Contributor biographies -- Introduction / Matthew Brown -- Rethinking British informal empire in Latin America (Especially Argentina) / Alan Knight -- The British in Argentina: from informal empire to postcolonialism / David Rock -- Commercial Christianity: the British and Foreign Bible Society's interest in Spanish America, 1805-1830 / Karen Racine -- Britain, the Argentine and informal empire: rethinking the role of railway companies / Colin M. Lewis -- Finance, ambition and romanticism in the River Plate, 1880-1892 / Charles Jones -- Appropriating the "unattainable": the British travel experience in Patagonia / Fernanda Peonaloza -- "Weapons of the weak?" Colombia and foreign powers in the nineteenth century / Malcolm Deas -- "Literature can be our teacher": reading informal empire in El Inglaes de los Geuesos / Jennifer L. French -- The artful seductions of informal empire / Louise Guenther -- Afterword: informal empire: past, present and future / Andrew Thompson -- References -- Index.