Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cargo and Passengers Carried on Argentine Railways, 1880-1914
(In millions)
Year No. of Passengers Tons of Cargo
1880 2.8 0.8
1885 5.6 3.1
1890 10.1 5.4
1895 14.6 9.7
1900 18.3 12.7
1905 26.6 22.4
1910 59.7 33.6
1914 75.1 33.5
Sources: Comisión Directiva del Censo.
SegundocensodelaRepúblicaArgentina,1895
. 3
vols. (Buenos Aires: Taller de la Penitenciaría Nacional, 1898), Vol. 3, 462; Tornquist,
Ernesto.
TheEconomicDevelopmentoftheArgentineRepublicintheLastFiftyYears
(Buenos
Aires: Tornquist y Cía, 1919), p. 188.
merchant companies, land and mortgage corporations, urban utilities,
banks, meatpacking plants, and construction companies. Total foreign
investments in Argentina, including French, German, and American
capital, occasionally amounted to more than 3 million gold pesos ($3
million, or £500,000) per year.
Banking and credit institutions flourished in this intoxicating milieu
of liquidity. By 1913, 143 banks were operating in Argentina with
capital assets of more than $552 million gold pesos. Their financial
policies tended to promote trade and commerce, especially between
Argentina and Europe. The Banco de la Nación Argentina, established
in 1891 at the instigation of a group of Argentine “industrialists,”
loaned an overwhelming proportion of its capital to agricultural and
commercial enterprises. Many politicians used their influence to draw
on the national bank's assets, too. President Roca himself took out loans
amounting to more than 1 million gold pesos.
The Export Sector
Argentina constructed its national prosperity around the export of pas-
toral and agricultural products. In this, policy makers and landowners
showed themselves to be amazingly receptive to new economic oppor-
