Gold,drugs,blood,and global capital: The new business imperialism and extractivism dynamics in postcolonial Peru

Abstract

This article examines how Peru’s gold economy, at the intersection of licit and illicit circuits, has become a conduit for contemporary forms of business imperialism. Against a backdrop of rising global demand for gold and sustained capital inflows, both formal mining operations and illegal gold extraction have expanded rapidly in Peru—facilitated by weak institutional oversight, transnational corporate networks, and growing links with drug trafficking circuits. Drawing from the frameworks of extractive imperialism, informal empire, and “slow violence,” the paper interrogates how multinational actors and global commodity chains reproduce historical patterns of asymmetrical accumulation, while externalizing environmental degradation, health crises, and systemic violence to the peripheral territories of Peru. Through a political economy lens grounded in Latin American structuralism and postcolonial theory, the study highlights the paradox of a country with persistent trade surpluses but chronic current account deficits—driven by low royalties, primary income outflows, and the enclave nature of its resource sector. By tracing the gold economy’s integration with coca-based illicit economies and its reliance on mercury-intensive extraction methods, the paper exposes how imperial dynamics of extraction have morphed, rather than disappeared, in the postcolonial era. Ultimately, this case repositions Peru’s contemporary gold boom within broader discussions on the business history of imperialism, suggesting that modern extractive regimes are less a rupture with colonial forms than their reconfiguration through financial globalization and deregulated capital flows.