Transcriber’s Note: The original publication has been replicated faithfully except as listed [here].
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
CHAPPAGE
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 221⁄2 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.
[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 33⁄4 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]
[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 321⁄2 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.
[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.
[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]
[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.
[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 11⁄2 millions in 1907; the exportation of beef, reckoned in carcasses, was more than 60,000 head in 1900 and 463,000 in 1907.
[7] In 1875 an approximate estimate gave 131⁄2 millions of horned cattle and 571⁄2 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.
[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]
[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]
[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]
[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.