The Securities ring also deals in debenture and other Bonds—National, Provincial and Municipal. The only speculation in which it usually indulges being of the very safest kind; in regard to which, indeed, the term investment would better apply.
The side of the large Hall of the Exchange opposite to that occupied by the Stock and Share rings is now tenanted by the “Bolsa de Cereales,” an institution the recent creation of which was due to the necessity, arising chiefly from the rapid developments of the milling industry, for dealing in “futures” in cereal production.
On the oldOnceCorn Exchange such dealings were and still are tabu, as savouring dangerously of the Chicago “Pit,” and much heated discussion took place before the new Exchange was at length authorized to register transactions in futures. The discussion was useful inasmuch as it brought about the framing of stringent regulations against the more ruinous forms of gambling in grain. In the result, the new Institution works very well and fulfils its ostensible purpose of assuring the miller against produce being held against him at times when he is under obligation to deliver flour. Thus, it has prevented instead of encouraging at least one vicious class of operations. Formerly, when all dealing in grain futures was illegal, the miller was continually at the mercy of operators in the cereal markets.
The Institution of the new Market was imperatively needed on account of the huge development and value of the milling industry.
For ordinary dealings theOncecereal market still holds its own.
One needs some courage to write candidly about this institution, the more especially if one hopes to enter it again.
The building itself is the property of a company from which the members rent it. Part of it is now, as has been indicated, sublet to the members of the new Cereal Exchange.
One side of the rotunda—the great inner Hall of the “Bolza”—is therefore now tenanted by the dealers in stocks and shares, and the other, facing it, by those occupied with grain. Each exchange has two large blackboards on which prices are chalked up by attendants as deals are called by the parties making them. These prices then become official; and their genuineness is vouched by the fact of their having been called by members of the Exchange, who are held responsible by the Committee for thebona fidesof these announcements.
The rules are now very strict on the question of calling ofbona fidedealings only. At one time the announcement and consequent chalking up of fictitious deals (called “gatos,” or, as we might say, “wild cats”) became so scandalously frequent and unblushing that a stop had to be put to a malpractice which deceived the public, since all prices chalked up are published in the daily papers.
The first, usually, in regard to both the magnitude and importance of the dealings recorded on it, of these blackboards or “slates,” as they are called, is that reserved for transactions in Government and other important stocks; the second being that devoted to shares.
Thus the first board is mostly filled with records of the numbers and prices of National Cedulas dealt in, and the second with those of whatever one or two kinds of shares may for the time being be in fashion for what one may bluntly call gambling. For gambling, simply, is the end ofalmost everything in the shape of speculation in the ephemerally chosen media. It is in regard to this gambling that the note of warning to the stranger already sounded may be repeated here. The really Argentine public has long ago had its fingers sufficiently often and severely burnt to have decided to give all Bolza speculation a wide berth. And here one is brought face to face with a mystery which the present writer has as yet been wholly unable to explain in any fully satisfactory way.
This mystery is that, given the fact that the contributions of the public to Bolza gambling have since long ago become a negligible quantity, it seems clear that such speculation must be confined to a limited group of Bolza operators.
How, therefore, is it worth the while of any of these operators to survive for long as such? They are mostly, if not all, men of small capital, very small in many cases, yet there they are, day after day, busily occupied in attributing usually fictitious values to the shares of one, or at most two (for the time being) companies. Up go the prices of such shares, rising each day to giddier heights, till at last like balloons they disappear from sight and another set of shares takes their place as material for a boom. Who is the last man or men left with shares at top price? And what on earth does he do with them? These be questions the answers to which are hidden by a secrecy the completeness and continuity of which do credit to the initiate few whose common interest it is to maintain it.
