The same observations may be made of a large number of other products imported from abroad. There is nothing better in the United States in the matter of agricultural equipment than that possessed by the Argentine; as for stock-raising, we have only to remember that it is to South America that England sends her best bulls, rams, and stallions.
But from these remarks it must not be concluded that
the Argentine has bought too dearly the glory of an equipment which is modern as compared with that of the old European nations. Of late years it is rather the reverse that has been true. The leading industrial countries, being anxious to sell off their stock on account of an almost general over-production, have been propelled towards the markets of exportation in order to get rid of their surplus. From this has resulted a competition from which the Argentine has in many cases profited, by obtaining industrial products under particularly advantageous conditions. Such has been the case in the matter, for example, of rails; the German trade offered them at £4, 16s. per ton, at a time when the European prices were considerably higher; Germany, however, was supplanted by the factories of the United States, which supplied them at £2, 8s. per ton. This is an application of the new economic process known as dumping, which consists in developing production as far as possible, in order to lower the net cost of production, and then to sell at this net cost price, in foreign markets, all that the producing country fails to absorb.
All the nations we have cited are the actual consumers of Argentine products; but it is to be hoped that yet other markets will be opened, attracted by the abundance and the quality of these products.
Among these countries disposed to trade with the Argentine we must mention the Japanese Empire, which is endeavouring to develop its trade upon a reciprocal basis, and has sent a commission of delegates to Buenos Ayres, who were instructed to obtain complete and practical data as to the possibility of establishing a mutual trade with the young South American nation.
The Japanese commissioners have accomplished their trade with the earnest application characteristic of their countrymen, and after studying the question for more than a year they have arrived at the conclusion that many Argentine products, and among them wools, hides, and flour, might find an extensive outlet in Japan; but only if imported free from the expenses imposed by the European middleman.
Pursuing their investigations, the Japanese Commissioners
discovered that the great difficulty in the way of a direct trade between the Argentine and Japan consists in the fact that there is no direct line of steamers; but this obstacle might be overcome by an arrangement with the Toyo-Yusen-Kaisha Company, which would establish a direct service to Buenos Ayres via Cape Town in forty-five days; at present the voyage takes seventy days. This arrangement would lead to a reduction of 75 per cent. on the freights.
Flattering, however, as the prospects of this new market may seem, there is one item in the plan of the Japanese Government which gives rise to considerable reflection on the part of our Argentine statesmen: namely, the proposal to introduce Japanese agricultural immigrants into the Argentine; that is, immigrants whose presence would in many ways be inconvenient; against whose presence the United States and other countries have reacted, and whose very presence in the Argentine would be contrary to the sense of the Argentine Constitution, which imposes upon Congress the duty of encouraging European immigration.
In concluding this study of the foreign trade of the Argentine Republic and its remarkable development, we cannot do better than quote the enthusiastic words by which an Argentine statesman terminated a study of the same question, thus summarising all the various elements which concur in the development of the commercial activity of the nation: