable #6 from New York in COVENSA minutes, 3 July 1942, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 645, ANC. Extract of letter from John Kenneth Galbraith, OPA, to John Goodloe, Vice President, Defense Supplies Corporation, 17 July 1942. This extract is in “Nitrogen: Chronological Record,” Policy Documentation File 535.2001, RG 179, NACP.

51 The Board of Economic Warfare, a forerunner of the Foreign Economic Administration, was empowered to direct the public purchase import program and therefore was a key authority in the nitrate negotiations. The Reconstruction Finance Corporation, through its subsidiaries, financed the purchases. See the Table 2 listing US agencies involved in the nitrate trade during the war.

52 Arthur Paul, Chief of Imports at the Board of Economic Warfare, to Thomas Brockway, Liaison Officer BEW-State, 3 Aug. 1942; Hull to Bowers, 3 Aug. 1942; Bowers to Hull, 20 Aug. 1942, with enclosures, 811.20 Defense (M) Chile/232A Chile/250, RG 59, NACP. The quote is from Bowers’ August 20 dispatch. Moody’s rated Lautaro bonds Caa—extremely poor.

53 La Verne Baldwin to James Wright, Robert Woodward, and Philip Bonsal, 25 Aug. 1942, 825.6374/1469, RG 59, NACP. All were in the American Republics Division in the State Department, and Bonsal was its chief. Baldwin is relaying his conversation with Johnson from the BEW. Reid to Elliott, 2 Sep. 1942, Defense Supplies Corporation, Commodity Procurement File, Box 29, RG 234, NACP.

54 Florencio García reads a cable from Michels to the Chilean Ministry of Foreign Relations, COVENSA minutes, 4 Sep. 1942, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 645, ANC.

55 Memorandum of Conversation between La Verne Baldwin and Florencio García, 7 April 1942, 825.6374/1462, RG 59, NACP.

56 Memorandum of Conversation, Mr. Brown, Arthur Himbert (Defense Materials; Brown is listed as assistant chief), Philip Bonsal, James Wright, and La Verne Baldwin, 19 Aug. 1942, 811.20 Defense (M) Chile/273, RG 59, NACP.

57 Bonsal to Welles, 28 Aug. 1942, and attached answer on the same date from Welles to Bonsal. 825.6374/1469, RG 59, NACP. William L. Clayton, a close associate of Jesse Jones, was assistant secretary of Commerce at the time and had been deputy Federal Loan Administrator in charge of the purchase of strategic materials.

58 Additional details for the contract remained to be ironed out. Submarine warfare caused the diversion of nitrate cargoes to the US Pacific coast which were then transported by rail to southeastern US markets. The US compensated the CNSC for the rail expenses which added appreciably to the delivered cost of nitrate. Explanation of Albert Woods during his visit to Chile in COVENSA minutes, 5 March 1943, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 779, ANC. Defense Supplies Corporation minutes, 29 Oct. 1942 and 5 Nov. 1942, RG 234, NACP. Norman Burns, “Subsidy on Imports of Chilean Nitrate of Soda,” 825.6374/6-1445, RG 59, 4, NACP.

59 COVENSA minutes, 13 July 1943; 16 July 1943; 30 July 1943, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 779, ANC. Fuel oil was imported to Chile from a refinery at Talara, Peru, but was less available in 1943 because its high quality made it desirable for “war requirements.” This necessitated shipping the rest of the oil for the nitrate industry from Aruba. Edward Browning, director of the Stockpiling and Shipping Branch, to W. Y. Elliott, director of the Division of Stockpiling and Transportation, 7 May 1943, Select Document File, Box 77, RG 179, NACP.

60 COVENSA minutes, 20 Aug. 1943, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 779, ANC.

61 COVENSA minutes, 20 Aug. 1943, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 779, ANC. During the war Horace Graham was simultaneously serving as Santiago representative of the US government’s Metals Reserve Company, and therefore was intimately involved in both the copper and nitrate trades, but from different sides. Graham had been involved in business in Chile for over thirty years and was described by the US Ambassador to Chile as “most valuable,” but at the same time possessing “inordinate vanity” whose “specialty is threats and in the tone of a mine foreman.” Bowers to Welles, 27 May 1942, and attached note from Bonsal to Welles, 9 June 1942, Sumner Welles Papers, Box 76, folder 11, FDRL.

