The Argentine in the Twentieth Century
by Alberto B. Martínez · English · Gutenberg #45261 · 842,059 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The Argentine in the Twentieth Century
Author: Alberto B. Martínez
Maurice Lewandowski
Translator: Bernard Miall
Release date: March 30, 2014 [eBook #45261]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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The Modern World Series
1. THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN GERMANY.
By W. Harbutt Dawson.
2. MODERN RUSSIA. By Gregor Alexinsky.
3. JAVA, SUMATRA, AND THE OTHER
ISLANDS OF THE DUTCH EAST INDIES.
By A. Cabaton.
4. THE ARGENTINE IN THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY. By Albert B. Martinez and
Maurice Lewandowski.
5. THE JAPANESE EMPIRE AND ITS
ECONOMIC CONDITIONS. By Joseph
D’Autremer.
THE ARGENTINE IN THE
TWENTIETH CENTURY
BY ALBERT B. MARTINEZ, UNDER-SECRETARY OF STATE
AND
MAURICE LEWANDOWSKI, DOCTOR IN LAW
With a PREFACE by M. ÉMILE LEVASSEUR, Membre
de l’Institut, and an INTRODUCTION by the late CH.
PELLEGRINI, Ex-President of the Argentine Republic.
Translated by BERNARD MIALL from the French
of the Third Edition, revised and brought up to date.
WITH A MAP
T. FISHER UNWIN
LONDON: ADELPHI TERRACE
1915
CONTENTS
CHAP PAGE
AUTHOR’S NOTE xiii
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION xv
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION xxv
INTRODUCTION xli
GENERAL PLAN AND METHOD OF THIS BOOK 55
THE ARGENTINE NATIONALITY 59
PART I.
THE ARGENTINE FROM THE ECONOMIC STANDPOINT.
I. THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARGENTINE 71
CLIMATE——SOIL——Geographical situation of the Argentine; its
boundaries, its area.
Climate of various districts. The prevailing winds. Nature of the
soil; its fertility; adaptation to the culture of cereals
and the raising of live-stock——Transformation of virgin into
fertile land——The Pampa——The cultivable area——Conditions
favourable to production——The plague of locusts.
RIVERS——Their exceptionally favourable influence——The
hydrographic system——Network of navigable river-ways: the
Rio de la Plata, the Rio Parana——Conditions of navigability——
Canals.
PORTS——List of the principal ports, with a summary of their
trade——Buenos Ayres: description of the port, its area, its
capacity, tonnage; its docks——The Central Produce Market——
Importance of Buenos Ayres in comparison with the great ports
of the world——The port of La Plata——The port of Rosario;
increase of its traffic; construction of the new harbour
conceded to a French company——Bahia Blanca; its development——
The decentralisation of traffic.
II. RAILWAYS 91
Rapid development of the railway system——Tabulation of its
extension in each Province——Table showing the general results
of its operation——List of the lines actually running.
List of railway companies, with the length of their roadways and
their returns——The difficulty of obtaining these figures
exactly——The tariffs of the railway companies——Form of
concessions, and suppression of guarantees.
Comparison of the railway system of the Argentine with the
railway systems of other countries——Proportion of mileage to
area and population.
Extension of the system in the near future, owing to the numerous
concessions granted——The mileage of these concessions——
Insufficiency of plans and previous examination——Examination
of the most important concessions for which the capital is
already guaranteed——The dimensions which the railway system
will attain after the concessions are realised——Programme of
narrow-gauge construction; its value.
Meeting of the Argentine with the Chilian railways across the
range of the Andes——The aerial mining railway in the Province
of La Rioja.
Railways in relation to agricultural development——Insufficiency
of transport at the moment of harvest; its causes and
remedies——Necessity of a better organisation which shall
respond to the stress of production.
III. IMMIGRATION AND COLONISATION 113
Immigration is a vital problem for the Argentine——Table of the
population per Province and per Territory. Its sparsity——
The exceptional situation of the Argentine as the objective
of European emigration——The poor results hitherto obtained
through default of colonisation——The faulty division of
the public lands——History of immigration in relation to
colonisation——The nationality of immigrants.
PART II.
THE ARGENTINE AS AN AGRICULTURAL COUNTRY.
I. AGRICULTURE 125
NATURAL CONDITIONS——THE CONSTITUTION OF PROPERTY——The three
principal agricultural districts——The northern, central, and
southern districts——The division of crops and their varieties.
The constitution of rural property——The division of property——The
great estates, called “estancias,” and their size.
The drawbacks of large properties——The necessity of a better
subdivision of the public lands——The division into lots of
large tracts of land, in order to encourage colonisation——The
system of exploiting property.
AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION——The progress realised in last seventeen
years——Comparative yield of the chief products, wheat, flax,
and maize——Lucerne; the importance of the crop and the
excellent results obtained.
Increase of the area under seed——The total area cultivated in the
agricultural years 1908-1909——The great agricultural belts.
The Province of Buenos Ayres, its agricultural development and
its crops——The Province of Santa Fé——The Province of Córdoba——
The Territory of the Central Pampa.
Agricultural machinery, its importation from abroad, and
especially from the United States.
THE AGRICULTURAL YIELD——The yield of the soil in the different
Provinces——Exceptional results in certain districts——Detailed
calculation of the yield of a wheat farm——Two instances of
great wealth realised by immigrants to the Argentine.
II. THE PRODUCTION OF WHEAT IN THE ARGENTINE
COMPARED WITH THE YIELD OF OTHER EXPORTING
COUNTRIES 154
The world’s wheat-harvest——Comparison between the statistics of
consumption——The conditions of production in Russia and in
the Argentine——Comparison with the United States, India and
Canada——The prospects of the Argentine export trade in wheat.
III. STOCK-RAISING 162
The transformation of the old “estancia”——The principal
stock-raising establishments; description, extent, number of
heads of cattle and favourite breeds——The great “estancias”
of the South and Patagonia.
Approximate area of the soil devoted to cattle and sheep; general
estimate of the numbers of cattle and sheep——Results of
the census of 1908.——The capital represented by Argentine
stock-raising.
IV. THE VALUE OF THE SOIL 174
Difficulties in estimating this value——Principal factors of
valuation——Examples taken from lucerne fields and the forests
of quebracho——Despite adverse circumstances, and with a few
exceptions, there has always been a tendency for the price of
land to rise——Alienation of lands acquired by conquest from
the Indians; their enormous present value——The rise of value
dates from 1902, and has hitherto continued without relapse——
The causes of this rise, and its rational principles,
according to an authoritative opinion.
Examples of valuation drawn from the sales of public lands——The
rise of prices in the Provinces of Buenos Ayres, Córdoba,
Santa Fé, and the Pampa, with figures indicating the prices
realised in some large recent transactions.
V. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 187
SUGAR-CANE——Area of plantations——Statistics of production——
Legislation affecting sugar——Consumption.
VINES——Area of vineyards planted——Production, consumption——
Imperfect quality——Competition of foreign imports.
TOBACCO——Area of plantations——Value of the product——Defective
preparation.
THE MULBERRY——The culture of the silk-worm might be established
in the Argentine, but at present exists only in an
experimental condition.
MATÉ——Large consumption of this product.——Statistics of foreign
importation——Districts suitable for its growth.
COTTON——Physical conditions proper to its growth——The first
favourable results in the Argentine——Its introduction into
Chaco——Lack of manual labour for the development of this
industry.
RUBBER——Existence of rubber plants in the Argentine——An
unexploited source of wealth.
ARBORICULTURE——On account of the diversity of the climate, all
fruit-trees can be grown in the Argentine——The various
fruits cultivated in different regions——Amelioration of the
products. The trade in fruit——Its development possible on
account of the inversion of seasons as compared with Europe——
Refrigeration applied to the transport of fruit——Regions
particularly suitable for fruit-growing.
PART III.
THE ARGENTINE FROM THE COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL
POINT OF VIEW.
I. FOREIGN TRADE 211
The important part played by the foreign trade of the Argentine——
Table of imports and exports during recent years——Explanation
of their respective movements——Favourable condition of the
commercial balance.
Method of ascertaining the statistics of exports and imports——
Errors in evaluation——Notes on the import duties on various
articles——Variations of the custom duties——Export duties;
their transitory characters——The trade in bullion.
IMPORTS.——Their classification according to their countries of
origin——Value of imports from each country, with indications
of the principal articles imported——The Argentine dependent
upon other countries for a large number of manufactured
articles——Concentration of imports at Buenos Ayres.
EXPORTS.——Their classification according to origin——Value of
exports from each district, with indications of the chief
articles exported——Decadence of the French trade with the
Argentine and its causes.
Tabulation, according to importance of the principal products
exported by the Argentine——Remarkable increase in
agricultural and pastoral exports——Search for new outlets.
Eventual denunciation of commercial treaties——Projected new
treaty with France——Causes of the superiority of English,
German, and North American trade in the Argentine over French
trade.
“Dumping” in the Argentine——A new client for the Argentine——
Japan——Elements which make for the development of commercial
activity in the Argentine.
The commercial balance——Results of the commercial balance——Its
prime importance in respect of the prosperity of the country——
It is this balance which compensates the issue of capital for
the benefit of the foreign debt.
II. THE GREAT ARGENTINE INDUSTRIES 235
The principal industries of the country are related to
agriculture and cattle-breeding.
SUGAR-PLANTING, BOILING, etc.——Capital engaged——Tucuman the chief
centre——Production and exportation——The sugar crisis——The
Rosario Refinery.
FLOUR EXPORT TRADE——Capital invested——Equipment, steam
flour-mills, grain-elevators——Production and exportation.
REFRIGERATION.——At present the chief industry of the country——
Number of establishments——Table of exports of frozen and
chilled meats——Capital invested——Development of the industry.
DAIRY INDUSTRIES.——The large establishments devoting themselves
to these industries——Butter; cheese——Exports of butter; the
development of which the dairy industries are capable.
BREWERIES.——Chief establishments——Production and consumption of
beer during the years 1902-1907——Suppression of imports of
foreign beer.
SPIRITS——Decreased production of spirits.
LOOMS, TANNERIES.——Weaving and tanning are industries which
at present exist in the Argentine only in a rudimentary
condition, despite the conditions which are favourable to
their development.
QUEBRACHO WOOD.——The centre of production——Applications——
Companies engaged in the industry——Their results——Value of
the products and the large profits to be expected.
TIMBER TRADE.——Varieties of timber and hard woods.
FISHERIES.——First results of this industry.
III. MINES, ELECTRICAL AND OTHER INDUSTRIES 250
The Argentine has not entered the industrial age——She has no
coal-mines in operation, no natural motive forces of any
importance.
MINES.——Symptoms of the awakening of the mining industry——
Numerous lodes in the Andes——The mines of La Rioja and
Catamarca——Mines in other provinces and territories——Mining
legislation.
ELECTRIC INDUSTRIES.——Tramways; their development, their
perfected equipment, and their profits——Progress of electric
lighting——Telegraphs——Telephones.
VARIOUS INDUSTRIES.——List of various industries established in
Buenos Ayres, according to the last census, with the value of
their products.
Comparison between the statistics of 1895 and those of 1904——
Progress realised in 1908——Workshops and factories.
IV. BANKS, THE BOURSE OR STOCK EXCHANGE, AND
LIMITED COMPANIES 261
BANKS——International character of Argentine banking——Evolution
of banking machinery——List of the principal banks, with
amount of capital and business done——Conditions peculiar to
Argentine banking; the lack of movable reserves——Rates of
interest on account, on deposit, and on advances——Statistics
of the deposit accounts of the principal banks——Exchange
operations: their decrease since the determination of a fixed
monetary ratio——The Clearing House; the importance of its
operations.
_The Bank of the Nation._——Its history——The formation of its
capital——Political interference in the nomination of its
Directors——Statistics of its accounts——Rapid increase of
deposits——Difficulty of realising capital——The resumption of
payments.
_The Bank of the Province of Buenos Ayres_——Its reorganisation——
Its present prosperity.
_Mortgage and Loan-Banks._——History of the _Banque Hypothécaire_
of the Province of Buenos Ayres——Bankruptcy——Arrangement
between the bank and its creditors——Proposal of
reorganisation——Laws relating to mortgage in the Argentine——
The National Mortgage Bank; statistics of business done——
Joint-stock loan companies; their capital and amount of
business done.
THE STOCK EXCHANGE (BOURSE).——History of this institution——
Its importance; its functions; amount of business done——
The decrease in its transactions since the cessation of
speculation in currency or the monetary ratio.
The Bourse is a private establishment——Its membership and its
regulations——Statistics of business done during the last
ten years——Securities quoted on the Buenos Ayres
Bourse—— Decrease in the total amount of business done during
the last five years——The monetary reform of 1901 as a factory
of this decrease——The place occupied by the Stock Exchange in
the life of the nation.
_Joint-Stock Companies._——The development of joint-stock
companies——Legislation affecting such companies——Abuses
committed in the formation of such companies, due to
speculation——Statistics of capital invested in joint-stock
companies before and after the speculative crises of 1890——
Revival of such companies, in a sense more consistent with
the development of the country.
PART IV.
ARGENTINE FINANCE.
I. THE ARGENTINE BUDGET 295
The financial situation——Continual increase of national
expenditure——Great and rapid progress since 1891——
Insufficiency of the means adopted to moderate this increase——
The Budget Extraordinary and the Special Legislation Budget.
Causes of this increase of national expenditure——The increase
of administrative requirements caused by an increasing
population; this is the most natural cause, and that
most easily justified——Increase of the public debt——The
intervention of the State as the promoter or guarantor of
important public undertakings——Exaggerated military expenses.
The total sum of national, provincial, and municipal expenses.
The proportion per inhabitant——Comparison with other foreign
countries in the matter of administrative expenses.
The national revenue——The revenue as organised by the
Constitution, and its analysis——Indirect taxation——The
customs the chief source of revenue——Direct taxation; its
origin in the Argentine; its justification; its yield——
Revenue of the industrial undertakings belonging to
the State: railways, sewers, posts and telegraphs——The
exploitation of the State lands.
Elasticity of the receipts, which follow the development and
progress of the country——The accelerated increase of
expenditure, and the resulting chronic deficit——Necessity of
serious reforms.
II. THE PUBLIC DEBT 312
Statistics of the public debt on the 1st January 1909——History of
the public debt——The first loans.
The financial crisis——Consolidated loans——The Romero arrangement——
Loan for the redemption of guarantees——The internal public
debt——The total of the Argentine public debt, and its annual
cost in dividends and redemption——The proportion of financial
charges as compared to other budgetary expenses.
The burden of the public debt is heavy, but not unduly heavy
in relation to the productive power of the country——The
necessity of restraining further issues and of converting old
debts——The efforts of the Argentine to improve her credit.
III. THE DOUBLE CURRENCY 330
The persistence of the double currency——The history of paper
money——The origins of the premium on gold, and its almost
continual increase——The year 1890 and the depreciation of
the currency——The causes of this depreciation; abuses in the
issue of paper, caused by a bad financial and administrative
policy.
Remedies suggested——Rosa’s law fixing the value of paper money
and establishing a _Caisse de Conversion_——Opposition
to this law——Its beneficent effect upon agriculture and
stock-raising, which had especial need of a stable medium
of exchange——Reserve fund created with a view to converting
paper money; its vicissitudes in the past and its present
constitution——The present monetary situation.
IV. THE _CAISSE DE CONVERSION_ 342
The principles on which the establishment of this institution
is based——The necessity of a rapid redemption of fiduciary
money——The doubtful success of this programme——New issues of
notes——New attributes of the _Caisse_ dating from 1899——The
exchange of paper for gold and _vice versa_——The development
of this system of exchange——The authority attaching to the
_Caisse_.
V. THE BALANCE-SHEET OF THE ARGENTINE ACCORDING
TO THE INVENTORY OF SECURITIES 349
THE INVENTORY OF MOVABLE PROPERTY OR SECURITIES——The capital
represented by movable properties, stocks, bonds, shares,
etc., is the only kind of capital which lends itself
to statistics——The great groups of movable properties:
National Funds, Railway Shares, Insurance Companies, Foreign
Banks, Mortgage Companies, and agricultural and industrial
undertakings.
The nominal amount of capital represented by movable values——
Table of the annual revenues of the same, and the sinking
fund——Division of this revenue among the different countries
having capital invested in the Argentine.
English capital——The importance of English investments in all
branches of Argentine activity——The benefits of a reaction in
favour of Argentine capital——French capital; its small value
compared to English capital——German capital and its rapid
increase——Approximate valuation of that portion of revenue
remaining in the Argentine, and of that which goes to the
various nations having capital invested in the country.
THE BALANCE-SHEET——The assets are principally composed of
exportation values; the liabilities, by the value of imports——
The revenue of investments exported to foreign countries,
and the total of the sums expended by the Argentines abroad——
Table giving a summarised Balance-sheet and the balance
in favour of the Argentine——International exchanges and
the importation of gold confirm this favourable situation——
Argentine capital will presently play a more important part
in the country as compared with foreign capital.
CONCLUSIONS 370
INDEX 373
AUTHOR’S NOTE
At the outset of this work our thanks are due to Señor J. Romero,
ex-Minister of Finance, who has given us the benefit of his experience
for this study of current Argentine affairs. Señor Romero is the author
of the monetary law of 1881, and was responsible for the arrangement of
the foreign Debt of 1892; he is to be numbered among those Ministers
who have rendered, in the course of their financial administration, the
greatest services to their country.
We must also pay tribute to the memory of two eminent gentlemen, no
longer living, whose death the Argentine deplores; who had desired, by
aiding us with their advice, to be in some sort collaborators in this
work, destined as it is to make popularly known to European readers the
present prosperity of the Argentine Republic.
We must express our utmost gratitude first of all to Signor Pellegrini,
that eminent man who assumed the Presidency of the Republic in a
difficult moment of her history. We are greatly honoured in that we
are able to associate his name with this book, by publishing, as an
Introduction, a most interesting study of the formation of the Argentine
Republic, which was one of the last writings of this eminent citizen.
And we must not forget the friendly and conscientious assistance rendered
us so willingly by one of the most notable figures in the financial world
of the Republic: M. Ernest Tornquist, whose death was also most truly a
national bereavement. M. Tornquist exercised a considerable influence
over the trend of affairs, and he most notably contributed to the work of
economic expansion, and financial and monetary reorganisation, of which
the Argentine is to-day feeling the beneficial effects. We have profited,
in writing this book, by his incontestable competence, and respectfully
salute the memory of this willing friend and collaborator.
AUTHOR’S PREFACE TO THE THIRD
EDITION
Three years have elapsed since the appearance of the first edition of
this book, and we have to-day the satisfaction of being able to state
that the development of the country has fully responded to our optimistic
forecast. Short as such a period is in the life of a people, it has been
extraordinarily full; the ground covered is so considerable that it is
of a larger Argentine that we now have to revise the picture, while
recording its pacific victories in the economic field.
No country in the world has ever in so short a time realised so rapid a
progress, in respect of the produce of the soil. In 1904-1905 the area
under culture was as yet no more than 22-1/2 millions of acres, while
to-day, in the agricultural year of 1908-9, it attains the figure of 35
millions of acres, representing an increase of nearly 75 per cent. In the
same period the value of cereals, which was about £1,600,000 in 1904-5,
has also increased in very large proportion.
