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This chapter examines the political and economic environment of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain from which Weetman Pearson emerged to build his Mexican business empire. It explains that Pearson was already a successful public works contractor when he started his first venture into overseas contracting in the 1880s. This chapter highlights the interplay of politics and business in Pearson's career and explains that he became a member of the House of Commons in 1895 and the House of Lords in 1910 when he was granted a peerage.

This chapter examines the first contract of Weetman Pearson in Mexico which was the construction of a drainage canal in Mexico City. It suggests that the Gran Canal project was one of the most important public works projects in nineteenth-century Mexico and was vital to Pearson's subsequent success. This chapter also discusses the difficulties experienced by Pearson in completing the project.

This chapter examines Weetman Pearson's reconstruction and management of the Tehuantepec National Railway in Mexico. It discusses the factors that were instrumental in winning this contract, including Pearson's technical and entrepreneurial skills, his work on Gran Canal and his role as agent of the Mexican government. It suggests that this was the most important and most expensive engineering project undertaken during the term of President Porfirio Díaz. This chapter also highlights the importance of this project in extending Pearson's clientalist network and his intimate relationship with the Díaz government.

This chapter examines Weetman Pearson's oil business in Mexico during the period from 1091 to 1019. It discusses his formation of El Aguila and describes the early difficulties he encountered in establishing his operations on a profitable footing. This chapter also argues that the assistance and encouragement given by the Mexican government was crucial not only in establishing Pearson's oil business but also in sustaining it during its difficult early years.

This chapter examines the historical and historiographical context of Weetman Pearson's arrival in Mexico from the perspective of British-Mexican relations in the nineteenth century. It explains that Pearson was able to take advantage of the opportunities made available to British businessmen by the reestablishment of British–Mexican diplomatic relations in 1884 and the settlement of outstanding debts to British bondholders in 1886. This chapter also highlights the role of the Mexican political elite in the process of state- and nation-building and in harnessing overseas capital, technology, and expertise.

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the successful career of British engineer and oil industrialist Weetman Pearson in Mexico. It explains the five factors that contributed to Pearson's extraordinary success in Mexico which include the revival and renewal of diplomatic, commercial, and financial relations between Great Britain and Mexico and his technical expertise, business acumen, and personal agency. This chapter also argues that the catalyst for the expansion of Pearson's business empire was to be found in Mexico and that the bulk of his substantial fortune was derived from his Mexican enterprises.

This introduction chapter discusses the theme of this volume which is about the contribution of British engineer and oil industrialist Weetman Pearson on national development in Mexico in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth century. This volume offers arguments against the view which considers the success of nineteenth-century British businessmen overseas as a function of either the dynamic character of British formal or informal imperialism in the “golden age” of empire or of the inequalities within the structure of the international economy in the nineteenth-century Atlantic world. It also examines business and political conditions and British-Mexican relations during this period.