I would like to put the following suggestion up for discussion. A change in the world order. The pre world War I order had the worlds largest market (The British Empire) committed to free trade. One of things you need to industrialise is a market to sell your industrial goods to, in Britain’s case it was India and in the LA countries case it was Britain and its colonial possessions. There was also a large amount of capital available to invest in Industrialisation from all the major European Countries and America. Britain was by far the largest investor. The Great War changed this, European countries now needed to keep their Capital at home to pay of the debts accrued in the war and America wasn’t going to invest everywhere at once. This greatly slowed down the pace of industrialisation in LA. The thing that killed in off was the great depression and things like the Ottawa agreement. This closed the markets to LA produce and made further industrialisation difficult. This then leads to political instability and the cycle goes on. Two things have changed in the recently, first of nearly everyone has finished paying for the last 2 world wars freeing up Capital to invest in places like LA. Bodies like GATT and the WTO have steadily reduced tariffs once again allowing LA produce equal access to the world markets. This coupled with a recent bout of political stability has lead to rising growth in LA in general. Notice how the current set of economic problems came about the same time as a capital flight form the emerging markets. The availability of capital is an important factor in LA economic development.
