Such are the chief manifestations of the economic phenomena of the appreciation of land values; one of the most interesting of the problems which present themselves to the observer of the modern Argentine Republic. Is it a true symptom of national vitality, or must we see in these data the warnings of a period of commercial crisis, characterised,
according to the learned economist Juglar, by the rise of all values and by frantic speculation?
Events, which unroll themselves amidst our feverish Argentine activities far more rapidly than in other countries, will not be long in giving us the answer to these questions.[63]
[63] The importance of the sales of rural property is to-day so great, and speculation so eager, that the prices given here, according to information gathered barely a few months ago, appear to us already as ancient history.
CHAPTER V
AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES
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.