"The trade of the Republic is at present in a condition thus favourable, the wealth hidden in her soil is thus great. She owes this situation to the maintenance of exterior peace, the elimination of fluctuations in paper money, and the establishment of those institutions by which she advances with gigantic strides. We watch her progress, and see her offering to the rest of the world the products of her fertile territories, without restrictions and without preferences that take their rise in grasping tariff laws. Our country thus wins a reputation which corresponds to her pastoral and agricultural wealth and the excellence of her products.
"What, sir, would be our rate of progress if the law of our custom-house, which sets up a prohibitive tariff wall against the goods which our people demand and which act as a stimulus to our great industries, were more lenient, more just, and more in accordance with the principles of liberty which we have inherited with our charter of independence!"
But, in fact, all influences of to-day seem to be on the side of further restrictions in trade as they have long been on the side of further restrictions in social matters. The principles of liberty are considered by most people as very excellent for themselves but hardly suitable to the rest of the world; but from Manchester to Shanghai the ideal of every trader is Free Trade for the whole world and Protection for himself. As all pull one way, the result is almost everywhere the same, and no country seems less likely to abandon Protection than Argentina.
CHAPTER XVIII
AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL PRODUCTS
Argentina is now one of the leading agricultural countries of the world, and her importance is likely to be enhanced in the near future, because the United States and other sources of food supply are rapidly diminishing their exportable surplus, while in South America population is unable to keep pace with natural production. Wheat, as is well known, is the most important crop. Unlike the pastoral industry, arable cultivation is comparatively modern. In 1854 there were only 375,000 acres under tillage of all kinds, and the area increased very slowly until the beginning of the present generation. The promise of the country was always recognised, but it was long before foreign capital ventured to trust itself to a land possessing the political reputation of Argentina; and thus, without railway development, the export of agricultural produce was impossible. "All the cereals," says a pamphlet published in the sixties, "do remarkably well, and such is the fertility of the soil that double crops are often taken from the same land. In Santiago del Estero the wheat produced is of the most excellent quality, and although but little care is bestowed in cultivation, it generally yields eightyfold." The encouragement of emigration and the introduction of capital, and thus of improved methods of communication, caused progress to be very rapid; and whereas in 1874 the wheat area was only 271,000 acres, in 1884 it was 1,717,000. By 1899 this had expanded to 5,500,000 acres, and now it is about 14,000,000. The following figures will show the progress of recent years:—
| Production in Tons. | Exportation. | |
| 1902 | 1,534,400 | 704,060 |
| 1903 | 2,823,900 | 1,790,388 |
| 1904 | 3,529,100 | 2,467,297 |
| 1905 | 4,102,600 | 3,083,378 |
| 1906 | 3,672,200 | 2,438,616 |
| 1907 | 4,245,400 | 2,867,464 |
| 1908 | 5,238,700 | 3,802,619 |
It is anticipated that before long the wheat export will amount to 5,000,000, and that Argentina will thus lead the world.[118] This cannot be called a rash estimate, for when we examine the figures we shall find that population is not keeping pace with production. The exportation figures of 1908 were 55 per cent. better than those of 1906, while the figures of production showed a rise of only 42 per cent. This is a satisfactory condition of things for the trader, but less so from a national standpoint. In general, the farmer is not rooted to the soil; he merely pays a percentage of his crops to the landlord as rent, and after a bad season is apt to move elsewhere. It is desirable that a scheme of intensive cultivation should be introduced, which promises much greater national benefit in the future in every way than can be obtained by hasty and slovenly methods. A Government publication, apologising for the present system and remarking that in old countries intensive agriculture is no virtue, while in new countries extensive agriculture is no vice, adds: "Wherever there is much ground with few inhabitants it is impossible that the number of proprietors be very large; and if the comparative figure demonstrates that the number of renters is relatively very large, the investigation of the facts will show that it is here that the qualitative influence of the divisor intervenes. In general, he who seeks his fortune in agricultural work lacks the necessary capital for purchasing land, and it is notorious that the immigrants we can count on to colonise our lands arrive completely destitute of means. At the very best they can hope to rent the land, counting on the shrewd liberality of the landholder who requires of them only a certain share of the crop in pay for the rent, and in this manner by the results of their labour they may finally become proprietors. There are, therefore, two consecutive subdivisions: that of the working of the land by leasing, and that of ownership by the eventual purchase."
