British business in Latin America struggled throughout the inter-war
period, affected by the First World War, aggressive US trade strategies and a
dated British commercial support structure that had turned its attentions to
imperial markets. Chamber of Commerce archive material reveals the frustrations
of the British business community in Chile as hard-won markets were lost to well-supported US firms and returning German competition, as a consequence of
weak political, financial and marketing support. Against a backdrop of British
commercial decline worldwide, the Chilean case echoes the experiences of
businessmen across Latin America's non-imperial markets. As the British
government dallied, US business established an unassailable position.