62 Lautaro’s dividends compared poorly with other firms in the nitrogen industry. Allied Chemical and DuPont were paying from $4.25 and $7 per share, respectively, and Hercules Powder was paying $2.50 per share. The Chile Copper Company, a holding company whose subsidiary (the Chile Exploration Company) had major interests in the Chuquicamata copper mine, paid $3 per share 1942–45, which corresponded to between a 6 and 10 percent dividend yield. Lautaro’s dividend yield from 1942–45 was in the three to six percent range, whereas the dividend yield on common stocks on the New York Stock Exchange ranged from a low of 3.71 percent in Dec. 1945 to a high of 5.84 percent in Dec. 1942. The trust deeds on its bonds prohibited the Anglo-Chilean Nitrate Corporation from paying dividends until its funded debt was paid off. The trust deeds on Lautaro Nitrate Corporation’s funded debt permitted dividends once the nitrate stock accumulated in the COSACH period was liquidated. The dividend yield of common stocks on the New York Stock Exchange is data series M1346BUSM156NNBR, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, accessed 29 May 2024, https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M1346BUSM156NNBR. The financial information on the nitrate firms is from the annual reports of Anglo-Chilean and Lautaro (New York Public Library), and Moody’s Manual of Investments. The index of US common stocks is NBER series 11025, Index of all common stock prices, Cowles Commission, and Standard and Poor’s Corporation, accessed 29 May 2024, https://data.nber.org/databases/macrohistory/rectdata/11/m11025a.dat. The UK share price index grew at a slower rate. Series SPPUKQ, Share Prices in the United Kingdom, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, accessed 29 May 2024, https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SPPUKQ.

63 With regards to the Tarapacá and Antofagasta Nitrate Company, the story is complex and the information much less clear. The firm cobbled together enough funds to build a large efficient plant, Victoria, which opened in 1944. Yet the firm was apparently hampered by access to caliche, and some of their older plants were unable to meet their quotas. Both Lautaro and Anglo-Chilean annual reports mention that they produced and sold tens of thousands of tons of nitrate to other producers during these years.

64 Calculated from Chile, Ministro de Hacienda, Cuentas Fiscales de Chile, 1925–1957 (Santiago, 1959): Cuadros 19, 29 and 30; Gert Wagner and José Díaz, “Inflación y Tipo de Cambio: Chile 1810-2005,” Pontificia Universidad de Chile Documento de Trabajo No. 328 (2008), Tabla 5.2.1.

65 Juan Braun, Matías Braun, Ignacio Briones, and José Díaz, Economía Chilena 1810–1995. Estadísticas Históricas, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Documento de Trabajo no. 187 (2000), 186; P. T. Ellsworth, Chile: An Economy In Transition, (New York, 1945), 59-73; “Republic of Chile Service of the External Debt Relating to the Year 1941,” Economist, 17 Jan. 1942, 75; “Debt Suspension Friendly, Says Chile, Dollars thus Freed to be Used to Pay for Imports from United States,” New York Times, 6 Dec. 1940, 12.

66 COVENSA minutes, 27 Aug. 1943, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 779, ANC. Memorandum of Conversation between Hull and Michels, 26 Aug. 1943, 825.6374/1506, RG 59, NACP.

67 Memorandum of Conversation between Victor Goldberg and Philip Bonsal, 9 Sep. 1943, 825.6374/1515, RG 59, NACP. COVENSA minutes, 10 Sep. 1943; 5 Oct. 1943; 26 Oct. 1943; 9 Nov. 1943; 7 Dec. 1943, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 779, ANC. Wright to Bonsal, 13 Nov. 1943, 825.6374/1564, RG 59, NACP. The contract between the US Commercial Company and the CNSC is USCC Minute Document No. 99, RG 234, NACP. The provision adjusting the price for declines in the price of oil is Clause 8e. This clause was activated, and the actual price was $22.08 rather than $22.25. COVENSA minutes, 21 July 1944, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 823, ANC. President Roosevelt’s approval of the subsidy in the contract is in the USCC minutes, 10 Feb. 1944, RG 234, NACP, 212.