Taking as basis the figures furnished by the Division of Rural Economy
and Statistics of the Ministry of Agriculture, we may estimate that the
harvest of 1908-9 will give a yield of, 13,811,000 (metric) tons,[1]
which may be divided as follows: Wheat 5,760,000 tons, flax 1,228,000,
oats 823,000, and maize 6,000,000 tons. The value of the harvest,
according to the prices ruling in 1908, will amount to 1045 millions of
paper piastres, or £92,000,000.
[Footnote 1: Reducing the above quantities to bushels of 56 lbs. weight,
the cereal harvest is estimated at: wheat, 230,000,000 bushels; oats,
33,000,000; maize, 240,000,000. The metric ton is 34·5 lbs. lighter than
the English.]
To appreciate these figures at their true value, one must remember that
twenty-five years ago the Argentine was still importing foreign flour to
make her bread, while to-day the production of grain represents nearly a
ton per head per inhabitant.
It is the same with maize: twenty years ago it was hardly grown, and
to-day the harvest amounts to 6 millions of tons; furnished almost
entirely by two provinces——those of Buenos Ayres and Santa Fé.
As for stock-raising, we cannot make a comparison with any very recent
statistics——since the last available date back to 1895——but we may
say that the general census which has just been undertaken, under
the direction of Señor Alberto B. Martinez, has revealed a wealth
whose magnitude surpasses all conception. To-day the Argentine counts
29,116,625 horned cattle, 67,211,754 sheep, 7,531,376 horses, 750,125
mules and asses, and 3,945,086 goats; which is equivalent, at the present
time, to a capital of 1481 millions of paper piastres, or £130,000,000.
By referring to the figures for 1895, which give us 21,701,526 horned
cattle and 4,446,859 horses, we may judge of the immense progress which
the Argentine has realised in a few years, thanks to the transformation
of 3-3/4 millions of acres of soil into magnificent pastures of lucerne.
On the other hand we must, it is true, note a decrease of 7,167,808
head of sheep, which are gradually falling back before the advance of
agriculture and the increasing numbers of cattle. This harmless animal
contents itself with a poorer soil, and does not fear the intemperance
of the seasons; also sheep-raising is now giving place, in our central
provinces, to other more remunerative industries, and the sheep are
taking refuge in great quantities in the southern regions.[2]
[Footnote 2: Patagonia, and even Tierra del Fuego, with its terrible
winds and drenching rain, is now being occupied by the sheep-rancher, to
the destruction of the guanaco and the natives; frost being rare save on
the ranges, and the pasture luxurious.——[TRANS.]]
If we consider these facts with a view to noting the precise direction
in which the Argentine is to-day evolving, we shall observe a marked
tendency towards the extension of agriculture proper, and a check in the
progress of stock-raising, which appears——at least for the moment——to be
developing more slowly than of old.
This characteristic change is perceptible each year in the statistics
of foreign trade. The exportation of agricultural products amounted,
for the year 1907, to the value of 164 millions of piastres (gold), or
£32,800,000 as against £32,400,000 and £34,000,000 for the two preceding
years. As for the products of stock-raising, the value in 1907 amounted
only to £24,800,000, while in the two preceding years it was £24,800,000
and £28,200,000; and ten years ago it exceeded by more than £10,000,000
the value of the agricultural exports.
Many causes are contributing to this transformation of a pastoral into
an agricultural country; their action is progressive, and they are
profoundly modifying the aspect of the land, by gradually substituting,
for the monotonous horizons of the ranchero’s prairies, the variety of
cultured fields.
While the prices of cereals have always attained a remunerative figure,
those of the bestial, on the contrary, have now and then suffered
sensible depression; and, what is still more serious, the ranching
industries have also suffered, as they did in 1908, by a lack of demand
for hides and wool, and simultaneously for an insufficient outlet for
meats.
The dried-meat (saladeros) industry, which used to absorb annually
nearly two million beasts, has by now been almost entirely removed in
the direction of Uruguay, or the Brazilian province of Rio Grande do
Sul, and is little more than a memory; as this primitive and rudimentary
method of preparation had perforce to give way before the more hygienic
and progressive chilled and frozen meat trade. The chilled beef industry,
however, upon which such hopes were founded, has not of late years made
any conquest of new markets, England being almost the Republic’s only
customer.
As for the exportation of cattle on the hoof, it is greatly impeded in
Europe by prohibitive measures, which diplomacy, by means of commercial
treaties, is endeavouring to remove. Yet were the desired advantages
obtained, the result would be doubtful on account of the considerable
rise in the price of cattle and the high freights which are charged for
the transport of living stock. It therefore results that this particular
species of exploitation is at an obvious disadvantage in the face of the
refrigerating trade.
If the raising of stock and its dependent industries have not, in these
last few years, realised a progress comparable to that of agriculture, we
must by no means conclude that this department of production has ceased
to be an element of national prosperity. Quite on the contrary: thanks to
the efforts made to better affairs by happy selections in the breed of
animals, the value of live stock has increased in surprising proportions,
and the Argentine still retains its rank as second to the United States
as a stock-raising country.
What we have endeavoured to emphasise, as a new manifestation of the
national activity during the last few years, is that the development
of the country has been in especial along agricultural lines; an
incontestable proof of progress, and an index of a higher degree of
civilisation.
Agriculture, as compared to stock-raising, is, from the economical point
of view, a source of wealth having quite a different bearing upon the
general prosperity and welfare of a nation. It is the fairy which little
by little transforms the vast plains of the Argentine pampas into a more
animated landscape, peopled by numerous homesteads, foci of colonisation,
which then develop into villages, which in a score of years may perhaps
be important cities. Agriculture summons the railroad, stimulates
emigration, promotes the division of the soil, creates the small
proprietor; it influences even the manners and morals of the inhabitants,
for it demands more labour, more intelligence than ranching; nimbler
wits, more method, greater foresight.
The comparison between the two great industries of the Argentine is
summed up in the following fact: a property comprising 25,000 acres of
pasture can be put into working order and managed by a staff of ten to
twelve men. For an estate of 1500 acres under culture, one may estimate
that forty to fifty persons, grouped in families, may easily live upon
the soil and prosper. We may perceive by this the great superiority
of agriculture from the point of view of the general interest of the
country. It demands and supports a denser population; it permits the
grouping of this population in villages and cities, it creates, in
proportion, with a smaller capital, a great wealth of produce; in short,
it contributes on the one hand towards increasing the wealth of the
country by participating largely in its exports, and on the other it
increases its power of consumption, by absorbing a greater number of
imported products.
Thus the evolution of the Argentine towards agriculture constitutes a
real progress, and if the country continues to follow the same path,
its development will assuredly not be arrested by lack of soil. The
35 to 37 millions of acres already reclaimed, and at present under
culture, represent at the most a tenth of the total area of cultivable
land, which is estimated roughly at 375 millions of acres, of which at
least 125 millions are perfectly adapted to the culture of cereals. The
four Provinces of Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé, Córdoba, Entre Rios, and the
Territory of Pampa Central alone contain some 32-1/2 millions of land
under the plough, while there remains about 170 millions of acres of land
which is just as fertile, and which without manuring or preparation would
yield a splendid crop from the first year of tilth.
This transformation into an agricultural country has already borne
fruit. The figures relating to external commerce, compared with the
world’s statistics of cereal production, show the present position of the
Argentine among the great exporting nations.
It is the Argentine which to-day, after the United States, occupies the
second rank in the matter of cereal exports; and this is a significant
event in the economic history of the nations, to which the attention of
Europe should be directed. At the present moment the Argentine, with
her 4 million tons of corn available for exportation, is not as yet
mistress of the grain markets, but she represents, to those countries
whose production is insufficient, a notable reserve, which has become
indispensable since the United States, Canada, and Russia seem to have
reached their limit of exportation.
The year 1907-8 was for the Argentine, thanks to the results of a good
harvest, a period of exceptional prosperity. The average yield of wheat
was 18·7 cwt. per hectare——14 bushels per acre——and in the Province of
Buenos Ayres it amounted to over a ton per hectare——or 15 bushels per
acre——although the average was only 11 per acre in 1906-1907, and 13 in
1905-1906.
As for the prices, they ruled higher than any the country had so far
known, even during its most prosperous periods. Wheat had been selling at
6 or 7 piastres the 100 kilos——that is, approximately, at 3s. to 3s. 6d.
per bushel——and at that price agriculture still yielded a fair profit. In
1908, as a result of the bad harvests in several European countries, the
sales rose to 6s.; at which price the profits on the cost of production
amounted to 25% or 30%.
After this cursory glance at the present situation in the Argentine,
we must also express our views of the future. Optimism is certainly
permissible in the case of a country which has advanced so far in so
short a time, and where prosperity is founded on a diversity of products
which can never be affected by a universal crisis.
However, one well might wonder whether the Argentine might not, in the
Biblical phrase, know lean years following the fat; whether she is not
destined to suffer the onset of plagues, such as drought and the locust,
which latter is to her, as to Egypt in the time of the Israelites, a
veritable scourge. Certainly here we have one of the great risks to
which the country is exposed: a country wherein all depends upon the
harvest, the earth being the principal source of wealth, and the mother
of all industry. Yet this danger, so real a few years ago, is greatly
lessened to-day by the fact of the distribution of cultivated lands and
pastures over a far greater area. A bad harvest could not compromise both
agriculture and stock-raising over a stretch of more than 15° of latitude.
Yet the country is subject to a very real danger, but one of another
kind. From the very exuberance of development may arise a crisis of
growth; for her prosperity depends not only on plentiful harvests; it
may be influenced by other factors on which it is far more difficult to
pronounce.
The country must continue to require considerable sums of capital for
her agricultural necessities, for her stock-raising, for commerce, and
for industries; and it may be asked whether the European markets, from
which, in great measure, her capital derives, can continue to afford her
an ever-increasing amount of assistance which will keep pace with her
development in all directions.
The Argentine is not so far self-sufficing. The soil is, to be sure, a
source of immense national wealth, but this wealth is not in the form of
a reserve to be drawn on; it is, as a rule, converted into real estate
directly it is produced; unless, indeed, it goes abroad. For a farmer
who makes a profit, say, of £8000 or £10,000, will immediately employ
his capital to acquire another holding or to start a different kind of
culture, instead of clearing off the debts which already burden his
property. He is contented with his position as a borrower; for if money,
even on mortgage, costs him 8 to 9 per cent., he can, on the other hand,
obtain a far higher interest by sinking it in the purchase of land.
From all this it results that in the Argentine rural and even urban
property is largely hypothecated. It must be understood that this capital
is well guaranteed, as its security rests not upon pure speculations but
on the yield of the property, which is far in excess of the charges;
however, since the general tendency is not towards redemption, one may
wonder if, sooner or later, there may not be a lack of equilibrium
between the impulse given to the country and its financial needs. The
crisis which arose in the wool market in 1908, the drop in the prices of
quebracho timber, and the restricted outlet for cattle on the hoof, and
even for refrigerated meat,——all these partial misfortunes are salutary
warnings, and we must not lose sight of them, nor allow ourselves to be
hypnotised by the high prices of wheat, maize, or flax, or the heavy
yield of the lucerne pastures.
For our part, in considering the future of the Republic no less than
its present interests, we hope to see it enter upon a period of
consolidation, rather than continue indefinitely the discussion of
further progress. Before entering upon another stage of development the
country must, for a while, mark time, in order to gain leisure to assume
its own liabilities, rather than continue incessantly to absorb new
capital.
But there is still a cloud in the serene skies of the Republic; a cloud
that might be the precursor of a truly national catastrophe, if the
measures necessary to avert it were not taken in time. The peril arises
neither from the economic situation, which is excellent, denoting an
ever-increasing vitality, nor the relations of the Republic with the
neighbouring nations, which are conceived in a spirit of peace and
concord. Although a short-sighted diplomacy has attempted to envelop the
relations between the Argentine and Brazil in an atmosphere of jealous
distrust, there is no fundamental cause which might trouble the friendly
relations of these two countries, which formerly fought side by side on
the field of battle for the redemption of a sister nation. They have no
conflicting economic interests which might divide them, and are destined
to afford a great example of progress and of civilisation to the other
States of South America.
The peril to which we refer is of a totally different character: it
is caused exclusively by the exaggerated expenditure of the public
administrations, and the dangerous paths of armed peace upon which the
country has entered; thus implanting, in young and free America, a
ruinous system, which is ruining the nations of the Old World, burdens
them with insufferable taxes, and diverts from production and labour
too large a proportion of citizens. In order to face imaginary dangers,
Congress and the Government have lately decreed that a sum of £40,000,000
shall be expended upon armaments.
As for home politics, they form a domain which we do not desire to enter,
and on which the world of affairs bestows little enough attention, so
long as they do not compromise the public peace. The Argentine, in
fact, is still under a system of personal power; the Presidency of
the Republic is the focus about which all the political life of the
country gravitates. In default of a people as conscious of its rights
as of its duties, and possessed of the virtues necessary to a course of
perseverance in democratic practices, it is the Government that manages
the elections; and it is difficult to say whether it does so because
there is no public opinion, or whether there is no public opinion because
the Governments usurp the functions of the electorate. From this point of
view there has been no change in the political _morale_ of the country;
the only progress to be noted is that the parties resort less often than
they used to violence as a solution of their quarrels.
As for the administrative expenses, they are increasing with a rapidity
only equalled by the growth of the fiscal resources of this fortunate
country. Proposals for public works accumulate in the various Ministries,
while waiting for the funds necessary for their execution; their total
amounts to-day to the respectable figure of nearly £40,000,000.
To sum up: from our re-examination of the Argentine situation for 1909,
we obtain an impression of great progress and of actual prosperity,
an impression confirmed by the statistics of foreign trade, in which
the entire activity of the country is reflected. For the year 1907 the
total of imports and exports amounted to £116,000,000; for 1908 the
total receipts and outgoings represented £133,000,000: with a commercial
balance of nearly £24,000,000 in favour of exports.
Among the other manifestations of national progress we have still to take
into account the development of the network of railroads, of which 13,660
miles are in actual working, representing a capital of £158,000,000,
while 3259 miles are projected or in process of construction,
representing a capital of more than £25,000,000. These new lines have
been conceded by Congress either to companies already existing, or to
new companies which are able to offer all desirable guarantees, so as to
assure the prompt realisation of the schemes accepted. The Government,
on its own part, has solicited and obtained from Congress the necessary
sanction for the execution of a vast plan for the colonisation of the
Southern Territories, which is based on the construction of numerous
railroads. This continuous extension of the railway system has greatly
favoured the valorisation of the new Territories, and has contributed
powerfully to the movement of colonisation and emigration which is the
indispensable condition of a wider future.
To-day, then, all is for the best in the best, or at least the richest,
country in the world. But if science teaches us that Nature takes no
leaps——_natura non facit saltus_——history also teaches us that nations
in their progress must not progress too rapidly. For this reason the
Argentine Republic, in especial, has need to-day to consolidate her
prosperity under a _régime_ of foreign and domestic peace, of prudence
and economy, and to avoid speculation and the abuse of credit, which have
ended, before now, in inevitable reaction.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
Twenty years ago M. F. Latzina, Director of Statistics, published in
French a very able work on the _Geographie de la République Argentine_,
of which he had issued the first edition in Spanish, and I consented with
pleasure to write an Introduction to a book whose object——an object which
it fulfilled——was to familiarise European readers with a country whose
rapid development is one of the most remarkable facts in the economic
history of the nineteenth century.
“These results,” I wrote, after having quoted certain statistics
of agriculture and commerce, “are assuredly very satisfactory. The
Argentines have the right to be proud of them; few countries in the world
could show a like example of progress!”
I have no less pleasure in associating myself to-day with this book,
by Señor Albert B. Martinez (sometime Under-Secretary of State, and at
present Director-General of the Statistical Department of the city of
Buenos Ayres), and M. Maurice Lewandowski, Sub-Director of the Comptoir
National d’Escompte of Paris. Their competence is incontestable, and
their work requires no recommendation, since it has won the sanction of
success, being now in its third French edition, and having been “crowned”
by the French Academy. But the object which is aimed at by _The Argentine
in the Nineteenth Century_ is the same as that of the _Geographie de la
République Argentine_, and the interest attaching to the book is the same.
“In the competition of the new nations, created by emigration from
Europe,” I said in 1890, “this Republic will be enjoying a privileged
situation, because of its particular advantages: the nature of its
climate——a climate of the temperate zone; the vast extent of its
territory; the quality of its soil; the facility with which railways
can be built; its situation on the Atlantic coast, facing Europe, and
relatively near the Indian Ocean; the powerful tide of emigration
setting in towards it, and the rapid peopling of the country, together
with the wealth that results therefrom; the suitable character of its
population, and the liberal spirit of its political institutions....
“The Argentine Republic, which occupies in the temperate zone of South
America a position analogous to that held by the United States in the
corresponding portion of North America, may well dream, if not of equal
power, at least of a similar future.”
This dream is in process of realisation: of this the proof will be found
in the chain of evidence which our authors put forward.
It is the present condition of affairs and, above all, the economic
situation, which the authors of _The Argentine in the Twentieth Century_
have set out to represent. They have not given us a panegyric——“_nihil
admirari_,” say they——but a practical book: one written by men of
business and affairs, founded upon direct observation, and hard-and-fast
figures, where statistics have provided them.
* * * * *
The Argentine is a young nation, which hitherto has busied itself rather
in work and production for the amelioration of its present condition,
and in the preparation of its morrow by creating capital, than in giving
itself to the historical study of its past. Nevertheless, history is the
web from which the spirit of a nation is woven. It is useful to recall
the principal historical periods, and particularly the origins of the
nation, for the better understanding of the present period.
It was in 1508 that the Spaniard, Juan Diaz de Solis, discovered the
estuary of the Plata, the _Mar dulce_; and in 1516 he returned, thinking,
after the discovery of the South Sea, by Nuñez de Balboa in 1513, that
this might be the strait, so sought by the navigators of the time,
by which that sea might be reached, but on landing he was killed by
the arrows of the Charrua Indians. He had discovered no strait, but a
spot assuredly well suited for colonial settlement. The first attempts
were abortive: that of Sebastian Cabot, who built the fort of the
Sancti-Spiritu (1527), and that of Diego Garcia. It was then that the
discovery of some ornaments of silver, worn by the people of the country,
gave the river its name; known first as the Rio de Solis, it was now
called the Rio de la Plata. The Indians destroyed the fort and killed the
colonists.
Eight years later a wealthy private gentleman, an officer of Charles V.,
Don Pedro de Mendoza, undertook to establish a settlement at his own
cost, on the condition of being appointed governor of all territories
that might be found as far as 200 leagues from the ocean; and in 1535
he sailed with fourteen vessels and two thousand men. He laid the first
foundations of the colony of Buenos Ayres, and he rebuilt the fort of
the Sancti-Spiritu, while his lieutenant, Ayolas, in 1536, founded the
station of Asuncion, on the Rio Paraguay. The post of Buenos Ayres
was abandoned. After the death of Mendoza and Ayolas the new colony
was governed by Martinez de Irala for a space of nearly twenty years;
reinforced by fresh emigrants, it barely held its own against the losses
inflicted upon it by the Indians. Irala, by a voyage of three years’
duration, succeeded in putting himself in touch with the Spaniards of
Peru.
Conquerors coming from Chili across the Andes, the Spaniards founded
among others, despite the hostility of the Indians, the following
stations: Santiago del Estero (1552), Mendoza (1560), Tucuman (1565),
Cordoba (1573), Salta (1582), and Jujuy (1592). These at first were
little more than camps entrenched. But Santiago del Estero was erected
into a bishopric, and so remained until 1700, in which year the episcopal
throne was transferred to Córdoba. In the eastern regions, in 1573,
Governor Juan de Garay built Santa Fé, re-occupied Buenos Ayres, which
was christened, on the 11th of June 1580, Cuidad de la Trinidad y Puerto
de Santa Maria de Buenos Ayres (the City of the Trinity and the Haven of
Holy Mary of the Fair Winds), and founded Corrientès in 1588.
Trade commenced. A first consignment of hides and sugar was dispatched to
Spain in 1551; but the merchants of Seville protested, and as a result
their privileges won the day. It is a fact that the monstrous regulations
which Spain had imposed upon her colonies forced the Argentines, for
some considerable time to carry their exports across the continent to
Callao, whence they were carried by sea to Panama; there they were again
transported by land across the isthmus, and were shipped anew at Puerto
Bello for Seville. Imports came by the same road.
There were, however, exceptions to this rule: either by grace of
provisional permits given by the King of Spain, or, more frequently,
through the contraband trade.
In 1617 the Province of Paraguay and the shores of the Plata were divided
into three Provinces; Paraguay, Buenos Ayres (erected into a bishopric
in 1630), and Tucuman, which were dependents of the viceroyalty of Peru.
The captaincy of Chili also extended over both sides of the Andes. The
Indians had to a great extent been divided among the colonists _en
encomiendas_——that is to say, in a species of slavery; but other Indians,
who were still free, were formidable enemies.
Early in the seventeenth century the Jesuits instituted their first
“reductions” in Paraguay, and organised in a community the Guarano
Indians of the country. These “reductions,” ravaged by the Mamelukes
of Brazil, were replaced by missions established on either bank of the
Paraguay River, and on the Uruguay to the south of Yguassu. The order of
Jesuits was suppressed in 1766.
The principal towns of the Argentine of to-day were already established
by the middle of the eighteenth century. At that period, so Savary
informs us, “The city of Buenos Ayres contained about 4000 houses, all
built of earth (adobe), but covered with tiles, with the exception of
some fifty houses of brick. The inhabitants are rich, and owe their
riches to the extensive trade which they carry on, both at home and
abroad.” After the advent to the Spanish throne of the son-in-law of
Louis XIV., France had the greater share of this trade; the King having
conceded to a French company the monopoly of the Assiente——that is to
say, of the trade in negroes, until by the Treaty of Utrecht France was
forced to cede this monopoly to England.
The two principal articles of export were at that time green hides for
Europe and the Paraguayan _maté_ for Peru.
On the northern bank of the Plata the Portuguese had founded the Colonia
del Sacramento (1686), with a view to competing with the Spanish ports.
The Spaniards seized this place once in 1724 and again in 1766; they
founded Montevideo in 1726. The quarrel between the two colonies was only
terminated by the Treaty of Madrid in 1750.
In 1748 Spain somewhat abated the severity of her laws. In 1776 she freed
the Argentine from the overlordship of Peru, by creating the viceroyalty
of La Plata, with Buenos Ayres as capital. The population, which before
this change was only 37,000, rose to over 400,000 in a quarter of a
century. In 1780 was founded the colony of Carmen, the first Patagonian
settlement, the shores of Patagonia having been first explored by the
Jesuit Quiroga in 1746.
During the wars of the Empire the English seized Buenos Ayres by
surprise, but were expelled by a Frenchman, Jacques de Liniers, whom the
inhabitants had appointed viceroy.
The _colonial period_ ended in 1810.
Such were the origins of the Argentine; a time of difficulties and
impediments; but in that period were laid the foundations on which the
Argentine civilisation reposes.
The second period is that of the _formation of the Republican State_.
The first part of this period, that of the deliverance from Spain,
opens with the memorable day of the 25th of May 1810, when liberty
was peacefully proclaimed at Buenos Ayres. The revolution spread to
Córdoba and to Tucuman; it failed in Upper Peru, owing to the reverse of
Goyenèche in 1811, and in Paraguay, where the capitulation of Tacuary
took place in the same year. Belgrano, one of the heroes of the War
of Independence, renewed the offensive and once more invaded Upper
Peru——this time victoriously; but the Argentine troops were definitely
driven from the country after the battles of Vilcuapujio (1813), and
Sipé-Sipe (1816). On the east coast the capitulation of Montevideo in
1814 put an end to the Spanish domination. On the west the brilliant
expedition of General San Martin, who crossed the Andes, freed Chili, and
struck the decisive blow by the capture of Lima (1817-1821). The victory
of General Sucre at Ayacucho (1824) terminated the struggle. Argentine
territory had already been seven years free from the Spanish troops.
The second part of this period, that of political construction, was
longer, far more laborious, and still more bloody. Questions of race
and party divided the inhabitants. Guachos of the Pampa, Creoles[3] and
pure Spaniards, Federals and Unitarians, disputed the power, while on
the frontiers of the Republic the Indians continued to disturb and alarm
the new State. Provinces seceded; many constitutions were drafted. In
spite of his talent as a statesman, Rivadavia was unable to obtain the
universal acceptance of the Unionist Constitution of 24th December 1826.
[Footnote 3: This word is here used to denote mixed blood; in its proper
use it denotes a person of Latin blood born in tropical or semi-tropical
America.——[TRANS.]]
A war against Brazil, of which the notable fact was the victory of
Ituzaingo (1827), resulted in the recognition of Uruguay as a free state.
The civil war broke out anew several times. The military leader of the
Buenos Ayres Federals, General Rosas, seized upon the dictatorship in
a time of disorder, exercising it not without intelligence, but with a
cruel despotism, and he carried on a long war against Montevideo, which
lasted until General Urquiza, of the Union party (with Brazil and Uruguay
as allies) delivered his country by the victory of Caseros (1852). The
Constitution of the Argentine Republic was voted on 25th May 1853; but
the end of the civil war and the definite reunion of Buenos Ayres to the
other Provinces did not take place until 1860, the year of the revision
of the Constitution.
War and confusion are not usually propitious to progress. However, the
population in 1861 was estimated approximately at 1,375,000; it had
increased to almost five times what it was at the beginning of the
century.
Buenos Ayres became definitely the capital of the Republic in 1882, upon
ceasing to be the capital of the State of Buenos Ayres.
The third period is that of _economic development_. This is the period
of which our authors write. We may mention it as beginning with the
re-entrance of Buenos Ayres into the Argentine Concert, and the revision
of the Constitution of October 1860. If it has not been free from
political agitations and international misunderstandings, it has none
the less been more pacific than the preceding periods, and industry has
enjoyed a security which in former years was only too often disturbed by
the regulations of colonial trade, the attacks of the Indians, the civil
wars, and the Separatist policy. But there were still for twelve years
intestine troubles and dissensions.
It was only in 1882 that the political organisation was completely
constituted, when Buenos Ayres became the Federal capital; for from 1865
to 1870 the Argentine was forced to wage war against Paraguay, when
it struggled, in concert with Brazil, against the despotism of Lopez.
The Treaty of the 3rd of February 1876 gave it the greater Chaco as
far as Pilcomayo. The Chaco is pacified; matters are not the same now
as when, in 1881, Crevaux was assassinated there by the Tobas. General
Riva effected the Argentine conquest of Patagonia (1879-1880), and the
Indians, feared so long by the planters, were driven across the Andes.
In 1895 the difference which had arisen between the Argentine and Brazil,
with reference to the Misionès frontier, was settled by arbitration. By
the Treaty of 23rd July 1881 was terminated a long quarrel with Chili in
relation to Patagonia; the Argentine obtained possession of the country
as far as the line made by the Cordilleras and a portion of Tierra del
Fuego. Arbitration also, in November 1902, settled the difference with
Chili, no less irritating and of equally long standing, concerning, the
frontiers of the Andes. No more serious causes of quarrel between the
Argentine and its neighbours remain.
* * * * *
The period of _economic development_ is as yet of only fifty years’
duration: it is far from having reached the limit of its evolution; but
we may judge of the amplitude which that evolution has already attained
by means of statistics,[4] and by them we may foretell what the future
holds in promise.
[Footnote 4: The more recent figures cited in this Preface are taken, for
the most part, from _The Statesman’s Year-Book_.]
The population, estimated in 1861 as being 1,375,000, had by 1907
increased to 6,210,000. Immigration, varying from one period to another
according to the economic condition of the European nations and the
Argentine Republic, reached an annual average of 13,400 from 1860 to
1869: between 1903 and 1908 it amounted to 211,000 (emigration not being
deducted.)[5]
[Footnote 5: This emigration amounted to an animal average of 93,000
between 1903-1907; but the deduction was not made in the years 1860-1869.
In 1907 there were 209,000 immigrants and 90,000 emigrants.]
The area cultivated in 1895, the date of the first serious estimate, was
5,256,160 acres, of which 2,013,000 acres were under wheat;[6] in 1909
34·6 million acres were cultivated, of which 14·8 millions were in wheat.
These 34·6 millions are only a small fraction of the 256 million acres
which the Argentine appears to contain.
[Footnote 6: The cultivated area was estimated at 849,000 acres in 1872.]
The grain harvest, estimated in 1878-1881 at barely 400,000 tons,
exceeded a million tons in 1895, and in 1907-1908 amounted to 5,523,900
tons, or 204,384,000 bushels.
Although the bovine and ovine races have not greatly increased in numbers
for the last twenty years, on account of the transformations effected by
agriculture,[7] the exportation of wool, which was 660,000 quintals in
1869-1870, was nearly 2,000,000 in 1905, and it still amounted to 1-1/2
millions in 1907; the exportation of beef, reckoned in carcasses, was
more than 60,000 head in 1900 and 463,000 in 1907.
[Footnote 7: In 1875 an approximate estimate gave 13-1/2 millions of
horned cattle and 57-1/2 millions of sheep; in 1907 the figures amounted
to 25,844,000 and 77,580,000.]
The first section of railroad was constructed in 1857. In 1865 the
Republic possessed only 154 miles of railroad; in 1908 there were 14,643
miles.
In 1865, the first year of which we have commercial statistics, the
foreign trade amounted to £11,300,000; in 1907, it reached £113,000,000,
and in 1908 £127,600,000. For several years there has been a very large
excess of exports over imports; in 1908 it would seem to have exceeded
£20,000,000.
These figures, to which our authors have added many others, are eloquent.
They tell us that man, whose labour creates wealth, is four and a half
times more numerous upon Argentine soil than he was forty-six years
ago; that immigration each year increases the number of workers; that
cultivated soil, the chief instrument of wealth in an agricultural
country, has an area nearly seven times greater than that of fourteen
years ago; that wheat, the principal vegetable product of that soil,
now yields harvests thirteen times more abundant than those of thirty
years ago; that the products of stock-raising have, on the whole,
greatly increased, despite the arrested development of certain forms of
production; that the railways——the means of transport of man and his
produce, which did not exist half a century since——now cover the land
with a network of increasing fineness, and are placing the Argentine in
the first rank of the nations in respect of the mileage of railroad per
inhabitant; that foreign trade, which is one of the most characteristic
forms of popular activity, and that commonly mentioned in illustrating a
state’s power of expansion, has multiplied itself ten times since 1865.
These figures, taken together, form a picture which is not only
encouraging, but extremely flattering to the pride of the Argentine
people.
But the picture is not without shadows. The Indians to-day amount only
to thirty thousand in numbers; the Guachos are gradually disappearing
before the agricultural settler; and the political and moral unity of the
country is not yet fully accomplished. The Argentine, like most of the
Latin-American republics, has given itself a Constitution based upon that
of the United States; but the populations of its Provinces had not the
spiritual cohesion exhibited by the British Colonies, and above all by
New England, which qualities set the seal on religious faith and the love
of liberty. European immigration has brought us composite elements which
are not yet amalgamated. Nearly all immigrants have come to make money:
the majority are indifferent to public affairs, as we see on election
days. Others are only too inclined to attach themselves to coteries, to
cliques. In the relations between the local governments and the central
Government, the subordination of the former is more remarkable than the
harmony of their mutual relations. The planters, intoxicated by their
good fortune, are not always so prudent as to regulate their undertakings
by their resources.
When in 1890 I wrote an Introduction to M. Latzina’s book, the Argentine
was in the full swing of speculation, and apparently saw no limits to
its development. “The Argentines,” I said, “resemble an enterprising
merchant, who, having opened shop in a well-frequented street, and having
borrowed money in order to start with a luxurious establishment, finds
himself greatly embarrassed for years, although his business prospers,
because his advances and his engagements are larger than his takings.
It is desirable that this spirit of enterprise should be fed, so to
speak, on diet, or at least, according to regimen; and on such conditions
equilibrium would be re-established.” Indeed, it then seemed that a
crisis must occur; and it came, a few months later. It was very long and
very severe; the Argentine learned what it meant to lose its credit, and
for twelve years it suffered the disadvantages of a depreciated paper
currency.
The country recovered, and speculation rapidly received fresh impetus.
Thanks to the excess of exports, gold became plentiful; it is no longer
at a premium; if interest——which has decreased——still maintains itself at
about 6 per cent., it is because there is a great demand for capital. The
budgets still increase at a pace to alarm a prudent financier, in spite
of increased receipts. “If the Argentine does not wish to compromise its
lofty destinies,” say the authors of the present volume, “it is essential
that it should maintain an economical administration, careful of the
public moneys, yet open to all material progress. By so doing, it will
inspire confidence in men and in capital: the two elements which it must
still increase in order to become a great nation.”
* * * * *
To the population born on Argentine soil were added, between 1857 and
1908, 3,338,000 immigrants of various nationality;[8] 1,706,000 Italians,
670,000 Spaniards, 201,000 French and Belgians, 100,000 Austro-Hungarians
or Germans, and 41,000 English. Thus the Latin races are greatly in the
ascendant: a fact which facilitates assimilation.
[Footnote 8: On the other hand, 1,322,000 persons emigrated. The census
of 1895 gave 886,000 foreigners not naturalised, of whom 493,000 were
Italians, 199,000 Spaniards, 94,000 French, etc. To-day immigration
consists especially of Italians (127,578 in 1906), Spaniards (79,287),
Russians (17,434), Syrians (7677), Austrians (4277), French (3698), etc.]
The Government should preoccupy itself largely with this matter of
assimilation: for the process is not complete. There are two effectual
means which it might employ, among others, in order to assimilate its new
recruits: ownership of the soil and education.
These two means have produced marvellous effects in the United States.
The Homestead Law of the 20th of May 1862 gave to every American over
twenty-one years of age, and to every person having declared, conformably
with the law, his intention of becoming a citizen, the right to occupy
gratuitously 160 acres of surveyed lands, or 80 acres only in districts
more advantageously situated: if the holder, after five years of
residence, has cultivated a portion of his holding, the full title is
finally granted. For such purpose the public lands have been surveyed and
divided into lots by the Government. The Government also sells public
lands by auction or treaty. Up to the month of July 1905, it had thus
alienated a total of 808,000,000 acres; which explains how millions of
families——Irish, German, Scandinavian and others——have been more or less
definitely settled on the soil of that which was already or which has
since then become their native land. Here is an example the Argentine
Government would do well to follow.
Education exercises an influence of another kind, which is no less
efficacious. The Americans of the United States are well aware of this,
and this is why they attach such importance to the upkeep of the “common
schools” and the attendance of the pupils. The children of foreign
parents become Americanised in class and during play by contact with
young Americans. The English tongue becomes their own language; their
manners of thought and their habits are modelled on those of their
comrades, whom they are unconsciously proud to imitate. If the immigrant
family does not forget the memories of its old home, at least its
offspring, from the second generation, are rooted in the American soil
and have American minds.
The Argentine Government must endeavour to obtain a like result. For a
long period primary instruction was in an extremely neglected state in
the Argentine Republic. However, the Constitution obliged the Provinces
to secure such instruction, the Federal Government to assist by finding
a third of the expense of the first installation of the schools. But in
spite of the Constitution, in 1874 there were only 1830 primary schools
and 112,000 pupils. Progress has been accomplished: in 1905 there were
5250 schools, 14,118 teachers, male and female, and 544,000 pupils. But
as the population between the ages of six and fourteen had increased to
827,000, only 65 per cent. of the children were attending school, and
only one child in three was able to read and write. This is a state of
things that must be changed.
Secondary education, as far as numbers go, is in no better case; there
are sixteen “colleges,” with 4100 pupils. The State Universities of
Buenos Ayres and Córdoba and the three provincial Universities of La
Plata, Santa Fé and Parana, with 3000 students, are relatively better.[9]
[Footnote 9: The writer does not give the statistics of those who go
abroad to study; the number is, of course, very considerable, especially
of those who go to Paris.——[TRANS.]]
The three orders of instruction ought to work together to form a
national spirit and a moral unity; but the Government should not forget
that primary instruction is the basis, and that it is the only kind of
instruction that can be bestowed upon each generation in its entirety,
and that the children of each generation should be taught at an early age
not only the ideas necessary to the life of the individual, but also, by
means of the elements of national history, ethics, and applied science,
the knowledge and love of their native country.
The Argentine Republic as yet counts few men to whom the exigencies of
life leave leisure to consecrate themselves entirely to letters or the
sciences. It has some distinguished writers, but they usually find a
recompense for their talent in the public press; for in Buenos Ayres more
than 200 journals are published. Men write as hurriedly as they act. It
is to be hoped that before long, with the increase of wealth, there will
arise men of science, who will find no lack of material in the country,
and men of letters, historians, novelists, sociologists, etc., who will
also never lack for matter in this busy, humming hive. Such men are
necessary, because their life-work goes far to make up the intellectual
capital of a nation, and even to form nationality itself.
* * * * *
In my introduction to M. Latzina’s book, I glanced at the whole continent
of South America, and I remarked that civilisation had scarcely
penetrated the interior of this vast continent; that the density of
its population was extremely low; that the economic, intellectual and
political life of the continent was concentrated, if I may so use the
word, upon its periphery; that is to say, upon the shores which are in
touch, through navigation, with the rest of the world; that the Argentine
Republic formed the southern portion of this belt connecting Uruguay and
Chili; that this belt is wider where the penetration of the interior
is easier and the climate more favourable. This belt has also been
widened in Southern Brazil by the construction of railroads. It is still
wider in the Argentine, because the network of railways is more widely
distributed, the soil is of even quality and cultivable, and the climate
temperate and favourable to expansion.
For the purposes of this present Introduction, let us imagine a vaster
area——the whole earth, or, at least, the three inhabited zones of the
earth.
The torrid zone contains nearly a third of the land surface of the earth,
and only a quarter of its population; the density of population is thus
below the average. Original civilisations have existed in the torrid
zone——for example, Mexico and Peru before the arrival of Europeans——but
these existed on higher plateaus where the climate was not tropical.
