After La Plata and Buenos Ayres, which share the traffic of the northern part of the Province of Buenos Ayres, we must mention Campana and Zarate, for at these two ports also the exports of frozen meat are very considerable; San Nicolas, a great centre for cereals, whose harbour is to be transformed and equipped by the new concessionnaire, the “Société Anonyme du Port et Entrepôt de San Nicolas”; and Villa Constitución, whence the produce of the south of Santa Fé and Córdoba is exported, and whose capacity is 7000 to 8000 sacks a day.
After Rosario, which is the second centre of the Republic, the chief ports ascending the Parana are as follows: San Lorenzo, Diamante, Santa Fé, Colastiné, Parana, Esquina, Goya, Bella Vista, and Empedrado. Corrientès is the last important commercial centre on the banks of the Parana.
All these ports had an annual tonnage amounting to 2,188,000 tons in 1906, 2,366,000 in 1907, and 5,396,000 in 1908, so that the statistics for these three years of the traffic for the Parana, including Rosario, amounts in round figures to 9,891,000 tons, for the distance of 804 miles.
At Santa Fé work has been commenced on the installation o£ a more modern harbour; the Province, by consent of the State, has devoted a sum of £6,000,000 to this undertaking. There has also at times been a question of equipping the port of Colastiné, which is one of the principal centres of export for cereals and the timber brought by the French railway system of Santa Fé. The average trade passing through this port amounts to more than 500,000 tons, and, so far, there has been no need to add any improvements to the natural advantages of the river-banks. We see by this that there is no need to create ports on the Parana, only to utilise or develop existing conditions.
We give below a table of the trade statistics of the principal ports of the Argentine Republic, remembering that with the exception of Buenos Ayres their trade consists largely of the exports of produce:—
Traffic in Registered Tons at the following ports in the years 1907 and 1908.
| 1907 | 1908 | |
| Rio Gallegos[19] | 63,500 | 41,000 |
| Madryn[19] | 118,000 | 19,900 |
| Commodore Rivadavia[19] | 59,000 | 1,990 |
| Ushuaia[19] | 25,000 | 11,800 |
| Diamante | 131,000 | 375,000 |
| Santa Fé | 127,000 | 440,000 |
| Parana | 253,000 | 636,000 |
| Esquina | 117,000 | 374,000 |
| Goya | 163,000 | 404,000 |
| Bella Vista | 136,000 | 399,000 |
| Empedrado | 116,000 | 306,136 |
| Corrientès | 230,000 | 504,433 |
| Rosario | 1,089,000 | 1,924,000 |
| Buenos Ayres | 6,471,000 | 7,555,000 |
[19] The tonnage of these ports is for the years 1904 and 1906, no corresponding figures being obtainable for 1907 and 1908.
The premier port of the Argentine, and we might add of South America, is Buenos Ayres, which in extent and connections rivals the finest ports of Europe.