68 The dates of the intercepts are Oct. 10 and Dec. 13, 1942; April 29, June 8, Aug. 10, and Sep. 4, 1943; and Feb. 5, 1944. “Nitrogen: A Chronological Record,” Policy Documentation File 535.2001, RG 179, NACP. Norman Burns, “Subsidy on Imports of Chilean Nitrate of Soda,” 825.6374/6-1445, RG 59, Appendix 1, NACP. Censoring communications began 8 Dec. 1941. A stated objective was to obtain “military and economic information of value and assistance to other agencies of the Government in prosecuting the war.” The Office of Censorship focused significant efforts on the critical materials trade and coordinated its efforts with the Foreign Economic Administration. In addition to nitrate, the Office of Censorship intercepted communications in the trades in copper, linseed oil, wool, ball bearings, steel, oil, crude rubber, castor beans, resins, silks, kapok, industrial diamonds, tungsten wire, mica, pulp, zinc, mining equipment, rare metals, and perhaps others. United States Office of Censorship, A Report on the Office of Censorship (Washington, 1945), 3, 28, 51-53.

69 COVENSA minutes, 10, 14, 17, 21 March 1943, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 779, ANC.

70 Edward Browning, Director of Stockpiling and Transportation, War Production Board, to Charles Taft and Courtney Brown (State), Lee Marshall and Ralph Olmstead (War Food Administration), Sidney Scheuer and Paul Nitze (FEA), and William Batt, F.M. Eaton, and E.E. Frost (War Production Board), 22 June 1944, 825.6374/6-2244, RG 59, NACP. The Foreign Economic Administration (FEA) replaced the Office of Economic Warfare on 25 Sep. 1943.

71 Taft to Nitze, 3 July 1944, 825.6374/6-2244, RG 59, NACP.

72 Norman Burns, “Subsidy on Imports of Chilean Nitrate of Soda,” 14 June 1945, 837.6374/6-1445, RG 59, NACP, 4. Comptroller General of the United States, Report on Audit of Reconstruction Finance Corporation and Affiliated Corporations – Defense Supplies Corporation Vol. 5 (1948), 142.

73 Scheuer to Clayton, 9 May 1945, 837.6374/5-945, RG 59, NACP. In their work on the Bolivian tin trade after World War II, Olivia Saunders and Glenn Dorn describe similar differences of opinion between the State Department and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation. The RFC drove a hard bargain on price while the State Department was more concerned with political and economic stability in Bolivia. Olivia Saunders, “Preserving the Status Quo: Britain, the United States and Bolivian Tin, 1946–1956.” The International History Review 38, no. 3 (2016): 552-572; Glenn Dorn, “Pushing Tin: US-Bolivian Relations and the Coming of the National Revolution,” Diplomatic History 35, no. 2 (April 2011): 203–228.

74 COVENSA minutes, 31 Aug. 1943, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 779, ANC.

75 Batt to M.C. Townsend, Director of the Office of Agricultural War Relations, 24 April 1942, Policy Documentation File, 535.2023, RG 179, NACP. Jesse Jones to Henry Mulligan, 30 June 1942, Defense Supplies Corporation, Commodity Procurement File, 1942–1949, Box 29, RG 234, NACP.

76 Horton, Import Policies, 159.

77 Horton, Import Policies, 62–66, 159–194; Testimony of Richard Bissell, Jr. (director, Shipping Requirements, War Shipping Administration) and Edward Browning, Jr. (director, Stockpiling and Shipping, War Production Board) in Hearings before the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, 5 Nov. 1943, 86–91; United States Civilian Production Administration, Industrial Mobilization, 158–159.

78 “Chilean Nitrate,” Report of the Subcommittee of the Interdepartmental Shipping Priorities Committee, 6 May 1942, Policy Documentation File, 535.2201, RG 179, 3, NACP. Excerpt of memo from Elliott to Clifford Townsend, director, Office of Agricultural War Relations, 28 April 1942, “Nitrogen: Chronological Record,” Policy Documentation File 535.2001, RG 179, 13, NACP.

79 Elliott to L. A. Wheeler (Combined Food Board), 18 Nov. 1942, Policy Documentation File 535.40131, RG 179, NACP.

80 Wickard to Wallace, 2 Feb. 1943, Claude Wickard Papers, Box 13, f. Confidential File-Jan–June 1943, FDRL.

81 J. W. Wizeman to H. Leroy Whitney, 30 April 1943, Policy Documentation file 535.201, RG 179, NACP.

82 The propensity for ammonium nitrate to cake is because it is highly hygroscopic. Walter Whitman, assistant director, Chemicals Branch, to Edward Browning Jr., 8 May 1943, Policy Documentation File 535.22121, RG 179, NACP. Testimony of Frank Parker, USDA Bureau of Plant Industry, in Hearings before the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, 6 Nov. 1943, 128–134, 171–172. Besides the aforementioned direct fertilizers, one niche product was a liquid ammonia product made at a Shell plant in California that was used in citrus groves.