There were civilisations in India and the East Indies, but these were
imported from the valley of the Ganges. There are to-day intertropical
countries which exhibit an active economic life: India, Mexico, the
Antilles and the seaboard of Brazil. Nevertheless, in the greater part
of the torrid zone it would seem that the continuous high temperature
saps human energy, and also renders it to a great extent unnecessary, by
simplifying life, reducing as it does the number of man’s essential needs
by facilitating the satisfaction of those which are, like alimentation,
strictly necessary.
The temperate zone of the north is the most favoured of all these. It
contains nearly half the land surface of the globe. It is also the
most populated, and the average density of population is far higher,
for it contains about 1,207,000,000 inhabitants, or roughly speaking,
three-quarters of the population of the globe. Here it is that we find
massed the four great sources of the ancient and modern civilisation of
the world, which also correspond to the four great groups of mankind;
China with Japan; India, with the Deccan running down to the torrid zone;
Europe, and the United States and Eastern Canada. In the three first
centres the density of population is far greater than in any other large
country. In the fourth, the number of human beings (some 94 millions)
and the density are far less; but this centre has become one of the most
important, by means of its activity of production.
There remains the temperate zone of the south. In this zone, the ocean
occupies relatively the largest space. The land emerges from it only at
the termination of three continents——America, Africa, and Australia,
terminated by Tasmania and New Zealand. Before the arrival of Europeans,
each of these divisions was absolutely isolated, without any relations
with the others, and inhabited by races entirely savage. The coming of
the Europeans who peopled them, and the maritime commerce which ensued,
have awakened them to civilisation. In the case of America, we have seen
that free colonisation was not commenced until the nineteenth century. In
Africa, at the opening of the nineteenth century, there were only a few
ports occupied, and Australia was still practically untouched. To-day,
in the temperate zone of the south, which comprises only a twelfth part
of the land surface of the globe, there are 24 millions of inhabitants,
nearly all civilised and of European descent. This population amounts to
1·5 per cent. of that of the globe; its density, therefore, is below the
average.
It is, however, the zone in which the population has relatively increased
most rapidly since the beginning of the nineteenth century, for at the
outset it certainly did not count a million inhabitants. The Australian
and African divisions have owed their good fortune to gold, and in a
lesser degree to wool; but gold mines are a source of wealth which is
exhausted by exploitation. In Australia, where the extent of arable lands
is limited, immigration has at present practically ceased. In Africa the
soil is little suited to culture, and immigration to the Transvaal has
been recruited rather among Asiatic coolies than among free workers of
European race.
In this southern temperate zone, the Argentine Republic is the State
which has the most numerous population: that in which the population has
known the greatest increase, and in which economic conditions promise the
widest development in the near future. The perfecting of refrigerating
processes will certainly facilitate the exportation of meats, and it is
to be hoped that the interests of trade, under the necessities of the
food supply of the labouring classes, will finally overcome the obstacles
which the European producers oppose in the way of imports. The demand for
wheat, like the demand for meat, may vary according to the year and the
protective legislation of the nations; but in general we may say that it
will increase rather than decrease, because the population of Europe,
and especially of Central and Western Europe, is for ever increasing in
numbers and in density, so that already it cannot suffice to itself by
producing its alimentary needs from its own soil, and in proportion as
it becomes wealthier it will consume more white bread and more butchers’
meat. The United States and Canada continue to export wheat; but the
rapid increase of the urban and industrial population of the United
States will assuredly limit this exportation to a very great extent in
the twentieth century.[10]
[Footnote 10: The consumption of wheat in the United States averaged 200
million bushels between 1871 and 1875, and 531 million between 1903 and
1907. The exportation averaged 62 million bushels between 1871 and 1875,
and 122 million between 1903 and 1907.]
The Argentine Republic, where the harvest is due in January, so that its
wheat arrives in the European markets by March, is the country destined
to profit the most by these advantages. It must learn how to make use of
them wisely, practising a policy of peace and concord, increasing its
powers of stability by the development of the sentiment of nationality,
and by inspiring confidence both in foreign capitalists and in immigrants
by accumulating capital of its own, and by learning to retain, in spite
of success, the foresight which warns of perils and the prudence which
avoids them.
E. LEVASSEUR,
_Member of the Institute,
Administrator of the College of France._
INTRODUCTION
This book, intended to make known in Europe the present situation and the
economic future of the Argentine Republic, comes at an opportune moment
to fulfil its mission of popularisation.
During the last ten years of the nineteenth century the Argentine has
suffered all the misfortunes and known all the disasters that can affect
a rural and agricultural people. The locust, coming from the Tropics,
devoured the crops; anthrax, imported from Europe, decimated the cattle;
the threats of a war with Chili imposed enormous expenses and exhausted
the national revenue; finally, a commercial and industrial crisis, and
domestic disturbances, consequent upon the general misfortune, completed
the tale of calamities which put the vitality of the nation to the test.
But as there is no night so long that it has no dawn, all these shadows
fled away. Our quarrel with Chili was submitted to arbitration, and the
decision of His Majesty the King of Great Britain not only terminated
a cause of difference of fifteen years’ duration, but re-established
fraternal relations between the two Republics. The rural plagues were
attacked and vanquished by measures which experience indicated as
preventive of recurrence; commercial and industrial prosperity returned;
the tranquillity of the interior was assured; and the general welfare
increased. To accentuate still further this beneficent reaction, the
immense and fertile plains of the pampa, open to the activities of the
agriculturalists, began to produce abundant harvests, which struck the
European markets with amazement, and diverted towards the Argentine a
current of gold which was estimated at more than £20,000,000, and a
stream of immigration, which, in the year 1904, brought 125,000 workers,
and which promises to be even greater in the present year.
The Argentine Republic has issued triumphantly from its lengthy and
severe ordeal; it has emerged richer, stronger and more confident of its
own destiny than at any other period of its history; and the increase
of its revenues and the rapid growth of its prosperity have secured the
attention of the great financial centres of Europe.
Public curiosity being thus awakened, many people have inquired: What
is the Argentine? How far is the development of its wealth a sound and
durable process? What is the probable future of its people? Is it a
meteor that flashes brilliantly through space, or a star rising upon the
economic and political horizon?
While some content themselves with asking such questions and awaiting
their reply, M. Lewandowski, the representative of one of the greatest
credit establishments in France, wished to gain some practical experience
of the phenomenon. He took the most certain, most practical means; took
steamer, crossed the ocean, and landed in the Argentine. With the learned
collaboration of Señor Alberto Martinez, one of the most competent of
men in matters of statistics and finance, he made a profound study of
economic questions, and the present book is the outcome of their common
observations.
This book should be read by all those who are not convinced that the word
Europe sums up all humanity; but who take the pains, on the contrary, to
follow the development of all other nations; understanding how necessary
it is for the great nations to observe the progress and evolution of
the younger peoples. Thus they avoid the risk of being surprised by the
sudden apparition of great economic or political forces which they had
not foreseen, or by which they had not known how to profit.
South America suffers from a prejudice that we cannot unhappily disclaim
as being unjustified. The directing classes in France, as in all other
European nations, with the exception of a small commercial and financial
circle, seem to have been kept in intentional ignorance of all things
relating to the nations of the new continent. The Argentine, Chili,
Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador,——countries separated one from another by
enormous distances——are none the less, for the generality of Europeans,
more or less one and the same thing; that is, they form a kind of
a geographical nebulosity, which is known as _South America_. The
post-office employés of Buenos Ayres have often occasion to smile when
they read the addresses inscribed on the envelopes of letters dispatched
by the learned and scientific bodies of Europe, and Argentines residing
abroad continually find food for reflection in the questions asked them
by persons occupying the highest positions.
Yet for the old world there is every incentive to study more closely
the development of these new peoples. It is enough to point out that
the Argentine to-day occupies as significant a position as that held by
the United States at the beginning of the nineteenth century; and that
its continued evolution will undoubtedly, before the end of the present
century, give it an importance equal to that of the United States at the
present time.
In a conversation with Mr Roosevelt and his Secretary of State, Colonel
John Hay, I had occasion to make this very remark, and the President
replied, with the rapidity of judgment and the affirmative tone which are
so characteristic of his mind: “In less time than that; you will find
fifty years enough; for you will profit by all our experience and all the
human progress effected during the nineteenth century.”
The shadow of discredit which has hitherto lain upon South America is
explained by the continual anarchy to which the majority of its peoples
have lent themselves since the immense colonial empire of Spain threw off
its fetters in the first quarter of the last century, in order to break
up into fifteen separate republics. This anarchy and disorganisation,
compared with the orderly spirit of progress which has reigned in the
great republic of the North, have given rise to the belief, to-day
general, that the so different destiny of these States was due to the
special qualities and aptitudes of the Anglo-Saxon race, which the Latin
races lacked.
This belief results from a superficial and incomplete examination of the
facts, and has gained easy acceptance, even in works of a more or less
scientific nature, such as _The Psychological Laws of the Evolution of
Peoples_, in which the author cites, with regard to the Latin races and
the peoples of South America, a number of inaccurate and prejudiced
facts, which have been gathered from the writings of a dyspeptic and
ill-tempered journalist. Such data have caused M. Gustave Lebon to deduce
psychological laws which are hardly favourable to the South American
races.
If we wish to gain some idea of the true causes of this diversity of
destiny between the peoples of North and South America, we must study the
origin of each and the particular form which colonisation has assumed in
each case; forms imposed by the force of historic facts rather than by
the will of man.
The Anglo-Saxons arrived in the American coasts and founded, in the first
half of the seventeenth century, such cities as Boston, Charleston,
Philadelphia, etc., when America had already been discovered and explored
by the Spaniards a century and a half before. These colonies were formed
of groups of families who had abandoned their mother-country to seek a
new one, where they could live and labour free from the persecutions of
religious and political intolerance.
When these colonies attained a certain fame, the surplus of the
overflowing populations of Europe was naturally attracted by these virgin
and fertile lands, relatively near at hand though across the ocean. Thus
there formed a current of immigration which rapidly peopled America and
utilised the great natural resources of its enormous territory. In this
way was gradually formed a new people, which was to a certain extent a
development of the various nations from which it originated, and which
preserved their customs and their political and social habits.
These colonists began by buying land of the native tribes; but,
increasing in numbers and in strength, they found it more convenient
to rob them, thus forcing the Red Indians to retreat towards the north
and west; and for reasons of self-respect, or on account of religious
principles, no deliberate attempt was made to mingle with the indigenous
population.
This form of colonisation, whose prime cause was to be found in
persecution, not in the execution of a preconceived plan, resulted in the
existence, at the end of the eighteenth century, of thirteen colonies
peopled exclusively by men of the white races, originally natives of
the countries of Northern Europe, who had transported to this new soil
their manners and customs, their social and political laws, their
liberal traditions and their economic system, so that from the moment
they declared themselves independent, they were able immediately to form
a single nation, united by all the ties which make for the cohesion of a
people.[11]
[Footnote 11: The late Signor Pellegrini, in his anxiety to defend the
Latin races, is not strictly impartial. At the time of the Declaration
of Independence the population of the States was very largely English
(with a substratum of Dutch in New York) but of different periods; and
these different periods preserved their own traditions. The difference
between the New England Quaker and the Kentucky trapper, or the Virginian
fox-hunting squire, and the Dutch patroon or Highland crofter, was as
great as any to be found among the Latin races, if not greater, and was
largely a difference of arrested periods as well as a racial and a social
difference. The result was that Federalism was accomplished peacefully
only by the genius of Hamilton.——[TRANS.]]
To attain such progress, to reach the summit on which they rest to-day,
the United States had only to persist in the same path, to follow the
same groove, and the incontestable merit of this people and of its great
statesmen is that they have been faithful to the principles of liberty
and equality which they inherited from their ancestors, the venerable
“conscript fathers”; principles which they ratified in the admirable
Constitution whence this vast political organism has derived its
cohesion, its vitality, and its strength.
How different were the origins of the peoples of Latin America! The
Spanish sailors did not cross the ocean like the passengers of the
_Mayflower_, or the companions of Penn, seeking solitary shores, known
though distant, where they might establish a home, there to live and
labour in peace and liberty.
The Spanish navigators, as brave as they were audacious, launched
themselves into the unknown, guided only by their own genius, in order to
discover a world, to conquer new lands, new subjects, for their country
and their king; and in the pursuit of that heroic dream they performed
exploits which to this day amaze us by their audacity.
These were the famous _conquistadores_, whom one of their descendants,
José Maria Hérédia, has celebrated in the admirable lines:——
“As from the natal charnel-heap a flight
Of falcons: sick of purseless pride at home
By Murcian Palos pilots and captains come
With brutal and heroic dreams alight:
They seek the fabulous ore that comes to birth
And ripens in Cipango’s distant mines,
And the trade-wind their long lateens inclines
Toward the dim limits of the Western earth.”
These first colonisers of Spanish America——soldiers, missionaries,
officials, adventurers, men without family——seized upon a whole
continent, which they discovered and conquered at the price of unheard-of
exertions. They parcelled out the land, subjugated the native tribes,
reducing them to servitude in their famous _encomiendas_, or putting
into experimental practice, as in the Jesuit missions, theories of
collectivism, which is to-day regarded as a modern invention. It was a
true feudal system that arose in the new world.[12]
[Footnote 12: It must be remembered, in comparing North with South
America, that the former also had its period of extensive slavery, its
plantations worked by convict labour, and for a period an almost feudal
system.——[TRANS.]]
If, on the one hand, the native races were initiated into the doctrines
of Catholicism in exchange for their liberty and independence, they
did not, on the other hand, receive from their masters any political
instruction, but preserved their habits of submission and passive
obedience to their chief, which constituted their sole political
tradition.
When, therefore, the day of emancipation arrived, and this enormous
colony, in arms against its oppressors, declared itself independent, and
divided itself into several Republics, the great mass of the population
consisted of Indians converted to Christianity, and half-breeds, who
preserved their habits unchanged and had no ideas, no traditions, other
than that of government by individual might.
Only in the urban centres did the white race, with its conception of
political institutions, predominate. And when the new Government wished
to organise itself in an independent manner, the two tendencies and
traditions, which correspond to two distinct mentalities, violently
clashed, and began that long struggle, not wholly terminated even to-day,
of which the history is the history of anarchism in America.
Another factor that also procured this conflict was the colonial
political economy of Spain, which was not only a mistake, but a mistake
of the period; an error which closed the whole continent to commerce,
shut it away from the outer world, and maintained these masses of
humanity in ignorance and isolation, in order to exploit them simply as a
machine, or as an element of wealth for the service of their masters.
The problem which confronted the politicians of South America when they
found themselves face to face with this new people, whom they must of
necessity organise, was thus very different from, and far more difficult
than the problem which the founders of the North American Union had to
resolve.
These native masses obeyed with all their might and with the utmost
enthusiasm so long as it was a question of fighting against the foreign
troops and of winning their independence; but, victory once assured,
guided by their leaders, the _caudillos_, most of whom were white, they
revolted against the tendencies which began to show themselves among
the Europeans of the cities, and in many places succeeded in dominating
over them by force of numbers, thus preventing all political and
administrative progress, and maintaining, as their form of government,
the personal, arbitrary, and irresponsible power of a leader, that is, of
the _caudillo_.
The written Constitutions which these people had established upon
declaring their independence, and which were inspired by the
Constitutions of the United States or the Swiss Republic, were thus
reduced to a dead letter, as they were in complete contradiction to the
political habits of the mass of the populace, and required, for their
application, a political education which the peoples of South America did
not possess. A whole century had to elapse before immigration, material
interest, and the influence of civilisation, were able slowly to modify
the political mentality of these peoples, by reinforcing and popularising
the principles of government, extirpating the elements and suppressing
the causes of the anarchy which had so long disturbed them.
Among the nations which experienced these beneficent influences, the
Spanish colony known as the _Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata_, to-day
the Argentine Republic, was quite specially favoured. Its territory,
composed of immense prairies, the celebrated Argentine “pampas,”
stretching from the sea-coast and the river littoral, offered the unique
wealth of their fertility and their climate. There were no mines of gold
or silver to arouse the greed of adventurers; they came to these regions
only to traverse them, and so to proceed immediately to the gold-bearing
regions of the distant Cordilleras.
Moreover, the first colonists who established themselves on the banks of
the Plata, repulsed and expelled by the natives, were forced to abandon
a certain number of cattle and horses, which found in these prairies an
admirable opportunity to live and multiply in freedom, until finally they
formed the immense herds of wild cattle and horses, whose hides became
the principal wealth and the chief article of commerce of these regions.
Although the Rio de la Plata had no commercial relations with the outside
world, and was only able to trade with Cadiz, the immensity and the
solitude of its shores favoured a contraband trade; to such a degree that
English, Dutch, and Portuguese smugglers came from all parts to exchange
their manufactured articles for the hides of these wild herds.——This it
is that explains how Buenos Ayres was able from the outset to become a
great commercial centre, in which the trades dependent upon stock-raising
quickly occupied the first place.
Commercial activity, the development of communication by sea, the
fertility of the soil, the climate——all contributed from the early days
of emancipation to attract European immigration. This immigration, like
that which peopled the America of the north, was composed of families who
came to settle, to form new homes, to labour. These families, following
the example of their predecessors in the United States and for the same
causes, did not mingle with the native tribes, but struggled against
them, and forced them to abandon their lands and fly to the south,
until at last, after a long and cruel struggle, they almost completely
disappeared.
This immigration increased year by year, and to-day the great majority of
the population of the Argentine Republic——a population now exceeding 5
millions——is of European origin.
That this immigration, which flows from all the nations of Europe, has
been the chief agent of the present prosperity of the Argentine, and
is the condition of its future greatness, is an incontestable fact.
One of our leading statesmen has declared, of America, that “to govern
is to people”; and this aphorism has remained a fundamental principle
of government. To recognise the full force of this assertion, we must
reflect that these unusually fertile prairies, situated in a privileged
climate, near the sea-coast or on the banks of enormous rivers, navigable
even by transatlantic steamers, need nothing but human labour to
transform them, with less effort and at less expense than anywhere else
in the world, into immense fields of wheat or maize, or pastures of
lucerne, covered with herds, able to produce bread and meat enough to
feed all Europe.
Accordingly the agricultural production of the Argentine Republic
is limited only by the number of hands which lend themselves to its
exploitation; in which we have a repetition of the very phenomenon which
has served as the foundation of the development of the United States.
Under these conditions the progress of the Argentine Republic is a
necessary and inevitable fact, which extraordinary circumstances might
for a time retard, but which nothing could finally arrest; except,
indeed, one could restrain the daily exodus of fresh swarms from the
human hive, which abandon the old soils, exhausted by production, to seek
out the fertile, virgin, and unpeopled areas of the globe.
Hitherto this exodus has been directed principally to the United States;
attracted thither by a host of special and favouring circumstances. But
the time is rapidly approaching when North America in turn will find
herself populated to the saturation point, and will no longer be able to
receive the hosts which benefited her formerly. The laws of the United
States are already beginning to impose conditions upon immigration which
are constantly becoming more severe; and these laws are imposed by the
two great political forces——the superior social classes and the lower
classes of the people.
