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Farm Workers and the Myth of Export-Led Development in Argentina

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Carl Solberg
Carl Solberg*
Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
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Extract

The highly visible change which took place in Argentina during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries fascinated contemporary observers of the republic. The millions of immigrants, the formation of a large urban middle class, and the growth of the great metropolis of Buenos Aires all seemed to indicate that Argentina rapidly was emerging as a modern, developed nation. Equally impressive to foreign observers was Argentina's apparently booming economy, which was based on a flourishing export trade. With only brief interruptions, exports, nearly entirely composed of agricultural and cattle products, had risen from 22 million gold pesos in 1862 to 519 million in 1913. To produce the exports, total area under cultivation rose from 580,000 hectares in 1872 to 24.1 million in 1913.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , October 1974 , pp. 121 - 138
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1974

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References

1 Ernesto Tornquist & Cía., Limitada, El desarrollo económico de la República Argentina en los últimos cincuenta años (Buenos Aires: Ernesto Tornquist & Cía., Limitada, 1920), pp. 20, 134. The value of the paper peso during periods of convertibility was 44 per cent of the gold peso or about U.S. $.42.

2 See, for example, Díaz Alejandro, Carlos F., Essays on the Economic History of the Argentine Republic (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1970), pp. 1–66.Google Scholar

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18 Scobie, , Revolution on the Pampas, p. 123.Google Scholar The author does not specify whether these were paper or gold pesos.

19 Argentine Republic, Comisión Central de Inmigracion, Las colonias, pp. 277, 280, 313, and passim. For careful evaluation of the scope and quality of Wilcken’s work, see , Gori, Gastón, Ha pasado la nostalgia (Santa Fe: Librería y Editorial Colmegna, 1950), pp. 43–44.Google Scholar

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21 Quoted in Gori, Gastón, Vagos y mal entretenidos: Aporte al tema hernandino, Second edition (Santa Fe: Librería y Editorial Colmegna, 1965), p. 46.Google Scholar

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28 The massacre is described in Beloqui, Gorraiz, Tandil a través de un siglo, pp. 94–104;Google Scholar and in Fugl, , Abriendo surcos, pp. 141–143.Google Scholar Conflict between Argentines and immigrants in Santa Fe province is discussed in Gallo, Ezequiel, “Conflictos socio-políticos en las colonias agrícolas de Santa Fe (1870-1880),” (Buenos Aires: Instituto Torcuato Di Telia, Centro de Investigaciones Sociales, 1973), pp. 17–28.Google Scholar

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33 Argentine Republic, Presidencia de la Nación, Ministerio de Asuntos Técnicos, IV Censo general de la nación, 2 Vols. (Buenos Aires; Dirección Nacional del Servicio Estadístico, 1947), I, p. 22; Taylor, Carl C., Rural Life in Argentina (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1948), p. 318.Google Scholar In October, 1973, Minister of Education Taiana announced that 8.6 per cent of the Argentine population remained illiterate and 42 per cent semi-literate. La Razón (Buenos Aires), October 30, 1973, p. 7.

34 Weinberg, Daniel, “La enseñanza técnica industrial en la Argentina, 1936–1965,” (Buenos Aires: Instituto Torcuato Di Telia, Centro de Investigaciones Económicas, 1967), p. 9.Google Scholar For the comparison with Canada, see Bunge, Alejandro E., The Cost of Living in the Argentine Republic: Wages and Output (Buenos Aires, n.p. 1928), p. 23.Google Scholar

35 Levilier, H.M., “Las escuelas vocacionales en Norte América,” Boletín de la Unión Industrial Argentina, 32 (February 15, 1919), pp. 5–13.Google Scholar Also “Escuelas industriales,” Ibid., XXXI (December 15, 1917), pp. 1–3; and Bunge, >Alejandro E., Las industrias del norte (Buenos Aires: privately published, 1922), pp. 153–158.Google Scholar

36 Argentine Republic, Cámara de Diputados, Diario de sesiones de la Cámara de Diputados, sesiones ordinarias, I (July 6, 1922), p. 421.

37 Massé, Juan Bialet, El estado de las clases obreras argentinas a comienzos del siglo, Second edition (Córdoba: Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, 1968), p. 290.Google Scholar The title of the first edition, published in 1904, was Informe sobre el estado de las clases obreras en el interior de la república. On immigrant predominance in urban occupations, consult Scobie, James R., “Buenos Aires as a Commercial-Bureaucratic City, 1880–1910: Characteristics of a City's Orientation,” The American Historical Review, 77 (October, 1972), pp. 1058–1059.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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43 Germani, Gino, Estructura social de la Argentina: Analisis estadístico (Buenos Aires: Editorial Raigal, 1955), p. 166.Google Scholar Also see Taylor, , Rural Life in Argentina, p. 329.Google Scholar The 1937 rural census, according to Ballesteros, Marto A., “Argentine Agriculture 1908-1954: A Study in Growth and Decline,” (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1958), p. 82,Google Scholar understated the number of temporary workers because it was taken in midwinter when few of them were employed.

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48 Williams, John H., Argentine International Trade Under Inconvertible Paper Money, 1880–1900 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1920), p. 197 Google Scholar. Also see Ferrer, Aldo, La economía argentina: Las etapas de su desarrollo y problemas actuales, Second edition (México and Buenos Aires: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1965), pp. 136–137.Google Scholar

49 Tardati, José Rodríguez, “Los trabajadores del campo,” Revista de Ciencias Económicas, 26 (June, 1926), p. 386;Google Scholar La Vanguardia, December 31,1919, p. 5. For further analysis of rural wages, see Mardoña, W.B. (h.), La miseria en el campo (Buenos Aires, n.p., 1925), pp. 41–45;Google Scholar and Estabrook, Leon M., Agricultural Survey of South America: Argentina and Paraguay (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1926), p. 67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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51 For arguments of landowners opposed to minimum wages for rural workers, see Pueyrredón, Carlos A., “El salario mínimo para los trabajadores rurales,” Boletín de Servicios de la Asociación de Trabajo, 10 (January 20, 1929), p. 26.Google Scholar

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53 An interesting discussion of the work of the “rural brigades” is found in “Colaboración eficaz de la Bolsa de Cereales en la Obra Pacificadora de la Liga Patriótica Argentina,” in Buenos Aires (City), de Cereales, Bolsa, Memoria e informe de la Comisión Directiva presentada en la Asamblea del 28 de abril de 1921. Ejercicio 1920-1921 (Buenos Aires: Imp. y Lit. C. Girard, 1921), pp. 112–113.Google Scholar Also see La Protesta, December 28, 1919, p. 3; and February 1, 1920, pp. 1-2. For an overview of rural strikes in this period, see Solberg, Carl, “Rural Unrest and Agrarian Policy in Argentina, 1912–1930,” Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs, 13 (January, 1971), pp. 18–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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60 Taylor, , Rural Life in Argentina, p. 336;Google Scholar Miatello, , La chacra santafecina en 1905, p. 67.Google Scholar

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