83 Memorandum of Conversation between H. H. Meyers (chief, Nitrogen Unit, WPB), D. P. Morgan (chief, Chemicals Branch, WPB), W. G. Wightman (WPB), J. W. Wizeman (WPB), Bonsal, Wright, Gray, Linz and Blaisdell (State). 22 March 1943, 825.6374/1473, RG 59, NACP.

84 Woods to Bonsal with enclosed memorandum from Woods to Chester Davis, 17 April 1943, 825.6374/1491-1/2, RG 59, NACP.

85 Duggan to Hull, 3 June 1943, 825.6374/1485, RG 59, NACP.

86 Duggan to Wallace, 10 June 1943, 825.6374/1486A, RG 59, NACP. The coverage of Wallace’s visit in Santiago’s El Mercurio was glowing. “Con gran entusiasmo se prepara el recibimiento del Vicepresidente Wallace,” 24 March 1943, 1. Wallace visited three nitrate oficinas: Maria Elena, Pedro de Valdivia, and Cecilia. He also was the guest of honor at a luncheon offered by COVENSA. “Mr. Wallace Visitó Ayer ‘Cecilia’ y ‘Pedro de Valdivia’ en la Pampa,” El Mercurio, 3 April 1943, 3; “Salitre Significa Pan, y Pan Significa Ayuda a Millares de Familias en Misería,” El Mercurio, 4 April 1943, 15.

87 Nelson’s letter to BEW in enclosed in Welles to Bowers, 24 June 1943, 825.6374/1487, RG 59, NACP.

88 Elliott to Nelson, 17 July 1943, in “Nitrogen: Chronological Record,” Policy Documentation File, 535.2001, RG 179, 25, NACP.

89 Telegram from Hull to Bowers, 8 Sep. 1943, 825.6374/1499 (Confidential Files), RG 59, NACP.

90 Telegram from Hull to Bowers, 8 Sep. 1943, 825.6374/1499 (Confidential Files), RG 59, NACP.

91 Sheldon Mills, “The Chilean Nitrate Problem,” 25 Sep. 1943, 825.6374/1520, RG 59, NACP.

92 Duggan to Hull, 10 Dec. 1943, 811.20 Defense (M) Chile/611, RG 59, NACP.

93 Admiral Land to Hull, 13 Nov. 1943, 825.6374/1544, RG 59, NACP.

94 On the credit crunch, see the discussion in the COVENSA minutes about an advance on unshipped nitrate from the Chilean Central Bank. COVENSA minutes, 7 and 18 Dec. 1943, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 779, ANC.

95 Testimony of Browning in Hearings before the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, 5 Nov. 1943, 90-91.

96 This was specifically referring to the portion of nitrate imports designated B-3. Elliott to Mark Upson, Director of Transportation, Food Distribution Administration, 12 Nov. 1943, Policy Documentation File 535.202, RG 179, NACP; Upson to Elliott, 23 Nov. 1943, War Food Administration Correspondence, PI 191/E.40, Box 10, f. WPB, RG 16, NACP. Testimony of Elliott and Browning in Hearings before the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, 5 Nov. 1943, 19, 90-91; 6 Nov. 1943, 117-118. The monthly record of War Shipping Administration arrivals from the West Coast of South America, for select commodities including copper and nitrate, is in United States War Shipping Administration, WSA Shipping Summary (Washington, 1944–45), Baker Old Class Collection, Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA, USA.

97 Memorandum of Conversation between Philip Bonsal and Chilean Ambassador Rodolfo Michels, Shipment of Nitrate, 3 Nov. 1943, 825.6374/1542, RG 59, NACP; Jorge Allard P., Cien años de la Compañía Sudamericana de Vapores (Santiago, 1972), 112–116. One of the requisitioned Danish vessels was sunk by a German submarine off the coast of New Jersey in 1942 and 28 Chilean crew members perished.

98 Letter from War Shipping Administration Administrator Admiral Emory Land to Undersecretary of State Edward Stettinius Jr., 13 Nov. 1943, 825/6374/1544; letter from Stettinius to Land, 1 Dec. 1943, 825.6374/1544, RG 59, NACP; letter from Land to Stettinius, 7 Dec. 1943, with enclosed memorandum Northbound Loading Program Compañía Sudamericana de Vapores, 21 Oct. 1943, 825.6374/1570, RG 59, NACP; letter from Albert Woods, CNSC, to Lawrence Duggan, Department of State, 21 April 1944, 825.6374/1582, RG 59, NACP. In Nov. 1943 W. Y. Elliott in the War Production Board anticipated that Chilean Line vessels would carry 10,000 tons of nitrate per month. Elliott to Upson, 12 Nov. 1943, Policy Documentation File 535.202, RG 179, NACP.