The upper classes, Anglo-Saxon in origin, fear that contemporary
immigration, coming as it does from peoples of alien race, from the
south or east of Europe, may modify or enfeeble those great moral and
political qualities to which they attribute the greatness and prosperity
of their nation. On the other hand, the federated workers see in these
new arrivals, healthy and vigorous, but having fewer needs, a source
of dangerous competition, which may have a disastrous influence on
conditions of labour and payment.
The stream of irrigation which is now setting in towards the United
States, and which amounted in numbers to 800,000 in the year 1904, must
necessarily therefore, as time goes on, turn aside in other directions,
and as it will nowhere meet with more advantageous circumstances than in
the Argentine, it will flow thither as it flows already, but in greater
and greater numbers, resulting in a development of wealth and power
superior to any hitherto known.
Some persons, however, formulate certain reservations as to the
consistency and the political and social value of nations formed by these
human inundations, composed as they are of men of different races, having
neither the same language, nor the same religion, nor the same customs;
they doubt whether this new Babel can give birth to a national spirit
sufficiently vigorous to impress a character of political and moral unity
upon these new recruits.
In order to prove that these fears are ill-founded, we have only to take
the practical example furnished by the United States. Into this vast
national crucible there poured, from the outset, the stream of emigration
from Great Britain, Holland, France, and Spain; later came Scandinavians,
Germans, Lithuanians, Poles, Hungarians, Italians, Syrians and Arabs.
From the fusion of all these elements has issued a new race, homogeneous
and powerful, with a strong national spirit which is known as “the
American spirit,” and under that name has won the respect of the world.
This result is neither accidental nor due to special antecedents; it is
the consequence of a natural evolution, ably and intelligently directed.
The European law, which attributes to the son the nationality of his
father, may have had its justification in the past; to-day it is
maintained only by force of tradition.
Nationality and love of country are only an extension of the love of the
family and the home; and these sentiments cannot, any more than others,
be forced upon one by law. There can exist for a man only the home and
the family in which he was born and bred. Doubtless he will feel himself
attached to the home of his forbears by ties of sentiment and respect;
but all the roots of his intimate feelings bind him to the home and the
family into which he was born; they are in his blood, and thence he has
received the first impressions which mould his character and imprint
those characteristics which form his personality.
It is the same with nationality and the mother-country. It is useless to
attempt to persuade either child or man that his country is not that in
which he was born, in which he has grown up, but another distant country
which he has neither known nor seen.
The difference of origin among the children of immigrants of different
nationalities disappears in childhood, through the community of life in
school and workshop; through sharing alike in work and play; and it is in
the earlier years of life that the mind is moulded by its surroundings;
in these years develops that feeling of attachment to the soil, of union,
solidarity, and common memories, that shows itself later in an ardent
patriotism. Unity of language necessarily favours the process of fusion,
and explains the fact that the descendants of immigrants of different
race, religion, language, habits and traditions, are able to fuse so
completely as to form a perfectly homogeneous population, one in mind and
in sentiment, thus constituting a new nationality, young, vigorous and
strongly individual.
We have thus under our eyes a practical example of the unity of the human
race. The hazards of life, in the course of centuries, having dispersed
the primitive race throughout the earth, it has formed, under the
influence of circumstances, new types, which in the course of time have
met and mingled, to form new crosses in their turn, which as a matter of
fact are only the modalities of a common primitive race.
The same phenomenon is being repeated in the Argentine, as in all
the American republics, and the spontaneous and vital sentiment of
nationality continually strikes the observer, who notes the pride with
which a child born in Argentina, whether he be the son of a Spaniard,
Frenchman, Italian, or German, affirms, when questioned, that his
country is the Argentine.
Thus this Republic possesses all the requisite conditions of becoming,
with the passage of time, one of the greatest nations of the earth. Its
territory is immense and fertile, its surface being equal to that of all
Europe, excepting Russia; it is capable of supporting with care at least
100 millions of human beings; almost every climate is to be found within
its limits, and, consequently, it can yield all products, from those of
the tropics to those of the polar regions. Its rivers and its mountains
are among the greatest of the globe. As its maritime frontier it has the
Atlantic, which brings it into contact with the whole world.
It is governed by institutions more liberal than those of any other
nation, especially in all that affects the foreigner; it regards the
influx of immigration with approval, and seeks to promote it. In
proportion as its vast vacant spaces become peopled their value is
increased tenfold, and production grows at an enormous pace; for a
single family, by the aid of modern machinery, can exploit a larger
area of soil, yielding a produce far greater than is required for its
own consumption; a fact which explains the surprising rate at which the
export trade has increased.
Such are the true causes of the prosperity of this country, as is proved,
with abundant detail, by MM. Martinez and Lewandowski; and as these
causes are not accidental, but fundamental and permanent, they should
produce in South America the same results as in the North.
Granted that wealth and prosperity are essentially conservative elements,
we have here a serious guarantee of political stability; the more so as
the country has already passed the difficult age and is cured of the
malady endemic to South America——anarchy.
It is also to be hoped that our Argentine politicians, taught by
experience, and comprehending all the responsibilities imposed upon
them by their noble mission——the work of racial regeneration and the
betterment of South America——will succeed in making constitutional
government an actual fact, by restraining and uprooting the tendency to
personal power, which is the lamentable heritage of indigenous tradition.
It is a great nation that is rising on the brink of the twentieth
century; the mistress of an enormous inheritance. Immigration and the
increase of the birth-rate are furnishing it with the arms it requires;
it lacks only those reserves of capital which, like all new peoples, it
has not as yet had time to create.
In no country can European capital find a more fertile or advantageous
field for its operations: a fact already well known in England; and one
the authors of this book have wished to emphasise for the greater benefit
of French capital. In this they serve the interests of France and, still
more particularly, those of the Argentine Republic; and in the name of
my own compatriots, as well as for myself, I take this opportunity of
expressing my sincere gratitude.
C. PELLEGRINI.
THE ARGENTINE IN THE
20TH CENTURY
GENERAL PLAN AND METHOD OF THIS BOOK
Before commencing a study of the financial and economic situation in the
Argentine Republic, it is important to decide at the outset as to the
spirit in which this examination should be pursued, and the method most
proper to such an inquiry. We tread upon a novel and peculiar field, and
any too rigid comparison with the events of other countries might easily
lead us to errors of appreciation.
Above all we must practise the philosophical principle _nil admirari_;
we must be astonished at nothing, and abstain from all too absolute
judgments. Although, as the figures of foreign trade will show, the
progress of the country has surpassed all expectation, it is, on the
other hand, almost impossible to foretell how far the results of one year
will be ratified by the year following.
Like all young nations, the Argentine progresses on its path to the
unknown by leaps and bounds; it is as yet in an unstable condition, in
which the oscillations of prosperity are still of great amplitude and
exceedingly sudden.
It is easy to discern the cause of this essentially unstable condition.
The Argentine, in its present phase, is an agricultural country, whose
principal sources of wealth are cereals and stock-raising; the result
is that each year the whole life of the country is affected by the
harvest.[13] On the harvest depends, in a great degree, the movements of
external commerce; it produces those sudden changes which occur from
year to year, and which result occasionally in a variation of £8,000,000
to £12,000,000 above or below the average.
[Footnote 13: We use the word harvest here in its widest sense, but we
must ultimately distinguish the results of stock-raising from those of
agriculture, since they do not necessarily vary in the same direction.]
The harvest influences not only the exports, more than half of which
consist of agricultural products, but has no less an influence on the
value of importations.[14]
[Footnote 14: The value of the exports in 1907 was £59,240,874, and
according to the official figures the products of agriculture amounted to
£32,818,324.]
The national powers of consumption are, in fact, very intimately
connected with the measure of the agricultural output; as the latter
is bad or good, the home consumption absorbs more or fewer imported
products. Thus the poor harvests of 1901 and 1902, which resulted in a
fall of nearly £1,800,000 in the cereal exports, produced in 1902 a fall
of £800,000 in the imports of iron and materials used for construction.
The same depression was visible in the imports of textiles and beverages,
and still more so in those of articles _de luxe_. The spending powers
of the country being closely dependent on the facility of realising the
products of the soil, it is easy to understand that in the case of a bad
harvest or a poor market the consumers have no longer the same powers of
purchase.
We find the same ups and downs in the figures of the Budget, the
contributive powers of the country being influenced by the same causes
as its consumption. If the crops are poor, the Budget of the following
year shows immediate traces of the fact. Thus in 1902, the year of the
bad harvest, the total receipts were estimated at £5,534,000 in paper,
and £9,486,669 in gold; but the actual receipts were only £5,221,000 in
paper, and £8,047,755 in gold; a deficit of £1,438,913 in gold.
At the same time the Customs receipts, which are the most variable item
of the revenue, on account of their direct relation to consumption, have
fallen from one year to another (as in 1903 compared with 1902), as much
as £1,200,000 in consequence of the agricultural crisis.
There is an equally direct relation between the financial situation and
the results of the harvest. If the commercial balance is favourable, the
Argentine becomes a creditor of foreign countries by the excess of its
exportations, and the resulting payments in gold, after the deductions
of the interest on the foreign debt, increase the proportion between the
metallic currency and the monetary circulation in general.
As these few examples prove, the prosperity of the country is
subordinated to the result of the harvest; the latter gives the measure
of all improvement, all progress of a financial and economic order.
Unlike the ancient European nations, the Argentine Republic has no
reserves of accumulated capital behind it, so that it can live on its own
savings in times of crisis. Its commerce and its industries depend almost
exclusively upon its agricultural yield, and share all the latter’s
vicissitudes.
All depends on the value of the soil, the basis of public and private
wealth. The power of expenditure which follows a good harvest may
contribute towards proving personal property, but the latter remains
always strictly related to the agricultural yield and general produce of
the soil, and does not constitute an easily-realised reserve.
For the rest, we must recognise that, as a rule, this capital does not
remain inactive, and is as little as possible sterilised by investment
in the public funds. Those who possess available cash, in the shape
of revenue from a large estate, usually employ it by increasing their
stock of cattle, or in reclaiming more land, or by investing it in other
estates; so that all that comes from the earth returns to the earth, and
goes to increase its yield.
The peculiar situation of this great agricultural country, which
constitutes at once the strength and the instability of the Republic,
shows us in what spirit and by what method it should be studied. All
depends upon the yield of the soil, for this is the great dispenser of
the national wealth; it is therefore the agricultural system that we must
examine first of all, if we wish to arrive at a solution of the problems
arising from the present condition of the Argentine or predict its future.
To follow out this general plan, we must consider the country first
of all from two standpoints: we must examine into its production and
its markets or outlets, in order to learn the true conditions of its
existence, the value of its soil, and its sources of revenue.
We shall then proceed to examine its administrative machinery, showing
how the Argentine lives and progresses as a nation, and to analyse its
financial and monetary organisation with reference to the economic
situation.
The two portions of this scheme are closely connected, and their study
must lead us to the same conclusion, that the Argentine is a nation in
a state of growth, and, like all young nations, still uncertain of its
first steps; but it is animated by a spirit of initiative, and urged by
the breath of progress, which may lead it to a high destiny among the
great productive countries of the earth.
THE ARGENTINE NATIONALITY[15]
Is there an Argentine nationality, and what is its significance in
respect of the territory it occupies?——The formation of this
nationality.
An examination of the qualities of the Argentine people.——Sense
of progress; remarkable faculty of assimilation: character
essentially practical.——The fusion of the Latin genius with
Anglo-Saxon energy.
The contrast between the political world, with its instability and
lack of organisation, and the economic world, which manifests
intense vitality and national progress.——The necessity of
developing the national idea, and of raising it above material
questions.——The slow elaboration of a new race born of the
various elements of immigration.
[Footnote 15: We must here explain that the Argentine possesses two
currencies: the piastre or dollar, whose value is 5 francs, and the paper
piastre, which by the law of conversion is equivalent to 2 francs 20, or
1s. 7·2d.
As for weights and measures, the decimal metric system has been adopted.
In surveying large areas, the square league is occasionally employed as
unit, which contains 2500 hectares, or 5628 acres = about 9-1/2 square
miles.
We should also explain that the Argentine Republic, of which the Federal
capital is Buenos Ayres, is divided into fourteen autonomous Provinces
and ten national Territories. The Provinces, in the order of population,
are as follows: Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé, Córdoba, Entre Rios, Corrientès,
Tucuman, Santiago de l’Estero, Mendoza, Salta, Catamarca, San Juan, San
Luis, La Rioja, and Jujuy.
The national Territories are: La Pampa, Misionès, Nequen, Rio Negro,
Chaco, Formosa, Chubut, Santa Cruz, the Andes, and Tierra del Fuego.]
To present a complete picture of the Argentine, it is not enough
to describe its configuration, its great rivers, its climate, its
population, its forms of agriculture, and the value of its soil; all
this is a dead letter, and will by no means yield us the secret of the
country’s future, unless we first resolve one question of a sociological
character: Is there an Argentine nationality, and what does it signify
in respect of the territory which it occupies? Could one, for instance,
estimate the importance of the United States merely from the point of
view of their agricultural and mineral wealth, without taking into
account the work and the character of the admirable Anglo-Saxon race,
which has adapted itself to American soil, and has succeeded in obtaining
from it its full value?
And could we explain the fact that certain countries of South America,
which also, thanks to their natural wealth, have all the elements of
rapid development, have remained stationary, and hardly count as nations,
if the question of race did not throw light on the mystery, showing us
that with the most favourable factors of the soil, a ferment is essential
to start the growth of the seed?
Concerning the Argentine, this then is the problem which we have to
consider, if we wish to see further than the present moment, and to judge
in what measure its progress may be consolidated and even accelerated. In
other terms, we must understand whether the Argentine must depend upon
a fortuitous grouping of individuals brought together by the various
streams of immigration, and having no common tie but the desire to enrich
themselves, or whether these various elements are destined to become
fused, and in time to form a true nationality, with its own traditions,
its own ideal.
This latter is naturally the end to be pursued by the Argentine
Government, if it wishes to prepare for the future by making moral and
material progress go hand in hand. Its _role_ is not to manage the
country like a directing syndicate, but to direct all individual efforts,
all initiative, and all other available forces, to the same national and
patriotic end.
It was this idea that a President of the Republic, Señor Quintana, felt
it his duty to enunciate, when, upon assuming the Presidential authority,
he stated, in his inaugural message: “I am the head of a nation which has
in America an ideal”; and he added: “There is one common characteristic
among us that was discovered as early as the colonial period, in the
magnitude of plans of campaign, in the clamour of intestine conflict, in
the government of the constitutional period; it is, that we all bear in
our hearts the sense of our future greatness.”
How far can these aspirations be translated into facts? That is a
question we must examine seriously and with an absolutely unbiassed
judgment.
We cannot study this question of the Argentine nationality in books;
for a country which has been so rapidly carried away on the tide of
material progress has but little time to examine itself. Neither has it
been able to form a literature or a sociology which might reflect the
dominant characteristics of the generation; it is only by an inquiry and
an analysis of the facts that we can isolate this element of nationality
from the various foreign elements which have contributed to its formation.
One factor that facilitates our task is the clear-sightedness of the
Argentines themselves, who are the first to recognise, with abundant
good-temper, their own shortcomings. They are almost exaggerated in their
self-criticisms when depicting themselves; and our work has been cut out
for us in avoiding too hasty generalisations and in softening certain too
rigorous judgments, although these emanated from men who were certainly
in a position to understand the tendencies of their generation.
One principle dominates the whole question: it is that which a
contemporary historian expresses in these terms: “When peoples come into
contact they begin by an exchange of their faults.” Such an observation
might well apply to a people like the Argentines, who are not yet settled
on their own foundations, and are constantly increased by immigration.
All the varieties of the Latin race have contributed to form this people:
Spain and Italy have made the largest contributions, and France has also
in her time contributed her share. The Argentine has even assimilated a
Basque population, of especial interest on account of its aptitude for
agricultural work, and its adaptability to its new surroundings.
Finally, the Anglo-Saxons have also entered the Argentine, to mingle
with the Latin element, and have given great assistance in opening up
the country, by setting an influential example of initiative, progress,
and energy. This penetration of the Latin race, a little indolent and
inactive as it is, by the energetic and progressive Anglo-Saxons, enables
us the better to understand the good and bad qualities of the Argentine
nationality.
In short, if we are to obtain an unbiassed view of the national
physiognomy of this adolescent people, we must remember that its good
qualities, like its faults, are the result of the commingling of the
varied elements which have entered the country by immigration; elements
that have mixed and reacted upon each other, so that their dominant
characteristics have finally appeared in the Argentine character.
There is one gift which we cannot deny this people: intelligence,
joined to a remarkable power of assimilation. It also has that gift of
enterprise, that sense of progress, which are found in the Anglo-Saxon
races, and which have found such magnificent scope in the United States.
A young nation, without a past, the Argentine is not impeded, like most
of the Latin nations, by a load of custom, prejudice, and routine,
hampering its motions and impeding its progress. Profiting by the
experience of others, it knows how to adapt itself to the best; taking
its good wherever it finds it. It creates nothing, invents nothing, but
appropriates all new ideas, which find upon its soil the conditions
favourable to a rapid expansion. It is, indeed, formed after the likeness
of its own soil, which produces without effort and lends itself admirably
to every kind of culture.
This sense of progress is certainly the most characteristic trait of the
Argentine, and the one by which it is distinguished among the other Latin
nations of South America. Uruguay, for example, which possesses a soil as
rich, and offers the same facility of transport, has given no proofs of
initiative and vitality to lead one to hope that she has really entered
upon the path of progress. It is the same with Paraguay and many other
States, which have not succeeded in accomplishing any of the changes
demanded by modern civilisation.
The Argentine, on the contrary, has always known how to derive benefit
from whatever source was available, thanks to the current of immigration
which keeps it in permanent touch with foreign countries. It has also
assimilated the inventions and the methods of more civilised nations,
and has attracted men capable of applying them. At the head of the great
administrations of the State, one often finds specialists from Europe
or the United States, who bring the fruits of their experience, and
increase the intellectual possessions of the nation. The departments of
railroads, navigation, public works, and hygiene, thanks to these happy
selections, offer every security of efficiency in operation.
One may say, it is true, that this is the result of foreign influence;
but what does the origin of all these improvements signify in respect
of the future, so long as they become incorporated in the life of the
Argentine and contribute to its evolution? One thing which proves that
the instinct for progress is at the heart of the national temperament is
that it is found in the lower strata of certain public services in which
the foreign element plays no part. The administration of the police,
for instance, and that of the posts and telegraphs, to cite no other
examples, are conducted with as great a regularity as in any European
country.
Thus, while allowing that the initiative of all improvements comes from
abroad, we must not overlook the fact that the Argentine has assimilated
them with the utmost facility, and that this gift of assimilation forms
to-day a valuable portion of the national patrimony.
Despite its eminently cosmopolitan character, which is a peculiarity of
its development, the Argentine Republic has succeeded in retaining its
own personality among so many diverse elements. It is the type of the
modern nation, whose ideal is that of the United States——_business_. A
man is _zonzo_ or _vivo_——a fool or more than capable——there is no medium.
From this point of view the Argentine is at the apex of its period; it
has no use for abstract ideas or immortal principles; its ambition being
above all to sell its corn and cattle and to enrich itself. Behind the
agitation of the political parties there is no other object than this:
to share in the exploitation of the country and to enjoy its wealth.
