However, placing ourselves at the standpoint of the laws of evolution which preside over the destinies of the nations, we must admit that, in view of the present prosperity of the country, the intervention of foreign capital in the affairs of the Republic must daily lessen, in proportion as a national reserve of capital collects; as has happened in the United States, and in all states which are in the first rank of civilisation. But the term of this economic movement is still far removed, and until the day arrives, foreign capital will in all security continue to find employment in navigation and in public works, and also in those nascent industries which are beginning to exploit the mineral wealth of the Republic.
CONCLUSIONS
This volume does not call for a long summary; for we have, we believe, in the course of our enquiry, thrown sufficient light upon the characteristic aspects of the situation of the Argentine to enable the reader to judge of the place it now holds in the world-market among the great producing nations. But what does remain for us to do is to sum up in broad touches the fundamental progress realised in the last few years; a degree of progress to which the country is indebted for its modern prosperity, and which bears the seeds of its future development.
Firstly, to deal with the matter of international politics, we must remember the solution of the frontier dispute with Chili, which for more than fifty years was a cause of alarm as well as of expense, and which had threatened to become embittered to the extent of arresting the stream of European immigration and European capital so necessary for the improvement of the Argentine soil. The example afforded by these two Republics of South America, which of their own initiative had recourse to arbitration, rather than finally settle their difference by a resort to arms, and then pledged one another to delete gradually from their budgets the unfruitful item of military expenditure, surely indicates that a new spirit is awake in the Argentine, and that she looks to pursue her future destinies along the paths of peace and industry.
In the matter of economics the capital fact consists in the enormous expansion of the two fundamental industries of the country—agriculture and stock-raising. To measure the ground covered, it is enough to mention that in 1900 the total value of the products of stock-raising was only £12,200,000, while in 1904 this value had increased to £21,000,000, and in 1908 to £22,200,000. It has been the same with the products of agriculture; in nine years their export value has increased from £14,600,000 to £48,000,000.
Under the stimulus of this progress an intense vitality has manifested itself in every department of national activity;
the power of consumption of the Argentine, as measured by the statistics of importation, has largely increased; property has in many places attained ten times its former value; commercial transactions of every kind have increased; and new industries, such, for instance, as the refrigerative industry, have been created and are prospering. It is therefore evident that the dominant characteristic of the present situation of the Argentine from the economic point of view must be sought in the remarkable expansion of all the forces of production.
The most eloquent proof of this economic prosperity has just been furnished by the late census of agricultural and pastoral enterprises, effected in 1908 by Señor Martinez. The total value of these undertakings, representing the better part of the national wealth, attains, as the table on the following page will show, the figure of £773,000,000.