99 COVENSA minutes, 5 Oct. 1943, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 779, ANC.

100 W. H. Lawrence, “‘High-Speed’ is Aim: President Takes Action to Assure Team-Work and Settle Disputes,” New York Times, 29 May 1943, 1; “President’s Texts on the OWM,” New York Times, 29 May 1943, 3. Testimony of Elliott in Hearings before the subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Forestry, 5 Nov. 1943, 8–9; 6 Nov. 1943, 120.

101 Woods to Byrnes, 27 Oct. 1943; Byrnes to Woods, 30 Oct. 1943. War Food Administration Correspondence, PI 191/E.40, Box 10, f. OWM, RG 16, NACP. Woods’ letter evidently made the rounds. In a handwritten note on Woods’ letter, Fred Searls Jr., adviser on production at OWM, disagreed vehemently with Woods’s claims, saying that they “smacked of propaganda.” Another aspect of the CNSC/COVENSA pressure campaign was that it tended to highlight interdepartmental disputes in the US too overtly. Philip Bonsal asked a colleague to “point out to [Florencio] García that it is not helpful for him to keep harping on the War Food Administration’s attitude toward this matter. In our discussions with the Chileans, we would not think of bringing up alleged divergences of opinion between different agencies of the Chilean government.” Bonsal to Lyon, 15 Sep. 1943, 825.6374/1527, RG 59, NACP.

102 Marvin Jones, War Food Administrator, to Donald Russell, Secretary, Office of War Mobilization, 11 Sep. 1943; Jones to Byrnes, 10 Sep. 1943. Both items in War Food Administration Correspondence, PI 191/E.40, Box 10, f. OWM, RG 16, NACP. Memorandum from Acting Attorney General of the US Charles Fahy to Byrnes, 16 Sep. 1943, Oscar Cox Papers, Box 79, f. Byrnes, James F. (April-Dec. 1943), FDRL. DuPont owned a plant in West Virginia and operated the government’s Morgantown Ordnance Plant in the same state. Allied Chemical, in addition to its own Virginia facility, operated the Buckeye Ordnance Plant in South Point, Ohio. The Virginia-Carolina Chemical Corporation was a major producer of mixed fertilizers. S. Doc. No. 79-206 (1946), at 194–197. By the end of the war, thirteen Ordnance shell-loading plants were capable of graining ammonium nitrate solutions shipped from ammonia plants so that the product could be used as fertilizer. United States Surplus Property Administration, Chemical Plants and Facilities (Washington, 1945), 28.

103 The resolution, introduced by Senator Ellison Smith of South Carolina, chair of the Senate Agriculture and Forestry Committee, is in the Congressional Record, 2 Nov. 1943, 8991. The hearing transcripts were obtained from ProQuest Congressional. On the hearing, see Browning to Bonsal, 4 Nov. 1943, 825.6374/1540, RG 59, NACP. There is a multitude of photostats of these letters in the correspondence of the War Food Administration, PI 191/E.40, Box 27, RG 16, NACP. See “Nitrogen: Chronological Record,” Policy Documentation File 535.2001, RG 179, NACP, which refers to WPB’s receipt of hundreds of letters, its correspondence with senators, and Woods’s circular informing customers that W. Y. Elliott is the contact person at WPB. The hearings were frontpage news in Chile. “Mr. W. G. Elliott anuncia que 500.000 toneladas de salitre chileno serán transportadas a los EE. UU. antes del 1 de junio de 1944,” El Mercurio, 6 Nov. 1943, 1.

104 COVENSA minutes, 20 June 1944, Fondo del Salitre, Sub-Fondo COVENSA, Vol. 823, ANC.

105 The contract, along with the letter from Foreign Economic Administration chief Leo Crowley, explaining the basis for its authorization, is USCC minute document 140, RG 234, NACP.

106 Horace Graham to William Clayton, 11 July 1945, 825.6374/7-1145, RG 59, NACP. Transcriptions of intercepted cables between Graham and COVENSA are attached to the State Department’s copy of Graham’s letter. The cables concerned Graham’s upcoming trip to Europe and expanding market opportunities there. Norman Burns to Donald Kennedy (State), 17 July 1945, attached to 825.6374/5-945, RG 59, NACP.