The heroic period is over for the Argentine; its independence is to-day
definitely assured; it pursues no dreams of conquest now, but seeks only
pacific victories for its products in the great international markets.
Prosaic as the present generation is, it is not, from our point of view,
completely without nobility; it loves its native soil and glorifies it;
not, assuredly, after the fashion of Virgil saluting the Latin soil,
fertile of heroes, but as a land productive of rich harvests, and the
source of material prosperity. This it is that explains the powerful
attraction which the Argentine exercises upon all those who have trodden
its soil. The country progresses with such rapidity, the value of the
soil increases in such proportions, that the most indifferent end by
being drawn into the stream. Those who come to live here without any idea
of final residence make up their minds to settle as soon as they hold the
smallest parcel of property. When a man has lived some little time in the
Argentine, and has watched the spectacle of its rapid development, he is
quickly seized by the business vitality which forces him to take part in
the great movement.
This love of the Argentine for his land may certainly have its noble
side, but he knows nothing of the moving spirit of poetry which clothes
that love in the old countries of Europe, where man becomes attached
not only to the cultivable land, but to all the memories of the native
village; the familiar hills and meadows, the old church, and all that
puts us into communication with the soul of places. It would seem as
though one holds more closely to the earth that demands the most labour,
the greatest efforts, even the greatest disappointments.
No one was ever more attached to the land than the Boer, who lived at
peace in an ungrateful soil, indifferent to the mineral wealth which it
might conceal. It was this land, where he lived an independent life, that
he defended so stubbornly; not the gold, which was yet the true wealth of
the country.
The Argentine also has seen pass over its soil the same rude generation,
having no other dream than independence. The “guacho” of old, a mixed
type of the Indian and Spanish races, the true son of the pampa, was
truly attached to the immense plain upon which he lived at the call of
caprice, a wild rider in every sense. To-day the type tends to disappear,
as civilisation, and more especially administration, everywhere make
their influence felt; as the ancient virgin pampa is transformed into
cultivable soil, bristling on all hands with barbed wire. As he was not
easy to domesticate, nor break in to any continuous labour, the “guacho”
has been supplanted little by little by the foreign farmer, the colonist;
and to-day he is almost submerged by the wave of immigration which has
invaded the country, and which forms now the major part of the population.
From the men of this new generation one must ask no other love for the
soil than that which is born of the profits they draw from it. They can
move indifferently from north to south, from east to west; the soil for
them is everywhere the same, provided the harvest be good. But, apart
from that, they nevertheless love this land of promise, and interest
makes them its children.
From this generation, whose principal traits we have noted, it seems that
we may in the future expect great things.
To be sure, if the world were to return to its old ideal, that of glory
or imperialism, we hardly know what place the Argentine would find in the
scheme of things. It is unsuited to a military policy; it has no ambition
to measure itself with neighbouring nations, which are far more eager for
adventure.
But if we stand on the economic plane, the only one which interests us,
we must allow that this generation is well armed for self-defence in
every field of the commercial struggle. From the fusion of the Latin
genius with the Anglo-Saxon energy has issued a new product, extremely
capable in business, full of practical sense, and very open to progress,
which will be fully able to hold its own in a century in which money
is the great instrument of domination. This race, formed haphazard of
immigration, is yet the very race for Argentine soil; between the two
there is a correspondence, an adaptation, as perfect as if it were the
result of long-continued design.
To sum up: the Argentine nationality appears to a foreigner under
two distinct aspects; there is its political side, characterised by
instability and lack of organisation, and the economic side, in which
an intense national life and progress are manifested. Will this truly
abnormal situation, containing both very bad and very good elements,
perhaps, terminate favourably, making of the Argentine people not merely
a rich, but also a great nation? Will the development of public affairs,
left so far to the hazard of politics, even reach the plain of our
economic development? Will the Argentine nation eliminate, under the
pressure of material progress, the leaven of anarchy left behind by
a century of civil dissension? This is the secret of the future; this
is the great achievement which remains to be accomplished in order to
consolidate the present prosperity of the country.
In short, we must not lose sight of the fact that this prosperity has
hitherto been less the work of man than of nature, which has been
prodigal of her gifts to this fortunate land. This is a thought which
has been expressed in a speech in the Argentine Senate, in which Senator
Uriburu shows that Providence is always coming to the rescue by repairing
the fault of the State.
“It is Providence,” he says, “which so opportunely sends us the rains
to water our lands and to raise our marvellous crops; it is Providence
that has given us the greatest Minister of Finance we have ever known,
our fertile soil and our clear sky; the supreme Minister who looks after
all our needs, who saves us from all difficulties, and who, despite
our errors, continues to ensure the greatness of the Republic. Let
man appropriate his work, but let him render unto Cæsar that which is
Cæsar’s.”
And now if by some impossibility the situation were to change: if in
spite of the enormous extension of cultivated lands a period of bad
harvests were to follow the present period of fat cattle: would there not
be reason to fear that the whole national edifice, founded as it is on
prosperity, might become disintegrated, and crumble under the stroke of
adversity? This is the peril we must indeed seek to avoid; it is for this
reason that the intervention of a strong power seems necessary, in order
to restrain the germs of evil brought by so many races, and to prevent
the Argentine from falling back into the state of anarchy and revolution
which for her is only a distant memory.
Taking even a more elevated standpoint, we may add that in order to
amalgamate all the elements of immigration and to attach them to the
country, through good and evil fortune, we need another solvent than
personal interest or profit. To create a people it may suffice to give it
a body, but to make it live it must also be given a soul, at whose breath
the collectivity of individuals will be transformed into that moral unity
which we call the nation. This is a question of prime importance in
a country such as the Argentine, where the struggle for existence has
taken a particularly keen form, which scarcely favours the development of
disinterested sentiments.
It is for the State to develop among its people this national idea, and
to turn all individual efforts to its profit. Its duty is to raise its
authority above the medley of interest, to restrain ambition within a
just limit by the influence of moral and patriotic ideas, and so to
ensure the reign of justice and social peace, without which national
prosperity will never be more than ephemeral.
In imagining, from this aspect, the formation of a nationality, we have
no intention of criticising the country; still less do we deny the
process of evolution which has gradually transformed its organisation.
A nation is not created in a day, especially when it is a question of
a country so young as the Argentine, which in less than a century has
issued from the struggle for independence, and even to-day has hardly rid
itself of the revolutionary spirit.
For a nation to become self-conscious, centuries must pass; traditions
must be formed, and the great moral or intellectual forces of
humanity——religion, science, literature, even poetry——must develop the
sense of a collective life other than the life of business. And hitherto
the Argentine has had no time to produce generations of thinkers,
philosophers, and historians; still less poets. The most it has are
statisticians, who give it the precise figures of her commercial balance.
We do not doubt, however, that, thanks to material progress, this slow
elaboration of a new race will eventually be completed. In the first
phase of her existence as a nation Argentina, according to the spirit
of her Constitution, fraternally opened her doors to all who wished
to inhabit her soil. No restriction was placed upon the entry nor on
the permanent immigration of foreigners; on the contrary, legislation
and social customs combined to favour immigration. The result is, that
the new arrivals have regarded themselves as alien, in matters of
economics and politics, to the nationality with which they have become
incorporated; believing that their mission consisted solely in creating
and circulating wealth, while regarding the solution of the great
national problems with indifference.
But to-day the Argentine has entered upon a new phase; it must no
longer merely receive, it must also incorporate all these elements of
immigration, and, without awakening antagonism towards the foreigner, it
must set to work to absorb him into the soul of the nation.
This faculty of assimilation is a virtue of the American soil. The
United States have proved as much for North America, and it now remains
for the Argentine to do the same for South America. The new generation
of immigrants, having struck root into its hospitable soil, must live
completely in the national life, absorbing those feelings of patriotism
which animate the new citizen of the United States.
To give expression to these loyalist tendencies, we will confine
ourselves to quoting the memorable words which were spoken in the
Congress of Wisconsin, by an American congressman, born in Germany, the
Hon. Richard Günther; words which were equally applauded and approved
in Latin America. We shall perceive, through the very exaltation of his
phrases, what unreserved devotion a naturalised foreigner may bring to
his new country:
“We know as well as any other class of American citizens where our duty
lies. We labour for our country in times of peace, and we shall fight for
her in time of war, if ever such time arrive. When I say our country, I
naturally mean our country of adoption, the United States of America.
After passing through the alembic of naturalisation we are no longer
Germans; we are Americans. Our attachment to America cannot be measured
by the length of our residence here. We are Americans from the moment
when we reach the American shore, until the day when we are laid to rest
in an American grave.”
PART I
THE ARGENTINE FROM THE ECONOMIC
STANDPOINT
CHAPTER I
THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE ARGENTINE
CLIMATE——SOIL——Geographical situation of the Argentine; its
boundaries, its area.
Climate of various districts. The prevailing winds. Nature of the
soil; its fertility; adaptation to the culture of cereals
and the raising of live-stock——Transformation of virgin into
fertile land——The Pampa——The cultivable area——Conditions
favourable to production——The plagues of locusts.
RIVERS——Their exceptionally favourable influence——The hydrographic
system——Network of navigable river-ways: the Rio de la Plata,
the Rio Parana——Conditions of navigability——Canals.
PORTS——List of the principal ports, with a summary of their trade——
Buenos Ayres: description of the port, its area, its capacity,
tonnage; its docks——The Central Produce Market——Importance of
Buenos Ayres in comparison with the great ports of the world——
The port of La Plata——The port of Rosario; increase of its
traffic; construction of the new harbour conceded to a French
company——Bahia Blanca; its development——The decentralisation of
traffic.
The Argentine Republic occupies the southern extremity of South America
and runs from north to south from 21° 30′ to 54° 52′ of south latitude;
or 33° in a meridian line. From east to west it occupies a width of 20°,
between 54° and 74° of longitude.
Its territory is bounded to the north by Bolivia and Paraguay; to the
east by Brazil and Uruguay; to the west by Chili. Its boundaries by land
are 2980 miles in extent on the west; 993 miles on the north; the river
boundaries on the east are 745 miles in length. Finally, the shores of
the estuary of the Rio de la Plata and the Atlantic form a stretch of
1614 miles; all of which represents a total boundary-line of about 6334
miles.
The superficial area of the Republic has not hitherto been calculated
on the basis of a geodesical survey; it has been arrived at only by
calculation from charts which are more or less approximate. According
to the estimates most worthy of credence, and allowing for the latest
rectifications of the frontier, its present area is equivalent to
11,328,321 square miles. This is about six times the area of France,
which contains only 203,905 square miles. The Province of Buenos Ayres
alone is more than half as large as France.
The seasons in the Argentine, compared to those of the northern
hemisphere, are of course reversed. The summer corresponds to December,
January, and February; the autumn to March, April, and May; the winter to
June, July and August; and the spring to September, October, and November.
In the matter of climate, the Argentine may be divided into three
regions; those of the coast, the centre, and the Andes.
The coastal region comprises the Provinces of Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé,
Entre Rios, and Corrientès. The average annual temperature is about 66·2°
Fahr.; at Buenos Ayres it is only 62·6°. The average summer temperature
is about 77°, that of the autumn 64·4°; of the winter, 53·6°, and of the
spring, 62·6°. The hottest month is January, when the average is 77°; the
coldest is July, with an average of 51·8°.
In this coastal region the extremes of temperature are 107·6° in summer
and 41° in the winter; but these temperatures are both exceptional.
However, a temperature of 95° is very usual on summer afternoons. It is a
very unusual thing for the mercury to fall below freezing-point in winter
or to remain there. Snow is also a very rare phenomenon, only to be seen
perhaps once in five years.
A peculiarity of the Argentine climate in general is that the temperature
will change very rapidly during the day, or even during a few hours; the
change representing sometimes a difference of more than 36°, especially
in the spring, which is the most usual season for these rapid variations.
The climate of the coast region——that is, of a country consisting almost
entirely of plains——is, in general, influenced by the winds, which blow
in gales at all seasons. Northerly and southerly gales are the most
common; the first especially are very frequent. In Buenos Ayres one
finds, during the summer, an alternation of sea and land breezes; the one
during the day, the other during the night.
The northerly winds are always hot and even suffocating; they influence
the nervous system, afflicting some people with neuralgic troubles.
When these winds blow, the air is charged with electricity, until, the
tension of the atmosphere having grown insupportable, a tempest comes to
restore the equilibrium, to give place to another wind, coming from the
south-west, and known as the _pampero_. This wind does not often last
long, but it attains a velocity equal to that of a full hurricane. The
_pampero_, so called because it is formed in the region of the pampas,
is a wind full of ozone, and as such plays its part in disinfecting the
vitiated air of the urban centres. But the effects of the _pampero_, and
especially of the south-westerly winds, on the Rio de la Plata, where
they produce a violent swell, are sometimes terrible.
As for the rain, there is no regularity in its fall; which naturally
tends to render the results of culture and of cattle-breeding variable.
Rains are more frequent in summer and autumn than at other times; while
the least rainfall is that of winter. At Buenos Ayres it is rare for a
month to pass without rain, which is often torrential, and accompanied by
hail.
The climate of the central region, if we except the mountainous portions
of the Provinces of San Luis and Córdoba, is distinguished from the
seaboard region by its greater dryness and its sudden variations of
temperature. In the plain the summers are very hot, and it is not
uncommon to see the thermometer at 104°; while during the winter there
are very hard frosts. As on the coast, northerly and southerly winds are
the most frequent. Rain is rarer than on the coast, and falls almost
exclusively in summer and in autumn: with rare exceptions the winter is
perfectly dry.
In the Andean region the climate varies according to the height above
sea-level, but is always characterised by sudden variations in the daily
temperature, and by excessive dryness. On the eastern slope of the
Andes and the plateaux of the north it never rains. These regions are
continually swept by furious winds, which make agriculture impossible.
To the intense heat of the day succeeds the cold of the night, with
differences of temperature that sometimes amount to 68° in twenty-four
hours.
The climate of the Argentine, with a few exceptions, has the reputation
of being extremely healthy, on account of the sudden changes of
temperature and the dryness of the air predominant over the greater
part of the country. These atmospheric conditions are, to be sure,
not favourable to affections of the lungs; but, on the other hand,
they contribute to prevent epidemics. We find that among adults and
adolescents the figures of mortality are no higher than the average
figures for the healthiest countries in the world. The statistics drawn
up by the City of Buenos Ayres even show that foreigners have a longer
expectation of life than the indigenous population.
In matters of climate one must be careful not to become confused, as so
many Europeans do, between our Argentine Republic and the neighbouring
country of Brazil, which is nearer the equatorial zone. Favourable
to human health, the Argentine climate is also, as we shall see,
particularly favourable to most kinds of agriculture and to the breeding
of cattle; from this point of view it is a privileged land, which calls
only for labour to become productive.
For a greater part of its area the Argentine soil unites the geological
and climatic conditions favourable to the production of cereals and for
stock-raising. It is in the fertility of the cultivated lands and the
richness of the pastures that the whole economic value of the country
resides.
According to recent investigations by competent persons, the surface of
the Argentine is largely composed of sandy soil; but a sandy loam is
often found, also, more rarely, a gravelly clay; but there is very little
actual clay. Other soils, such as absorbent calcareous earth, are not
often found. In the subsoil a sandy clay abounds, the occurrence of clay
and calcareous earths being greater in the subsoil than in the soil.
From the chemical point of view, the high percentage of potash——which
remains practically undiminished——long ago attracted the attention of the
agronomist. Phosphoric acid is also found, though in less proportions.
Lime is often found in small quantities in the best soils in those
districts most devoted to agriculture; and nitrogen is often abundant,
except in the southern region of the Republic, and in some parts of the
western region, where the rains are less frequent, the winds violent,
and the vegetation poor and stunted.
Saltish soils are of frequent occurrence in the west and south, but in
general the salt is not in sufficient proportions to hinder agriculture,
especially when suitable means of culture are employed.
Soils of great fertility are found in the central and southern regions,
and occupy vast areas in the Provinces of Buenos Ayres and Santa Fé, and
in parts of Córdoba and Entre Rios. “There are areas which are apparently
of poor fertility,” says M. Charles Girola, from whom we derive these
data, “which yield magnificent crops, thanks to irrigation or a better
distribution of the water supply; especially in the west and the
south.”[16]
[Footnote 16: _Investigación agricola en la República Argentina_, by
Charles Girola, Agronomic Engineer, Head of the Agronomic Bureau in the
Ministry of Agriculture. (1904).]
But in the Argentine Republic experience has shown that there is scarcely
any soil which is not capable of profitable use, either for agriculture
or stock-raising. It is very frequently remarked that lands which for
a long time had been regarded as poor and almost sterile, unfit for
exploitation, are to-day converted into admirable natural or artificial
prairies, feeding numerous herds of sheep or cattle; or have more often
been cleared by the colonist, and are now yielding excellent crops.
This wonderful transformation is chiefly due to the pasturing of flocks
and herds, which break up and enrich the soil; also to the fertilising
organic matter contained in the turf; and finally to the addition of
innumerable dead insects, which are brought by the wind and form a
deposit on the soil, which acts as a kind of natural manure.
These favourable conditions of fertility are all united in the region
known as the _Pampa_, which occupies the greater part of the temperate
zone of the country. It consists of immense and virgin plains, which
stretch to the horizon almost without landmarks or changes of level, and
offer admirable opportunities both for agriculture and stock-raising.
Nearly all those Argentine lands which to-day bring fabulous prices were
referred to, at an earlier period, as “lands good for nothing.” For this
reason a considerable premium should be put on the theoretical estimate,
made _a priori_, of the areas suitable for advantageous cultivation, in
proportion as human labour works its transformation.
It is difficult to estimate, except in the most approximate manner, the
cultivable area of the Argentine. It should be not less than half the
total area, or, in round figures, 370 millions of acres. Of this estimate
at least two-thirds represents land suitable for stock-raising, leaving
available for the production of cereals about 122 millions of acres; of
which, at the present time, only a fifth part is under cultivation. We
may see, by this simple comparison between the future and the present,
that agriculture has still a great future before it and a large margin of
development.
To give a true idea of this power of production, it is enough to recall,
with M. Emile Daireaux, who has described the great farms of the
Argentine pampa, that the plough, under the most favourable of climates,
meets no obstacles in the way of hills or forests; not a tree, not a
rock, not even a pebble in the soil. All European crops give there an
abundant harvest, without expenditure upon manure, without shelter for
the stock; the colonist may even content himself with a modest wattled
hut, protecting him from the mid-day sun or the cold breeze of the night.
The soil is everywhere friable; no painful struggles retard the speed of
the plough, which traces at one stretch a furrow miles in length without
turning the ploughshare. The plough is drawn by four horses, reared at
hazard in the open air, knowing no grooming, no complicated training; and
sometimes a single hand is able to manage two teams and ploughs.
Thanks to the frequentation of these lands for centuries by horses
and cattle, these alluvial deposits, rich in natural manures, have an
apparently inexhaustible fertility. Awakened by labour from its eternal
sleep, the soil is so vigorous that one finds numerous instances where
the same grain, sown for twenty successive years in the same place,
yields always the same abundant harvest.
