The Argentine in the Twentieth Century (Illustrated)

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 relativelyxxvi 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), andxxvii 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.