The economic progress of the Argentine Republic is intimately connected with the development of its means of communication, its traffic-ways. The railways and the ports
have been the chief factors of the country’s prosperity, as by facilitating the outlet of agricultural products, they have allowed the soil to attain its whole value.[18] It is therefore pertinent to state, in some detail, how the Argentine is equipped from this point of view, and the part played by such equipment in the commercial development of the country.
[18] Perhaps it need hardly be explained that the meaning of this statement is that the rent of agricultural land reaches its par value when it is absolutely accessible—say, beside a port. With high ocean freights and low railway freights any land upon a railroad would be almost equally accessible economically—that is, it would reach almost its whole value.—[Trans.]
By the truly providential nature of its soil, the Argentine is not only marvellously fertile, but is also a country largely opened up by waterways, and offering exceptional facilities from the point of view of international exchange.
One of the most notable peculiarities of this country is that its rivers, which are, as it were, inland seas, accessible to vessels of the highest tonnage, and, penetrating the very heart of the most fertile regions, place it directly in communication with the exterior. What is still more notable is that these rivers flow with an almost constant current over level beds, between perpendicular banks, so that the river-banks form a series of natural ports, with wharves of indefinite length. Nature has well prepared the way for the handiwork of man.
The hydrographic system of the Argentine Republic falls into three main groups: (1) the rivers tributary to the basin of the Rio de la Plata; (2) the rivers which terminate their course in lakes or pools, or lose themselves in forming marshes or salt swamps, and are finally absorbed by the porous soil of the Pampa; (3) the rivers which empty themselves into the ocean.
To the first group belong all the rivers which water the Provinces of Corrientès, Entre Rios, Chaco, Jujuy, and Salta, a portion of those of Santa Fé, Córdoba, and Buenos Ayres, and the Territories of Chaco and Misionès. To the second group belong all the water-courses of the Provinces of Tucuman, Catamarca, Santiago de l’Estero, La Rioja, San Juan, Mendoza, San Luis, the greater part of those of Córdoba, and part of those of Buenos Ayres. To the third
group belong also a portion of the rivers of Buenos Ayres, and all the rivers of Patagonia. As we have seen, the waterways of the Province of Buenos Ayres come under all three headings.
The best-known river of the Republic, and that which gives the Argentine its name, is the Rio de la Plata, formed by the junction of two rivers no less important, the Parana and the Uruguay. It forms an immense estuary, which pours into the ocean the waters of a whole hydrographic system, a vast basin occupying nearly 1,540,000 square miles, or a fourth part of South America. This estuary is 25 miles wide at its head, and where its waters reach the ocean attains a width of no less than 217 miles, its average width being 111 miles; and its superficial area covers 13,475 square miles.
Apart from certain hindrances of the nature of islands or sandbanks, the Rio de la Plata offers relatively easy access to vessels of the highest tonnage making for Buenos Ayres or towards the interior. Its level is influenced by the tides of the ocean, and also suffers very violent changes when the easterly or south-easterly winds pile up the waters of the sea in the estuary.