As will be seen, the facts justify my dictum of a few pages back that these Bonds really offer as gilt-edged a security as anyone could wish for.
Other securities most commonly dealt in in the Securities side of the Market are “Credito Argentino,” National Internal debt, the “Premier Security” of the Country, as it has been called; and some Provincial and Municipal Bonds. On the share side, the shares of the various Banks are usually the subject of the most really important quotations on the slate.
Many first-class Argentine securities and shares seldom come on the market.
CHAPTER VIII
RAILWAYS, PORTS AND IMMIGRATION
RAILWAYS
It is often said that the foreign, mostly British, railway community on the River Plate constitutes an Imperium in Imperio.
There is no denying the great influence of that community, but that influence has been rendered inevitable and is wholly justified by the very large amount of capital which the railway companies have at stake in these countries; amounting in Argentina to some £200,000,000 and in Uruguay some £12,000,000, making a total of some 212 millions sterling. Of this total a very large proportion in Argentina and the whole in Uruguay is British.
The total length of railway lines in Argentina is close on 21,000 miles, and in Uruguay close on 1050 miles.