Largely forgotten in the country of his birth and often pilloried in Chile, John Thomas North appears the epitome of a late nineteenth-century entrepreneur, a self-made man who worshipped his creator. From humble origins in Leeds – although not as deprived, it seems, as he sometimes pretended – North grew rich from involvement in nitrate extraction on the west coast of South America during the 1870s and 1880s, and in supplying the crucial complementary services – transport, provisioning and banking – on which mining depended, earning himself the soubriquet of the ‘Nitrate King’.
North understood the value of self-promotion, and being in the right place at the right time, allied to a willingness to take risks, seems to have been the secret of his success. He rode his luck, shrewdly choosing business associates such as Robert Harvey, the inspector-general of nitrates under the Peruvian and then the Chilean governments; John Dawson, the Iquique manager of the Banco de Valparaíso; William and John Lockett of the eponymous Liverpool merchant house; and Maurice Jewell, the British consul at Iquique. Having acquired valuable salitreras (nitrate deposits), he floated companies in London to which he sold the mines, earning a fortune in the process. Towards the end of his career North was essentially a financier, probably more interested in buying and selling enterprises for short-term capital gain than in a long-term commitment to running them; also, just before his death, he seems to have lost interest in nitrate in favour of Welsh coal, gold-mining in Australia and rubber in Africa, as well as other business ventures. Even if he was regarded as something of a nouveau riche who was never quite accepted by society, his wealth and largesse created the lifestyle of a landed gentleman. He expensively refurbished a country house, Avery Hill, in present-day south-east London, where he entertained lavishly. He became the honorary colonel of the 2nd Tower Hamlets (East London) Engineer Volunteer Corps. He invested in art, rode to hounds and ran greyhounds and a racing stable. The intense media attention he attracted draws parallels with today's celebrity magazines. He unsuccessfully pursued a political career, standing as a Conservative in Leeds West against Gladstone's son. He was honoured internationally, and at his death six carriages were needed to carry the 800 wreaths. North's success was comparatively short-lived, however. He died at the age of 54 in 1896, while chairing a meeting of one of his companies, and his kingdom quickly disappeared. The boom of the late 1880s gave way to overproduction and falling prices which subsequently undermined nitrate's profitability. By 1920 it was no longer a major player on the London Stock Exchange as it gave way to a synthetic substitute. Many of North's companies were soon liquidated; the Nitrate Railways and the Tarapacá Waterworks lost their monopolies; the Bank of Tarapacá and London was absorbed into the Anglo-South American Bank. Within two years of North's death his widow had sold Avery Hill at a fraction of its cost, as well as most of his shares.
While North's business practices were unexceptional for the time, and others also grew rich from exploiting nitrate, he remains a particularly controversial figure, especially in Chile. The charge sheet is lengthy. He has been accused of what today would be considered insider trading, when he almost certainly used Harvey's knowledge that after the War of the Pacific Chile would recognise the mine ownership rights of those who held Peruvian nitrate certificates, which North had bought, often at rock-bottom prices. He made the most of his monopoly position in provisioning the mines and transporting ore by his railway company. He was a leading proponent of the nitrate cartels which threatened the Chilean government's export duties and the livelihood of the labour force. Whatever North's charitable works in England – and his philanthropy was often generous, if somewhat erratic – nitrate miners worked under almost intolerably harsh conditions. He cynically bid up the share prices of his London-based nitrate businesses and later sold his overcapitalised companies to gullible investors. Most notably he has stood accused of orchestrating the opposition to President Balmaceda, whose policies threatened his business empire. This last charge can at least be set aside. Many years ago Harold Blakemore concluded that North had little or no influence upon the outcome of the Chilean civil war in 1891, whatever his personal views of the two sides.
Whether Edmundson really provides a reappraisal of the ‘Nitrate King’, as indicated in the short preface by Juan Ricardo Couyoumdjian, is debatable. The discussion of the possible developmental aspects of North's activities in Chile might have been extended. Essentially, the book synthesises what has already been published about North rather than providing fresh evidence with which to fashion a new interpretation. Edmundson's sources include newspaper files, and even Wikipedia, and his frequent use of long quotations draws heavily on well-known secondary sources. Consequently, while there is much detail on North's career, especially his life and business affairs beyond Chile, his accusers are neither vindicated nor routed. The problem is that, without an epistolary archive to clinch matters one way or the other, it is sometimes difficult to separate fact from fiction. In his desire to be even-handed Edmundson cannot quite make up his mind, seeming to prefer, as Couyoumdjian says, to present the evidence and let the reader decide.
The book is one of a series by academics and practitioners for the Institute for the Study of the Americas. Its approach is largely chronological but there is some repetition of facts. Edmundson helpfully includes a timeline of notable events in North's career and an appendix of his descendants. Despite its footnotes and an extensive bibliography, the book is an exercise in popular history rather than a scholarly monograph. Edmundson's lively style, the many illustrations and some entertaining anecdotes make for a good read. But it is doubtful whether this is the final word on the ‘Nitrate King’.