The only serious scourge which can menace the creative power of the
earth, independently of the always to be dreaded drought, is the invasion
of locusts.
These invasions take the form of flying armies of locusts passing between
earth and sky, and revealing their passage by the semi-darkness they
produce in the regions over which they travel. Leaving the hot deserts of
the tropical regions, the locusts advance in their phalanxes, sometimes
50 or 60 miles across; swarm succeeds swarm uninterruptedly for several
days, leaving behind them no trace of vegetation. They till the wells,
stop the trains, by opposing veritable barriers of their bodies, obstruct
the rivers in which they drown, and sometimes even, by the accumulation
of their bodies, form a bridge over which the rear-guard can pass.
Serious though this danger may be, especially in the more exposed
provinces, such as Santa Fé, we must say, in honour to the Argentine
Republic, that it has never paralysed initiative; as is proved by the
continuous increase in the area of sown soil. Very fortunately, too, this
plague, like that of Egypt’s in Pharaoh’s dream, is intermittent, and an
interval of seven years often passes before its return. Moreover, various
means are being put into practice for defence against this formidable
evil; means for preventing the reproduction of the insect, or of checking
its development before the period of flight.
A special organisation has been formed under the name of the “Commission
of Agricultural Defence,” in order to coordinate and direct the work of
protection from the devastations of the locust, and considerable sums are
devoted to this object every year. Regiments, mobilised along the line
of passage, sweep the agglomerated masses of insects, in dense ridges,
towards the ditches full of quicklime in which they are buried. Hundreds
of tons of locusts perish thus, but unhappily the plague seems neither
cured nor diminished.[17]
[Footnote 17: See _Le Correspondent_ of the 10th of February, 1905,
containing an article by M. Emile Daireaux.]
RIVERS
The economic progress of the Argentine Republic is intimately connected
with the development of its means of communication, its traffic-ways.
The railways and the ports have been the chief factors of the country’s
prosperity, as by facilitating the outlet of agricultural products, they
have allowed the soil to attain its whole value.[18] It is therefore
pertinent to state, in some detail, how the Argentine is equipped
from this point of view, and the part played by such equipment in the
commercial development of the country.
[Footnote 18: Perhaps it need hardly be explained that the meaning of
this statement is that the rent of agricultural land reaches its par
value when it is absolutely accessible——say, beside a port. With high
ocean freights and low railway freights any land upon a railroad would be
almost equally accessible economically——that is, it would reach almost
its whole value.——[TRANS.]]
By the truly providential nature of its soil, the Argentine is not
only marvellously fertile, but is also a country largely opened up by
waterways, and offering exceptional facilities from the point of view of
international exchange.
One of the most notable peculiarities of this country is that its rivers,
which are, as it were, inland seas, accessible to vessels of the highest
tonnage, and, penetrating the very heart of the most fertile regions,
place it directly in communication with the exterior. What is still more
notable is that these rivers flow with an almost constant current over
level beds, between perpendicular banks, so that the river-banks form a
series of natural ports, with wharves of indefinite length. Nature has
well prepared the way for the handiwork of man.
The hydrographic system of the Argentine Republic falls into three main
groups: (1) the rivers tributary to the basin of the Rio de la Plata;
(2) the rivers which terminate their course in lakes or pools, or lose
themselves in forming marshes or salt swamps, and are finally absorbed by
the porous soil of the Pampa; (3) the rivers which empty themselves into
the ocean.
To the first group belong all the rivers which water the Provinces of
Corrientès, Entre Rios, Chaco, Jujuy, and Salta, a portion of those
of Santa Fé, Córdoba, and Buenos Ayres, and the Territories of Chaco
and Misionès. To the second group belong all the water-courses of the
Provinces of Tucuman, Catamarca, Santiago de l’Estero, La Rioja, San
Juan, Mendoza, San Luis, the greater part of those of Córdoba, and part
of those of Buenos Ayres. To the third group belong also a portion of
the rivers of Buenos Ayres, and all the rivers of Patagonia. As we have
seen, the waterways of the Province of Buenos Ayres come under all three
headings.
The best-known river of the Republic, and that which gives the Argentine
its name, is the Rio de la Plata, formed by the junction of two rivers no
less important, the Parana and the Uruguay. It forms an immense estuary,
which pours into the ocean the waters of a whole hydrographic system, a
vast basin occupying nearly 1,540,000 square miles, or a fourth part of
South America. This estuary is 25 miles wide at its head, and where its
waters reach the ocean attains a width of no less than 217 miles, its
average width being 111 miles; and its superficial area covers 13,475
square miles.
Apart from certain hindrances of the nature of islands or sandbanks, the
Rio de la Plata offers relatively easy access to vessels of the highest
tonnage making for Buenos Ayres or towards the interior. Its level is
influenced by the tides of the ocean, and also suffers very violent
changes when the easterly or south-easterly winds pile up the waters of
the sea in the estuary.
The river which is the continuation of the Rio de la Plata towards the
north, and with it forms the vital artery of the Argentine, is the
Parana; its length is 2980 miles, of which about one-half flows through
Argentine territory. Its width varies from 22 to 31 miles, and its
average annual flow is estimated at nearly 39,000 cubic yards per second,
which represents one and a half times that of the Mississippi, twice that
of the Ganges, four times that of the Danube, five times that of the
Nile, and nearly a hundred times that of the Seine. It receives, in its
turn, as an affluent, the Paraguay, a river which traverses the country
of the same name, and thus places it in communication with the sea, by
way of the Parana and the Rio de la Plata.
This network of rivers forms a magnificent series of waterways. Rising
from the central provinces of Brazil, the Parana passes through the
rich afforested regions of Chaco, communicates by means of its affluent
with Paraguay and South Brazil, and then flows through the Provinces of
Corrientès, Entre Rios, and Santa Fé; that is, through the regions of
great forests and wide holdings, and then empties itself into the inland
sea of the Rio de la Plata, where it mingles with the Uruguay, another
means of communication between the Provinces of the East and the Atlantic
Ocean.
Concerning its navigability, here are some data taken from an interesting
little book by M. Georges Hersent on the port of Rosario:——
“During nine months of the year the navigation from the sea to the port
of Rosario presents no difficulties to the great transatlantic steamers;
indeed, it may be said that their maximum draught is limited only by
the depth of the ‘Canal Nuevo,’ the new channel of Martin Garcia. Ships
drawing 22 to 23 feet can load at Rosario and leave directly for the open
sea, or come to discharge their cargo at the port.
“During the period of low water, which lasts for barely three months
in the year——from September to the end of December——there are only two
channels with a less depth than 21 feet, that of Las Hermanas and that
of Paraguayo. In the former, the island of Las Hermanas separates the
bed of the river into two channels, of which the one most in general use
hitherto has a depth of only 20 feet; but vessels may avoid it to-day, as
the western channel has been dredged and deepened, and is of more than
sufficient depth.
“The second channel, which used to present some difficulty, is that
of the Paraguayo, where there was only 17 feet of water. This state
of things was happily not permanent, as the National Government has
undertaken, at this spot, the work of deepening and levelling the Parana,
which was completed in the course of the year 1904.
“We may add that the State is engaged in maintaining, over a minimum
width of 108 yards, a depth of 19 feet below the level of low water
in the channel of Martin Garcia, and of 21 feet 1-1/2 inches over the
whole course of the Parana, as far as Rosario. This maintenance will be
necessary only at certain points in the river, as the depth of the latter
is in general considerably above those figures.”
As we have already said, the real commercial value of the Parana lies
in the peculiarity of its banks, which make it along its whole course a
series of natural quays. These banks form in many places almost vertical
walls, and as the bed of the river is almost everywhere 25 feet below
the surface, it follows that ships of large tonnage can not only ascend
the river as far as the city of Rosario, or even to Colastiné, but can
moor themselves alongside the banks as to a quay, without any labour or
preparation being necessary.
At some places——as at Rosario for example——the bank properly so-called
is overhung by low cliffs, forming a kind of promontory raised many feet
above the water-level, so that it is possible to utilise this difference
of level in loading cargoes. By means of inclined planes or gangways,
called _canaletas_, the goods collected in warehouses built upon the
banks are quickly, thanks to the slope of the gangways, run into the
holds of the vessels moored to the banks. It will be admitted that these
conditions are unusually favourable to navigation, and explain the
extraordinary development of a country in which nature has thus surpassed
herself.
Regarded as traffic-ways, these rivers play a part of the highest
importance, by giving easy access to the sea, without re-shipment, to
provinces more than 600 miles inland, such as those, for instance, of
Chaco and Corrientès.
The Rio de la Plata affords a natural traffic-way, accessible to all
vessels, between Buenos Ayres and Montevideo, which are more than 120
miles apart. All the large transatlantic steamers which used some time
ago to put in at La Plata now come up to Buenos Ayres, which has thus
become the headquarters of a dozen wealthy steamer-lines engaged in the
European service.
Thanks to the works established for the deepening of the Parana and the
regularising of its course through the sandy districts, great steamers of
10,000 tons can to-day go up to Rosario: steamers of 6000 tons can easily
reach Parana or Colastiné; and special boats built for the river service
can ascend as far as Corrientès, and from there towards Brazil, Paraguay,
or Uruguay: a distance of more than 1200 miles.
Besides these “flowing roads,” we must mention others, which, although
of less importance, are none the less destined to exercise a beneficent
influence over the economic life of the premier province, and the
development of its agriculture, thanks to the cheap transit which they
will offer in time to come. We refer to the network of canals which the
Government of the Province of Buenos Ayres has projected or put in hand.
In the first edition of this book we announced the construction of a
canal 155 miles in length, which would unite the Mar Chiquita, its
point of origin, and Baradero, its terminus; embracing in its course
the following centres of rural produce; Laforcade, Junin, O’Higgins,
Chacabuco, Salto, Arrecifes, and Baradero. This enterprise, which was put
in hand at the expense of the Province of Buenos Ayres, failed with a
crash. After the work had been enthusiastically commenced, after several
millions of dollars had already been spent, it was discovered that the
work could never be completed in a successful manner, nor could it ever
yield a return for the sums raised, which were thus swallowed up in this
disastrous enterprise.
Men whose technical competence allowed them to speak with authority——for
instance, the engineer, Luis A. Huergo——basing their statements on
scientific principles, had estimated that the undertaking could never be
practically realised; and, as we have seen, the result justified their
predictions.
PORTS AND HARBOURS
The nature of the river-banks being such as we have described, the ports
utilised by trade along the course of the great Argentine rivers are very
numerous.
After La Plata and Buenos Ayres, which share the traffic of the northern
part of the Province of Buenos Ayres, we must mention Campana and
Zarate, for at these two ports also the exports of frozen meat are very
considerable; San Nicolas, a great centre for cereals, whose harbour is
to be transformed and equipped by the new concessionnaire, the “Société
Anonyme du Port et Entrepôt de San Nicolas”; and Villa Constitución,
whence the produce of the south of Santa Fé and Córdoba is exported, and
whose capacity is 7000 to 8000 sacks a day.
After Rosario, which is the second centre of the Republic, the chief
ports ascending the Parana are as follows: San Lorenzo, Diamante, Santa
Fé, Colastiné, Parana, Esquina, Goya, Bella Vista, and Empedrado.
Corrientès is the last important commercial centre on the banks of the
Parana.
All these ports had an annual tonnage amounting to 2,188,000 tons in
1906, 2,366,000 in 1907, and 5,396,000 in 1908, so that the statistics
for these three years of the traffic for the Parana, including Rosario,
amounts in round figures to 9,891,000 tons, for the distance of 804 miles.
At Santa Fé work has been commenced on the installation o£ a more modern
harbour; the Province, by consent of the State, has devoted a sum of
£6,000,000 to this undertaking. There has also at times been a question
of equipping the port of Colastiné, which is one of the principal centres
of export for cereals and the timber brought by the French railway system
of Santa Fé. The average trade passing through this port amounts to
more than 500,000 tons, and, so far, there has been no need to add any
improvements to the natural advantages of the river-banks. We see by this
that there is no need to create ports on the Parana, only to utilise or
develop existing conditions.
We give below a table of the trade statistics of the principal ports of
the Argentine Republic, remembering that with the exception of Buenos
Ayres their trade consists largely of the exports of produce:——
_Traffic in Registered Tons at the following
ports in the years 1907 and 1908._
1907 1908
Rio Gallegos[19] 63,500 41,000
Madryn[19] 118,000 19,900
Commodore Rivadavia[19] 59,000 1,990
Ushuaia[19] 25,000 11,800
Diamante 131,000 375,000
Santa Fé 127,000 440,000
Parana 253,000 636,000
Esquina 117,000 374,000
Goya 163,000 404,000
Bella Vista 136,000 399,000
Empedrado 116,000 306,136
Corrientès 230,000 504,433
Rosario 1,089,000 1,924,000
Buenos Ayres 6,471,000 7,555,000
[Footnote 19: The tonnage of these ports is for the years 1904 and 1906,
no corresponding figures being obtainable for 1907 and 1908.]
The premier port of the Argentine, and we might add of South America, is
Buenos Ayres, which in extent and connections rivals the finest ports of
Europe.
It consists of two harbours, of which one, situated at the mouth of a
little river called Riachelo, is frequented principally by steamers of
light draught and sailing-ships; the other is known as the Port of the
Capital, or more commonly Port Madero, from the name of the contractor
responsible for the harbour works. The port contains, altogether, four
basins and 6-1/3 miles of quays, four of which are situated on the flank
of the city. Along these quays are disposed immense warehouses, able to
contain 29 millions of tons of merchandise, as well as great flour-mills
and grain-elevators, with a capacity of more than 200,000 tons, which
cost more than £1,000,000 sterling.[20]
[Footnote 20: The net capacity of the customs warehouses is over 400,000
tons; as products remain there on an average for two months, we have an
annual figure of 6 × 400,000 = 2,400,000 tons. This is the maximum of
goods per annum which the customs depôts can at present receive.]
This harbour has cost in all some £7,000,000, and every year a sum of
nearly 3 millions of paper piastres, or £200,000, is spent upon the work
of maintaining the channel of approach at a proper depth. At the season
when the traffic is densest, the port holds as many as 1400 steamers
and sailing-vessels, loading and unloading. It is evident that, with
the constant increase of commercial activity, further enlargements will
soon be necessary. The Government is at the present moment considering a
gigantic scheme of improvement, with a view to which several groups of
European contractors have already submitted estimates.
In order to give some idea of the importance of the plant at the disposal
of exporters at Buenos Ayres, we need only speak of the great market or
_embarcardero_ for live-stock. It covers an area of 350,000 square yards,
of which 117,000 are occupied by buildings; its capacity is 40,000 sheep
and more than 1500 cattle.
There is also another notable establishment, reputed to be the largest in
the world: the Central Produce Market. The building is of four stories,
covers an area of 180,000 square yards, and cost £830,000.
The following table shows the quantities, in metric tons, of products
entering the market between February and September in 1905, 1906, 1907
and 1908.
TONS OF 2205 lbs.
1905 1906 1907 1908
Maize 721 6,882 9,600 10,742
Wheat 34,246 50,379 73,245 47,566
Flax 1,115 3,636 5,584 10,757
Barley 83 368 1,361 1,695
Oats 1,688 3,624 6,685 15,737
Hides and skins 17,713 18,541 17,115 22,371
Other products 1,786 1,838 1,804 2,155
Besides these products, in 1906 there were 87,400 tons of wool entered
at the market; in 1907, 84,600 tons; and during the first nine months of
1908, nearly 43,000 tons. If the year 1908 seems to show a great decrease
in the entry of wools, the fact is really due to the larger amounts
entered in October, November, and December, which are not included in the
figures for 1908.
These figures show the importance of this establishment to Argentine
trade. It is not a mere depôt, as one might suppose, but a veritable
Exchange, where important transactions take place in all the chief
products of the country.
The port of Buenos Ayres owes its rapid development to this excellent
equipment. In 1880, before the scheme of works was commenced, its trade
amounted scarcely to 660,000 tons; since then it has maintained a
constant increase, and now reaches the figure of more than 13,000,000
tons.
Below is the inward and outward trade of the port of Buenos Ayres:——
Years. Tonnage.
1897 7,365,000
1898 8,115,000
1899 8,742,000
1900 8,047,000
1901 8,661,000
1902 8,903,000
1903 10,269,000
1904 10,400,000
1905 11,589,000
1906 12,582,000
1907 13,295,000
1908 15,111,000
To appreciate the value of these figures, we must compare them with
those relating to the principal ports of the world, where we shall see
that Buenos Ayres occupies, in matters of tonnage, the twelfth place
among the ports of the world. The tonnage of Hamburg and Liverpool, which
occupy the first two places, is only about 40 per cent, greater than that
of Buenos Ayres.
The importance of the port of Buenos Ayres is chiefly due to the fact
that it handles nearly all the imports of the Republic——84 per cent, in
1908——while of exports it handles 51 per cent. This confirms what we have
already said of the absorption, by Buenos Ayres, of a great portion of
the vital forces of the country, which develops it disproportionately to
the rest of the country. The equipment of the new ports of Rosario, San
Nicolas, and Santa Fé, and the enlargement of the port of Bahia Blanca,
will constitute a useful task of decentralisation, favourable to the
economic future of the country.
La Plata has the advantage over Buenos Ayres of a deeper basin, which
renders its harbour accessible at all times to ships of the highest
tonnage. Until 1903 it was the point of call for the large transatlantic
liners outward or inward bound, which observed fixed hours of arrival and
departure.
The harbour of La Plata, 3 miles from the town, contains about 2700 yards
of quays and immense warehouses, capable of storing 600,000 sacks of
grain. It is the terminus of the lines of railway serving the richest
districts of the Province of Buenos Ayres, and is destined to undergo
further developments, as the provincial Government intends to connect it
with the agricultural centres by a network of light railways. This is the
principal port to-day for the exportation of the agricultural products of
the central Pampa.
On account of the economic importance of this port, the State has
taken it over from the provincial Government, in consideration of a
price of £2,360,000, with a view to nationalising it and exploiting
it for the benefit of the Argentine State. This measure will allow of
the organisation and the improvements which may be necessitated by the
increase of its traffic. On the other hand, there is constant talk of
connecting the port with that of Buenos Ayres by a canal some 29 miles
long, which would form an artificial extension of both harbours.
Rosario holds second place in the Argentine, both in the matter of
population and in the extent of its trade. It is the true agricultural
capital of the Republic, and the principal outlet of eight Provinces,
which use the Parana as their waterway. In his little book on the port of
Rosario, M. G. Hersent speaks of the advantages of its situation in the
following terms:——
“Situated in the very centre of an immense tract of country which is
extremely rich and fertile, which to-day furnishes more than half the
cereals exported by the whole Republic, Rosario is the necessary outlet
of the harvests of nearly the whole Province of Santa Fé of the whole
of Córdoba, and of a portion of Entre Rios; three provinces, whose area
is almost equal to that of France. It is the market for the sugars and
alcohols of Tucuman, the timber of Catamarca, and the minerals of Rioja
and Chaco, which are so far exploited only in a rudimentary fashion.
“In order to fulfil this economic need of vital importance to the
country, Rosario enjoys the most complete and efficacious means of
access and penetration. Five great railroads converge upon it, bringing
to it all the products of the interior, especially grain and cattle.
