When de Lessing commenced the Panama Canal project, it was to be the single largest financing in the history of the world, up to that point. The purchase of the French holdings at Panama was the largest real-estate transaction in history until then. Participation by the house of Morgan had been agreed to by both the buyer and the seller and in late April, prior to receipt of the Treasury warrant, J.
Morgan sailed for France to oversee the transaction personally. On May 2, at the offices of the Compagnie Nouvelle on the narrow, little Rue Louis-le-Grand, the deeds and bills of the sale were executed. One such contractor that emerged as an important American industrial power was Bucyrus Corporation now part of Caterpillar. A second contractor with massive success was the General Electric Company:. For the still young, still comparatively small General Electric Company the successful performance of all such apparatus, indeed the perfect efficiency of the entire electrical system, was of the utmost importance.
It was a chance like none other to display the virtues of electric power, to bring to bear the creative resources of the electrical engineer. What started as a privately financed enterprise collapsed miserably, taking down the entire French economy and nearly the entire French empire with it.
In the wake of this collapse, the American government took over the project and outsourced its completion to private contractors. Over three years, these private contractors failed to meet their deadlines, effectively forcing the U.
These fears were discussed openly in prominent intellectual circles, with complaints like the following:. When these well paid, lightly worked, well and cheaply fed men return to their native land [warned a New York banker], they will form a powerful addition to the Socialist party.
By their votes and the enormous following they can rally to their standard they will force the government to take over the public utilities, if not all the large corporations, of the country. They will force the adoption of government standards of work, wages and cost of living as exemplified in the work on the Canal.
There was to be no such thing as Socialism in America, but there are many lessons we can learn from today, here are just a few:. This immense, almost super-natural belief in the capacity of French engineering to overcome all problems led to crucial blind spots that Mother Nature exploited. Many viewed the fight against malaria and yellow fever as costly wastes of resources in an expensive undertaking. For these cost-based concerns, a focus on public health was inconsequential to the private endeavor, until the problem became too severe and the entire project collapsed under this weight.
Meanwhile, for a government to send its own emissaries to a region rife with deadly illness meant the potential for severe backlash from various groups. Truth be told, a healthy environment and a healthy workforce is crucial for large-scale successes.
The French went about the project privately. American success happened independent of any public vs. The completion of the Panama Canal had an unquestionably awesome effect on the rise of United States in the 20th century—both militaristically and commercially.
But, even with the project under control of the U. This was a major catalyst in General Electric becoming the behemoth it is today. The Panama Canal was one project, and it alone helped the United States become the dominant global naval power. It is not an understatement to say that without the Panama Canal, American history would be decisively less grand.
At the same time, American industry used the canal to buy and sell goods into the global market at an accelerating rate. Though its opening was followed by World War I, the Great Depression, the rise of protectionism and then World War II, so this commercial benefit of increasing global trade was not evident for decades down the line. The obligations of the agreement reflected the financial strength of the ACP, as no guarantees were set.
The exhaustive due diligence highlighted the criteria matched between the agencies requirements and ACP regulatory framework. The geographical diversification was important due to the connectivity and reliability the ACP provides to global trade, thus subscribing financings with multilateral and bilateral agencies reflected worldwide participation by different member countries, which support IADB 47 members , EIB 28 members , IFC members , JBIC - Asia, CAF 17 countries and 15 private banks.
Accomplishing a common ground among five multicultural policy agencies was the result of understanding each agency requirement; communicating the invested expertise and studies on engineering, social and environmental guidelines and adapting to the best-fit compromise on all parties, to reach a common understanding under one sole agreement. Multiple lessons learned can be shared from this experience, for example: survey of all possible financing sources available in the market now.
As negotiating team, be prepared to share all your institutional regulations in writing as these represent your playfield; include a multidisciplinary team to contribute their expertise and as counterparties to the lenders, experts like environmental, legal, and operational; among others.
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