The Argentine in the Twentieth Century

by Alberto B. Martínez; Maurice Lewandowski

As recompense, the Government has granted the concessionnaires, for forty years, the monopoly of gathering all harbour dues over a radius of 7·4 miles around the city of Rosario, and over a distance of 12·4 miles up-stream and down-stream. The State shares in the takings of the concession to the extent of 50 per cent. of the net profits after the expenses of exploitation are deducted, which are estimated at 40 per cent. of the receipts, and after the subtraction of the sums necessary for paying the interest on and redeeming the capital engaged.

From all these data concerning the ports of the Parana, it will be seen that great efforts are now being made to increase the means of communication in proportion to the economic expansion of the country, and to multiply and facilitate outlets upon the points nearest to the centres of production. These efforts are also tending to decentralise the traffic, to the profit of a larger number of ports: in order to avoid the over-crowding of a few great centres to the detriment of other parts of the country. This policy will have happy results: firstly, from the point of view of the export trade, since it will decrease the net cost of transport; and secondly, from the standpoint of the import trade, as the imports, instead of converging upon Buenos Ayres and thence proceeding by rail, will reach the neighbourhood of the inland centres of consumption more directly and at less expense.

For these same reasons serious improvements have been carried out at the port of Bahia Blanca, which is situated on the sea-coast in the south of the Province of Buenos Ayres, whose importance has increased more especially since the opening of the military harbour to commerce. Bahia Blanca is one of the termini of many railways of the south; it is thus connected with the regions of agriculture and stock-raising on a large scale, which are able to send their produce directly from this port to Europe. The wool trade is particularly brisk there, and the cereal trade also, since the Pampa has been transformed into a wonderful agricultural country.

Seconding this development, already stimulated by the Southern Railway Company, which built the harbour known as “Ingenio White,” the Buenos Ayres and Pacific Railway Company has also commenced at Bahia Blanca a magnificent harbour, called Galvan Harbour. Built of reinforced cement, it is equipped with powerful grain-elevators, built of stone, splendid iron warehouses, sheds, etc. This harbour, when completed, will have cost some £10,000,000; it has already a considerable trade, which will increase in proportion to the agricultural development of the great belt it is intended to serve, which includes the Provinces of San Juan, San Luis, Mendoza, the Territory of the Central Pampa, and a large part of the Province of Buenos Ayres. The importance of

this harbour will also be increased by the various railways which will unite Bahia Blanca to the remote districts of the Republic. The French company, now building a line running between Rosario and Bahia Blanca, will also have its own harbour, the Puerto Belgrano, and is actively carrying on its construction.

Finally, the creation of a harbour has been projected at Mar del Plata, the fashionable watering-place of the Argentine, and another in the Bay of Samborombon, two hours from Buenos Ayres.

To sum up: the Argentine possesses at the present time, in the matter of ports, an equipment capable of keeping pace with the growth of its powers of production. Its rivers are truly arms of the sea, collecting on their banks, thanks to their numerous ports, the products of the central Provinces, which are thus connected with the Atlantic over a distance of more than 600 miles. It is the same on the Atlantic sea-board, where advantage has been taken of the least natural facilities afforded by the coast-line to multiply the outlet to exportation, in proportion as the progress of agriculture has travelled south.[21]

[21] Among the principal ports of the south we may cite Madryn, Rio Gallego, Commodoro Rivadavia, and Ushuaia, in Tierra del Fuego. These ports, by a wise disposition of the Government, seeking to increase the population and encourage progress in the southern regions of the Republic, have been made free ports; that is all the operations of the douane may be effected without the payment of fiscal dues.

It is true that this great organisation can only yield the true measure of its value in years of good harvests, since upon the latter all commercial activity depends; yet it must be recognised that, however largely the future has been discounted in equipping these ports, the estimates of future traffic have scarcely ever hitherto been deceptive.