This network of lines, whose rapid creation has been one of the most
powerful factors of the development of Rosario, already contains more
than 2700 miles of permanent way; in 1899 the traffic in the Rosario
district already amounted to 3,400,000 tons of merchandise, consisting
chiefly of the produce of the soil. The extension of this railway system
is proceeded with in a more or less continuous manner, so as to increase
the value and the opening up of new countries. Very shortly the line to
Bolivia will have its terminus in Rosario.
“But that which gives this port, so well equipped, an incomparable
value, is the magnificent Parana, which, on the one hand, places it in
direct communication with the sea, and on the other unites it with the
interior by a waterway of several thousand miles in length, constituting
a means of transport as easy as it is economical, which brings it all the
water-borne traffic of the upper Parana and of the Paraguay.”
The statistics given above show the important place which this port has
taken in the last few years, and the continued increase of its traffic,
which to-day amounts to some 3,000,000 tons per annum, whereas in 1899 it
amounted only to 1,600,000 tons.
Hitherto these results have been obtained with a rudimentary equipment,
and by utilising the fortunate disposition of the river-banks; but the
intense pressure of traffic occurring at this point proves the necessity
of a large harbour, which would allow the products of the interior to
find their outlet towards the Parana and the sea. The need has given
birth to the means without waiting for modern improvements.
To-day the port of Rosario has entered upon a new phase, which may clear
the way for a still greater development. Its exploitation has been made
the object of a concession which, in 1902, was granted to a French
company, having at its head Messieurs Hersent & Son and the Creusot
works, on condition that the latter should undertake the equipment of
the port on modern lines. The scheme comprises, among other items,
the construction of over 2 miles of quays and a dock which will, with
the existing quays, give a total of 2-3/4 miles; the construction
of warehouses, the mechanical equipment of the quays, and also the
installation of a grain-elevator of large capacity, which will load a
cargo of 5000 cubic yards in four hours.
To-day this scheme is nearly realised, and Rosario will be able to meet
all the requirements of a perpetually increasing trade. The new railway
lines, which will soon reach the port, will complete its organisation.
As recompense, the Government has granted the concessionnaires, for
forty years, the monopoly of gathering all harbour dues over a radius
of 7·4 miles around the city of Rosario, and over a distance of 12·4
miles up-stream and down-stream. The State shares in the takings of the
concession to the extent of 50 per cent. of the net profits after the
expenses of exploitation are deducted, which are estimated at 40 per
cent. of the receipts, and after the subtraction of the sums necessary
for paying the interest on and redeeming the capital engaged.
From all these data concerning the ports of the Parana, it will be
seen that great efforts are now being made to increase the means of
communication in proportion to the economic expansion of the country,
and to multiply and facilitate outlets upon the points nearest to the
centres of production. These efforts are also tending to decentralise the
traffic, to the profit of a larger number of ports: in order to avoid
the over-crowding of a few great centres to the detriment of other parts
of the country. This policy will have happy results: firstly, from the
point of view of the export trade, since it will decrease the net cost of
transport; and secondly, from the standpoint of the import trade, as the
imports, instead of converging upon Buenos Ayres and thence proceeding by
rail, will reach the neighbourhood of the inland centres of consumption
more directly and at less expense.
For these same reasons serious improvements have been carried out at the
port of Bahia Blanca, which is situated on the sea-coast in the south
of the Province of Buenos Ayres, whose importance has increased more
especially since the opening of the military harbour to commerce. Bahia
Blanca is one of the termini of many railways of the south; it is thus
connected with the regions of agriculture and stock-raising on a large
scale, which are able to send their produce directly from this port to
Europe. The wool trade is particularly brisk there, and the cereal trade
also, since the Pampa has been transformed into a wonderful agricultural
country.
Seconding this development, already stimulated by the Southern Railway
Company, which built the harbour known as “Ingenio White,” the Buenos
Ayres and Pacific Railway Company has also commenced at Bahia Blanca a
magnificent harbour, called Galvan Harbour. Built of reinforced cement,
it is equipped with powerful grain-elevators, built of stone, splendid
iron warehouses, sheds, etc. This harbour, when completed, will have
cost some £10,000,000; it has already a considerable trade, which will
increase in proportion to the agricultural development of the great belt
it is intended to serve, which includes the Provinces of San Juan, San
Luis, Mendoza, the Territory of the Central Pampa, and a large part of
the Province of Buenos Ayres. The importance of this harbour will also
be increased by the various railways which will unite Bahia Blanca to the
remote districts of the Republic. The French company, now building a line
running between Rosario and Bahia Blanca, will also have its own harbour,
the Puerto Belgrano, and is actively carrying on its construction.
Finally, the creation of a harbour has been projected at Mar del Plata,
the fashionable watering-place of the Argentine, and another in the Bay
of Samborombon, two hours from Buenos Ayres.
To sum up: the Argentine possesses at the present time, in the matter
of ports, an equipment capable of keeping pace with the growth of its
powers of production. Its rivers are truly arms of the sea, collecting on
their banks, thanks to their numerous ports, the products of the central
Provinces, which are thus connected with the Atlantic over a distance
of more than 600 miles. It is the same on the Atlantic sea-board, where
advantage has been taken of the least natural facilities afforded by the
coast-line to multiply the outlet to exportation, in proportion as the
progress of agriculture has travelled south.[21]
[Footnote 21: Among the principal ports of the south we may cite Madryn,
Rio Gallego, Commodoro Rivadavia, and Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego. These
ports, by a wise disposition of the Government, seeking to increase
the population and encourage progress in the southern regions of the
Republic, have been made free ports; that is all the operations of the
douane may be effected without the payment of fiscal dues.]
It is true that this great organisation can only yield the true measure
of its value in years of good harvests, since upon the latter all
commercial activity depends; yet it must be recognised that, however
largely the future has been discounted in equipping these ports, the
estimates of future traffic have scarcely ever hitherto been deceptive.
CHAPTER II
RAILWAYS
Rapid development of the railway system——Tabulation of its
extension in each Province——Table showing the general results
of its exploitation——List of the lines actually running.
List of railway companies, with the length of their roadways and
their returns——The difficulty of obtaining exact figures——The
tariffs of the railway companies——Form of concessions, and
suppression of guarantees.
Comparison of the railway system of the Argentine with the railway
systems of other countries——Proportion of mileage to area and
population.
Extension of the system in the near future, owing to the numerous
concessions granted——The mileage of these concessions——
Insufficiency of plans and previous examinations——Examination
of the most important concessions for which the capital is
already guaranteed——The dimensions which the railway system
will attain after the concessions are realised——Programme of
narrow-gauge construction; its value.
Meeting of the Argentine with the Chilian railways crossing the
range of the Andes——The aerial mining railway in the Province
of La Rioja.
Railways in relation to agricultural development——Insufficiency of
transport at the moment of harvest; its causes and remedies——
Necessity of a better organisation which shall respond to the
stress of production.
The same progressive spirit which the Argentine has manifested in
the improvement of inland or maritime waterways is to be seen in the
establishment of its network of railways. Here again development has been
rapid, and results plainly effectual in making the wealth of the country
available. To cite one example only, it is thanks to the railways that
agriculture and stock-raising have been able to attain to such large
dimensions in the Province of Buenos Ayres; a Province far less favoured
than its northern neighbours in the matter of waterways. All the lines
running south have greatly contributed to the transformation of the Pampa
and the increase of the cultivated area over an immense radius where
before there was nothing but untilled soil, which was hardly suited even
for stock-raising.
The railway has thus played a great part in civilising the Argentine;
raising new wealth from soil as yet unexploited, joining up the chief
agricultural centres, and affording them an outlet to the rivers
or the sea. The railway has also been auxiliary to the colonising
movement, stimulating the creation of new settlements along its track by
concessions of soil.
This latter work is not yet terminated, if we are to judge by the great
number of concessions now under consideration, in which the initiative
is due to the State or to private individuals. On the other hand, there
is a great tendency to build cheap narrow-gauge railways, in order to
save expense either in building or in working, so as to obtain a final
reduction of the freight tariff. In short, we find, in the case of
railways as well as in the case of waterways, that while the continuation
of good harvests is counted on, there is also an effort to keep up, by
multiplying the means of transport, with the economic expansion of the
country.
It was in 1854 that the Government of the Province of Buenos Ayres
granted the first railway concession, for a line 24,000 _vares_[22] in
length, running west from Buenos Ayres. In 1857 a first section, some 6
miles long, was opened for traffic.
[Footnote 22: The _vare_ is equivalent to 886 millimetres, so the length
of the line was about 13 miles. At that period, in the region of the
concession, the _vare_ of land had only a trifling value.]
After these humble beginnings the railway system of the Argentine
developed with great rapidity; on the 1st of November 1908, its total
length was 13,700 miles, representing an average development of nearly
273 miles per annum. All the Provinces are represented in these figures,
but of course in very unequal proportions; as the opportunities of
construction have not been everywhere the same. Their installation has
gone hand in hand with agricultural development; and the Provinces most
adapted to agriculture have also been favoured with the most plentiful
means of transit, as the following table will show.
Among these Provinces we must note Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé and Córdoba
as the three which have made most agricultural progress; for they
alone furnish more than 80 per cent. of the total exports. Among the
Territories La Pampa has the greatest mileage of railways; a mileage
which will very shortly be doubled, to judge by the number of new lines
projected, which in the near future will cross it in every direction,
thus facilitating the outlet of its abundant produce.
It is in the last ten years that the network of Argentine railways has
reached its full expansion, as is shown by the second table; which also
gives the amounts of capital invested in these undertakings.
_Mileage of Railways on the 1st of November 1908._
Column Headings:
A: Provinces and Territories.
B: Mileage.
C: Ratio of Mileage to Area.
D: In kilometres per 100 sq. kilometres.
E: In miles per 100 sq. miles.
F: Miles per 1000 inhabitants.
C
A B D E F
Province of Buenos Ayres 4583·4 2·42 3·89 3·06
Province of Santa Fé 2254·1 2·75 4·42 3·03
Province of Córdoba 1857·1 1·86 3·00 3·66
Province of Santiago do l’Estero 810·9 1·27 2·04 4·24
Province of Entre Rios 610·5 1·32 2·12 1·58
Territory of Pampa Centrale 556·9 ·61 ·98 9·15
Province of Corrientès 451·9 ·86 1·38 1·42
Province of Mendoza 410·0 ·54 ·72 2·25
Province of Tucuman 384·3 2·68 4·31 1·41
Province of La Rioja 319·2 ·57 ·92 3·77
Province of San Luis 303·8 ·66 1·06 2·97
Territory of Rio Negro 239·4 ·20 ·32 11·25
Province of Salta 228·0 ·23 ·37 1·63
Province of Catamarca 226·3 ·30 ·48 2·15
Province of Jujuy 218·1 ·71 1·14 3·81
Territory of Chaco 97·2 ·11 ·17 4·54
Province of San Juan 85·7 ·16 ·26 ·81
Federal Capital 55·3 47·90 77·12 ·05
Territory of Chubut 43·5 ·03 ·05 3·96
Territory of Neuquen 2·6 ·004 ·006 ·10
———————— —————— —————— ————
Total and Averages 13,708·2 ·77 1·24 4·97
_General Statistics of the Argentine Railways up to 1908 inclusive._
Column Headings:
A: YEAR.
B: Total Mileage of Lines in Operation.
C: Travellers Carried.
D: Merchandise Carried (in tons).
E: Gross Receipts.
F: Total Expenditure.
G: Net Profits.
H: Capital Employed.
I: Interest on Capital.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I
----+------+----------+----------+----------+----------+----------+-----------+----
1886| 3623| 6,458,674| 2,948,000|£3,231,793|£1,842,928|£1,388,865|£29,678,182|4·68
1887| 4138| 8,199,051| 3,844,000| 3,903,317| 2,193,874| 1,709,443| 35,515,525|4·81
1888| 4702|10,106,342| 4,410,000| 4,485,511| 2,501,160| 1,984,351| 39,429,794|5·03
1889| 5071|11,103,986| 6,542,000| 3,916,766| 2,713,349| 1,203,417| 50,991,159|2·36
1890| 5857|10,069,606| 5,420,000| 5,209,808| 3,517,081| 1,692,727| 64,368,563|2·63
1891| 8746|10,820,003| 4,620,000| 4,192,320| 2,865,739| 1,326,581| 76,068,790|1·74
1892| 8506|11,788,398| 6,037,000| 3,907,794| 2,341,532| 1,566,262| 88,389,466|1·77
1893| 8602|12,843,404| 7,169,000| 4,364,243| 2,562,921| 1,801,322| 94,814,475|1·90
1894| 8712|13,928,061| 8,143,000| 4,580,898| 2,616,386| 1,964,512| 96,575,886|2·03
1895| 8766|14,573,037| 9,650,000| 5,278,861| 2,769,293| 2,509,568| 97,071,866|2·59
1896| 8981|17,248,485|10,914,000| 6,230,273| 3,216,166| 3,034,107| 99,565,261|3·05
1897| 9162|16,410,945| 8,981,000| 5,658,616| 3,311,680| 2,346,936|101,643,263|2·31
1898| 9595|16,478,085| 9,429,110| 6,648,302| 3,820,624| 2,827,678|104,703,419|2·70
1899|10,194|18,014,503|11,819,000| 8,261,291| 4,486,453| 3,774,838|105,323,332|3·58
1900|10,286|18,296,422|12,659,000| 8,280,269| 4,746,551| 3,533,718|108,315,125|3·26
1901|10,499|19,689,115|13,988,000| 8,773,217| 4,825,720| 3,947,497|107,667,700|3·67
1902|10,790|19,815,439|14,030,000| 8,654,517| 5,995,089| 2,659,428|112,189,241|3·62
1903|11,429|21,025,456|17,024,617|10,279,703| 5,248,045| 5,031,638|114,617,917|4·50
1904|11,552|23,120,095|19,727,000|12,380,409| 6,542,222| 5,834,187|123,822,366|4·70
1905|12,581|26,636,211|22,410,000|14,318,982| 7,879,218| 6,439,764|125,426,123|5·13
1906|13,073|34,198,565|26,716,000|16,403,819| 9,749,739| 6,654,080|134,337,775|4·95
1907|13,988|41,784,238|27,929,000|17,594,069|10,843,087| 6,750,982|157,875,089|4·27
1908|14,994|47,150,384|32,211,000|20,279,560|12,407,320| 7,872,240|169,000,000|4·66
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The number of railways at present in operation is thirty, this figure
including the railways and cable tramways or mechanical traction lines in
the country districts, both public and private, as in either case they
serve for the transport of produce. Of these thirty lines twenty-seven
are worked by private companies and three by the State. The latter are
lines of no great value, which the Government has itself constructed,
or which it has had to take over, either in the general interest or to
redeem their heavy guarantees.
In the matter of comfort the great Argentine railways leave nothing to
be desired, and many Europeans, out of touch with the rapid changes of
this progressive country, would certainly be much astonished to learn
that one may cross the Pampa or reach the foot-hills of the Andes in
trains equipped with sleeping-cars and restaurant-cars of the latest
type. Perhaps there is rather less ornament and fewer carpets than in the
European sleeping-cars, but the same cleanliness will be found, the same
service, the same conveniences.
The rolling-stock is also the object of incessant improvements. To give
only one example, the Southern Railways Company has placed in service a
new type of locomotive, with two pairs of double-expansion cylinders.
These engines have ten wheels, of which six are coupled and four mounted
in the front on bogies; their maximum power enables them to draw an
effective load of 2160 tons up an incline of 1 in 500. As for the goods
wagons, their capacity is 40 tons in the broad-gauge lines and 25 tons on
the narrow gauge.
According to statistics, on the 1st November 1908, the various railways
had in service 2992 locomotives, 2031 passenger-cars, and 33,800 goods
wagons or trucks.
The companies are enabled to import free of tariff, during the first ten
and sometimes the first twenty years of their tariff, all their fixed and
rolling stock; it is thus to their advantage to obtain from abroad the
most effective equipment, in order to obtain the greatest possible profit
from the governmental favour.
The table given below contains various data as to the various
concessions; it gives the gauge of the lines, their mileage, and the
profits of the principal companies.
_Railways and Steam Tramways of the Argentine Republic
on the 1st of January 1909._
RAILWAYS IN OPERATION.
(Length includes branch lines but not auxiliary lines or loop lines.)
I. STATE RAILWAYS.
Gauge. Mileage. Interest on
Capital.
Andean 1·676 metres 299 5·42%
(5 ft. 6 in.)
Central North ” 1066 ·80
Northern Argentine ” 470 ·46
————
1835
II. PRIVATE COMPANIES (CONCESSIONAIRES).
Buenos Ayres, Southern 1·676 metres 2574 4·93
(5 ft. 6 in.)
Buenos Ayres, Western ” 1181 5·93
Buenos Ayres and Rosario ” 1202 4·73
Central Argentine ” 1141 8·31
Buenos Ayres and Pacific ” 1013 3·83
Argentine, Great Western ” 483 4·40
Bahia Blanca and North-Western ” 543 2·46
North-Eastern Argentine 1·435 metres 194 1·19
(4 ft. 8-1/2 in.)
Entre Rios, Central ” 534 2·50
Buenos Ayres, Central ” 135 3·33
Province of Santa Fé ” 1054 3·0
Central Córdoba (Northern Section) ” 533 2·62
Central Córdoba (Eastern Section) ” 126 7·37
Córdoba and Rosario ” 174 3·01
North-Western Argentine ” 118 4·32
Córdoba and North-Western ” 92 ·93
Trans-Andean Argentine ” 105 (loss) ·63
Chubut, Central ” 42 5·95
——————
11,245
_Railways of the Second Class, Steam Tramways, Cable Lines, etc._
I. FOR PUBLIC SERVICE.
Gauge. Mileage. Interest on
Capital.
Steam Tramway, Rafaela 1 metre 53·40 ·79%
(3 ft. 3·4 in.)
Malagueno (connecting with the
Central Argentine) —— —— ——
Municipal Tramway of the La 1·435 metres 14·30 ·36
Plata Abattoirs (4 ft. 8-1/2 in.)
Ocampo Colony 1 metre 21·11 ——
(3 ft. 3-1/4 in.)
Florencia to Piracus 1·067 metres 12·42 ——
(3 ft. 6 in.)
Railways of the Entreprise 1·676 metres 4·97 3·38
de Las Catalinas (5 ft. 6 in.)
Barranqueras to Resistencia ·75 metres 16·76 3·40
(2 ft. 5·3 in.)
——————
Total, 122·96
II. PRIVATE.
Gauge. Mileage. Interest on
Capital.
Tyrol Harbour to Lucinda Colony ·6 metres 22·36 ——
(23·6 in.)
Steam Tramway from Piragnacito ·75 metres 53·40 ——
to Guillermina (2 ft. 5·5 in.)
Colony of Las Palmas ·6 metres 29·20 ——
(23·6 in.)
Valdez Peninsula ·76 metres 19·87 ·58
(2 ft. 5·9 in.)
——————
Total, 124·83
SUMMARY.
Mileage.
I. State railways 1765
II. Private railways (concessions) 11,245
III. Railways of the second class and steam
tramways——
A. Public 119
B. Private 121
——————
General total, mileage of lines in
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