ABSTRACT The purpose of this paper is to examine Weetman Pearson’s clientelist strategies and the concession granted to Thomas F. E. Kinell for the installation of the textile company, in order to explain the institutional framework in which Santa Gertrudis was established. It also aims to investigate local and foreign conditions that allowed British investment in Mexico, and the concessions granted by the government to attract foreign capital. The main purpose of the article is use a case study of a British company to explain the range and scope of the modernization projects promoted by the Ministry of Development during the government of Porfirio Díaz. The Porfiriato has been considered as a period of peace and progress. During this period, the Ministry of Development promoted numerous development projects in the fields of communication, colonization, public education, agriculture, and irrigation. The Ministry established numerous contracts and granted many concessions on behalf of the executive. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also promoted a strategy to attract foreign investment.

RESUMEN El propósito de este trabajo es examinar las estrategias clientelistas de Weetman Pearson y la concesión otorgada a Thomas F. E. Kinell para la instalación de la empresa textil Santa Gertrudis, a fin de explicar el marco institucional en el cual se estableció esta. También investiga las condiciones locales y extranjeras que posibilitaron la inversión británica en México y las concesiones otorgadas por el gobierno para atraer capital extranjero. El artículo parte de un caso de estudio de una empresa británica para explicar el alcance de los proyectos de modernización promovidos por el Ministerio de Desarrollo durante el gobierno de Porfirio Díaz. Cabe recordar que el porfiriato ha sido considerado como un periodo de paz y progreso. Durante este tiempo, el Ministerio de Desarrollo promovió numerosos proyectos de desarrollo en las áreas de comunicación, colonización, educación pública, agricultura e irrigación. El Ministerio estableció numerosos contratos y otorgó muchas concesiones en nombre del ejecutivo. Por su parte, el Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores también promovió una estrategia para atraer inversiones extranjeras.

Abstract: This article reflects on the evolution and the current state of Anglophone biography, focusing on the inherent and persistent tensions with regard to its definition, value, and purpose, and on its belated acceptance within the Anglophone academy. It also highlights the profound gap between Anglophone biography and the limited scope, practice, and academic marginalisation of Hispanic biography.

Resumen: Este artículo reflexiona sobre la evolución y el estado actual de la biografía anglófona, enfocándose en las tensiones inherentes y persistentes con respecto a su definición, valor y propósito, y su aceptación tardía dentro de la academia anglófona. También destaca la gran brecha entre la biografía anglófona y el alcance limitado, la práctica y la marginación académica de la biografía hispana.

Abstract This article presents a brief summary of the historiography of the British Empire in the second half of the 20th Century. It concentrates on three perspectives. During the second half of the 20th Century, the first two -the concepts of “informal imperialism” and “gentlemanly capitalism”-largely dominated the historiography of the expansion of the British Empire. The third- the British historian John Darwin’s description of the British Empire as an “imperial project” is more recent. This article is centered on the second half of the 19th Century and goes up to the end of the First World War in 1918. It aims to judge the validity of the concept of an “informal empire” as a key towards understanding Anglo-Latin American relations, specifically Anglo-Mexican relations, during this period.

Resumen Este artículo presenta un breve repaso de la historiografía sobre el Imperio Británico en la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Se concentra en tres perspectivas: dos que dominaron la historiografía sobre la expansión imperial británica durante la segunda mitad de siglo XX los conceptos de “imperialismo informal” y de “capitalismo de caballeros”. La tercera es más reciente: la descripción del historiador británico John Darwin del Imperio Británico como un “proyecto imperial”. El texto se centra en la segunda mitad del siglo XIX, hasta el fin de la Primera Guerra Mundial en 1918. Busca poner en tela de juicio la validez del concepto de “imperio informal” como la clave para comprender las relaciones anglolatinoamericanas, y específicamente las anglo-mexicanas en esta época.

