Betrayed Illusions: Rise and Fall of Legal Coca and Cocaine Trade in the Andean Countries

The article examines the cycle of expansion and decline of the production and legal trade of coca leaf and cocaine during the final decades of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century. Globalization, technological advances, industrialization, and advertising contributed to the expansion, while non-economic reasons related to health, religion, and international politics led to the decline. Those benefiting from the expansion were some developed countries and an Andean country, Peru. Colombia cultivated coca, but did not participate in the boom, while Bolivia did so only marginally. A new coca and cocaine boom started in the 1970s, but in conditions of illegality.