Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
GENERAL ENRIQUE MOSCONI'S
VIEW OF THE FOREIGN OIL
COMPANIES, 1928
I
have been asked which of the two trusts, the Royal Dutch Shell
or the North American Standard Oil, was preferable because of
its technical capacity, method of work, and procedures. I replied that
both of them responded, as is logical, to the characteristics that dis-
tinguish European culture from the North American.
The North American group is less scientific, more audacious and
impetuous, disposes of unlimited financial resources, and for that rea-
son develops splendid energy in its enterprises. The company belongs
to a people who have enriched themselves extraordinarily in a brief
lapse of time [and] has impetuousness, assets, and freedom from bias,
if not contempt, for outside sentiments and models of behavior, char-
acteristics that distinguish “the newly rich.” [These characteristics] do
not acknowledge limitations in the pursuit of [the group's] objectives,
and from there are derived the reactions that provoke [the company's]
rugged procedures, which begin with personal demonstrations and are
extended to nonrecognition and attacks on the sovereignty of other
peoples.
The European group is more scientific, has greater respect for
tradition than the North American group, and is more enlightened
by the world's technical and scientific bibliographies; as it is less
wealthy [the Royal Dutch] is more prudent, more methodical in its
plans, and more gentle in its labor systems, to the extreme that in
certain moments it passes unnoticed. Not the less for this, it suc-
ceeds in obtaining with skill and with all possible respect for the
means and the environment in which it operates, the goals that it
pursues.
When all is said and done, the two groups are equivalent, and
the North American firm would compare to a hemp rope, and the
European, to a silk one; so that, in response to the question that was
made to me, I replied that between the two cords, coarse the one and
smooth the other, both would serve to hang us . . .
Source:
Mosconi, Enrique.
La batalla del petróleo: YPF y las empresas
extranjeras
(Buenos Aires: Ediciones Problemas Nacionales, 1957),
pp. 230-231.