BACKGROUND: Policy makers, health staff and communities recognise that health services in lower- and middle-income countries need to improve people's access to HIV treatment and retention to treatment programmes. One strategy is to move antiretroviral delivery from hospitals to more peripheral health facilities or even beyond health facilities. This could increase the number of people with access to care, improve health outcomes, and enhance retention in treatment programmes. On the other hand, providing care at less sophisticated levels in the health service or at community-level may decrease quality of care and result in worse health outcomes. To address these uncertainties, we summarised the research studies examining the risks and benefits of decentralising antiretroviral therapy service delivery.OBJECTIVES: To assess the effects of various models that decentralised HIV treatment and care to more basic levels in the health system for initiating and maintaining antiretroviral therapy.METHODS:Search methods: We conducted a comprehensive search to identify all relevant studies regardless of language or publication status (published, unpublished, in press, and in progress) from 1 January 1996 to 31 March 2013, and contacted relevant organisations and researchers. The search terms included "decentralisation", "down referral", "delivery of health care", and "health services accessibility". Selection criteria: Our inclusion criteria were controlled trials (randomised and non-randomised), controlled-before and after studies, and cohorts (prospective and retrospective) in which HIV-infected people were either initiated on antiretroviral therapy or maintained on therapy in a decentralised setting in lower- and middle-income countries. We define decentralisation as providing treatment at a more basic level in the health system to the comparator. Data collection and analysis: Two authors applied the inclusion criteria and extracted data independently. We designed a framework to describe different decentralisation strategies, and then grouped studies against these strategies. Data were pooled using random-effects meta-analysis. Because loss to follow up in HIV programmes is known to include some deaths, we used attrition as our primary outcome, defined as death plus loss to follow-up. We assessed evidence quality with GRADE methodology.MAIN RESULTS: Sixteen studies met the inclusion criteria, all but one were from Africa, comprising two cluster randomised trials and 14 cohort studies. Antiretroviral therapy started at a hospital and maintained at a health centre (partial decentralisation) probably reduces attrition (RR 0.46, 95% CI 0.29 to 0.71, 4 studies, 39 090 patients, moderate quality evidence). There may be fewer patients lost to care with this model (RR 0.55, 95% CI 0.45 to 0.69, low quality evidence). We are uncertain whether there is a difference in attrition for antiretroviral therapy started and maintained at a health centre (full decentralisation) compared to a hospital at 12 months (RR 0.70, 95% CI 0.47 to 1.02; four studies, 56 360 patients, very low quality evidence), but there are probably fewer patients lost to care with this model (RR 0.3, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.54, moderate quality evidence). When antiretroviral maintenance therapy is delivered at home by trained volunteers, there is probably no difference in attrition at 12 months (RR 0.95, 95% CI 0.62 to 1.46, two trials, 1453 patients, moderate quality evidence).AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Decentralisation of HIV care aims to improve patient access and retention in care. Most data were from good quality cohort studies but confounding between site of treatment and outcomes cannot be excluded. Nevertheless, this review found that attrition appears to be lower in partial decentralisation models of treatment, where antiretrovirals were started at hospital and continued in the health centre; with antiretroviral drugs started and continued at health centres, no difference in attrition was detected, but there were fewer patients lost to care. For antiretroviral therapy provided at home by trained volunteers, no difference in outcomes were detected when compared to facility-based care.

Abstract: There continues to be a widespread belief that the relationship between the regime of Porfirio Díaz (1876-1880, 1884-1911) and overseas businessmen such as the British contractor and politician Sir Weetman Pearson constituted a type of Faustian pact be-tween corrupt elites and rapacious foreigners in a conspiracy to plunder Mexico's economic resources. This interpretation has its roots in nationalist structuralist and dependentista historiography, which posits that British predominance in the nineteenth-century Atlantic world can only be understood in terms of British "informal imperialism", or "honorary dominion". This article argues instead that the explanation is to be found in a series of interlocking and overlapping factors which relate not only to Pearson's modus operandi but most importantly, to the political and economic context of Victorian Britain and Porfirian Mexico.

Resumen: Todavía es muy común sostener la idea de que la relación entre el régimen de Porfirio Díaz (1876-1880, 1884-1911) y los empresarios extranjeros, como el británico Sir Weetman Pearson, constituyó un tipo de pacto diabólico entre las elites corruptas y los extranjeros rapaces en una conspiración para saquear los recursos económicos de México. Esta interpretación tiene su origen en la historiografía nacionalista, estructuralista y dependentista que propone que el predominio británico en el mundo atlántico del siglo XIX puede ser entendido sólo en términos de "imperialismo informal" británico o "dominio honorario". En este artículo se argumenta que la explicación se encuentra en una serie de factores entrelazados y traslapados que se relacionan no sólo con el modus operandi de Pearson sino, más importante aún, con el contexto político y económico de la Inglaterra victoriana y el México porfiriano.