Socioeconomic History of Argentina, 1776–1860

This book surveys Argentina's development from the establishment of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata within the Spanish-American empire to the building of the first railways in the independent nation. Two aspects of Argentina's development receive special attention. First, the author examines the international markets for Argentina's products, taking into account the industrial revolution then under way in Europe and the United States. Second, he discusses the influence of traditional native technology on Argentine production and transport. In addition to describing commercial development at the port of Buenos Aires, the study discusses the expansion of ranching and farming onto the virgin pampas. Although the prosperity of Buenos Aires was not duplicated in the interior provinces, the export trade did permit commercial recovery from depression and civil war throughout Argentina. The author concludes that the conventional dependent or neo-colonial theory of Latin American development does not apply to Argentina's economic expansion. The staple theory of economic growth proves to be more accurate, for the linkages produced by the export trade actually diversified domestic economic activity and broadened entrepreneurial and labour opportunities in Argentina.