Passive Embezzlement. The Tacna-Arica Railway and its role in Cross-Border Commercial and Smuggling Dynamics (1929-1939): A First Approach

Abstract

This study offers an initial exploration of the role played by the Tacna–Arica Railway within the commercial and political relations between Chile and Peru following the War of the Pacific (1879–1884), with particular attention to the period between 1929 and 1939. The central objective is to analyze the economic and social relevance of this railway in the postwar context and to assess its participation in both formal and informal dynamics of cross-border exchange. To this end, the research employs a historical methodology based on the documentary and comparative analysis of legal, commercial, and judicial sources, complemented by the examination of customs reports, court rulings on economic crimes, and business records related to railway transport. Drawing on this documentary corpus, the article challenges the historiographical thesis asserting the definitive decline of the Tacna–Arica Railway after the inauguration of the Arica–La Paz Railway in 1913, demonstrating that such an assertion is insufficient to explain the economic practices of the 1930s. The findings indicate that the movement of people and goods not only persisted but was reorganized through its articulation with binational smuggling networks of raw materials, involving local merchants, customs officials, and international shipping companies. The study thus highlights the persistence of intermediate railway circuits in the Andean border economy and their role in shaping transnational illicit systems during the first half of the twentieth century.