ABSTRACT
One of the major concerns in the study of Third World countries is the impact of the more industrialized countries on their economies. The foreign firms in Bolivia represent several migration waves. The earliest factories, established by the parents of some of our older informants, were among the first set up by foreigners in Bolivia. Others were established during and after World War II. In the case of Bolivia, the intensification of a feudal land tenure system from the mid- but more particularly the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century may have contributed substantially in providing cheap labor to the capitalist mining industry. The early foreign and national capitalist entrepreneurs in Third World countries producing raw material had, in some ways, a relative advantage over their First World counterparts. Some of the recent immigrants to Bolivia have also followed this pattern.