The only protection of these people is a mutual defence against the common enemy, similar to that adopted by professional buyers at an ordinary auction against any innocent amateur who may stray into their midst. On the other hand, the mere presence of a known “bear” among these folk, completely paralyses all action on their part until his back is turned again. The writer now has in his mind’s eye a well-known figure, that of a powerful bear who was the terror of the speculative markets in the golden days when the publicstill played the game and all went merrily except for his malevolent influence. He alone could frown all prices down; and he once held them down against the whole of the furious remainder of the Exchange. It was a never-to-be-forgotten conflict, from which he emerged victorious and with a name at which even the puny bulls of to-day still tremble. Though be it said, he now does little but lend money to those whom circumstances, or still, occasionally, he himself, have forced to carry over. Few Bolza members will fail to identify him from even this slight reference to his fame. The heyday of the Buenos Stock Exchange was that immediately preceding the passing of the “Conversion” law which fixed a ratio between gold and paper and thus ended the speculation in gold which had grown all too vigorous on wide fluctuations. After that, wild cats, resorted to as the next best stimulant, quickly undermined the constitution of the Bolza and frightened the public; permanently, it would still seem, from its precincts as far as gambling speculation is concerned. Such speculation, in any magnitude, has been dead since 1906; in consequence of the collapse at that time of a gold fever boom of which a shoal of doomed alluvial dredging Companies were part cause and part effect.
Nowadays, the real business, of which there is a large and constant volume, done on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange is in National “Cedulas.” This business has gradually gravitated into the hands of a few large brokers. The only drawback to these Bonds is their name, which might lead the ignorant in matters South American to confuse them with theProvincial(Province of Buenos Aires) Cedulas, the corrupt mismanagement of which caused a great scandal some years ago. Still “Cedula” means a “Bond,” and it would, after all, be idle to wish to abolish the latter word only because some English Bonds may have proved unworthy of the prestige usually attaching to that designation.
The question has often been raised as to whether, on the wording of the guarantee endorsed on National Cedulas, theNational Government is responsible for repayment of the principal as well as the interest on them. This, however, amounts almost to a quibble; of little, if any, more than abstract interest. The amortization of these Bonds is certainly guaranteed in like manner as is the interest on them, and only some tremendous crisis, now unimaginable, could so wreck the whole territory of the Republic that land values throughout that territory would simultaneously fall to an extent which could render impossible the redemption of mortgages granted in the first place with a very liberal margin between the actual market value of the land and the amounts of the Bonds issued on its security. For, it should be noted in this connection, a Cedula is not issued by the Bank on the Security of such or such designated property, it is issued on the security, guaranteed by the Bank after due investigation, ofallthe mortgages held by it. So that, in effect, even if the whole of a Province were to be engulfed by an earthquake, the security of none of the Bank’s Cedulas would be affected by the loss since, at the margin reserved by the Bank, all the remainder of the lands on which it holds mortgages would still be ample security for all its bonds.
The reader who is already well acquainted with these matters must forgive me for thus setting them out in so obvious a way. I ask him to believe that there are still very many holders of Argentine National Cedulas possessed of only the vaguest ideas of how their Bonds came into existence, and practically none as to the real nature of the security for them, except a general sort of notion that they are Argentine Government Bonds.
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 MunicipalBonds. 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.
It is often said that the foreign, mostly British, railway community on the River Plate constitutes anImperium 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.
The predominant gauge in Argentina is that in use by the four “great” railway companies of that country, viz. the Buenos Aires Western, the Central Argentine, the Buenos Aires Great Southern and the Buenos Aires Pacific, that is to say, the broad, 5 feet 6 inches, while in Uruguay the great railway company of that country, the Central Uruguay of Montevideo, and its subsidiary companies use the Standard Gauge, 4 feet 8½ inches.
TRANSPORTER BRIDGE, PORT OF BUENOS AIRES
TRANSPORTER BRIDGE, PORT OF BUENOS AIRES
Until 1909 each of the Argentine railway companies was (as the Uruguayan still are) controlled by the terms of its particular concession or concessions. In that year, however, a Law was passed, usually called the “Mitre Law,” after its initiator, the late Señor Emilio Mitre (an eminentArgentine statesman and son of the famous General Mitre, perhaps Argentina’s greatest President and Historian), by which all then existing companies agreeing to be bound by its provisions should be exempt from all National, Provincial and Municipal taxation and Import Duties on material until the year 1947; they, on their part, to pay to the National Government a single tax of 3% on their net earnings, the amount of such earnings to be ascertained by deducting 10% (for working expenses) from their gross receipts.
Only one Company was then enjoying even more favourable terms under its original concession than those given by the Mitre Law; but as that concession was approaching the time of its expiration it would have been ill-judged on the part of the Company to have shown itself recalcitrant to the evident wishes of the Argentine Government.
Therefore it exercised its option in favour of the Mitre Law, as did all the other Companies.
Though the Argentine and Uruguayan Railway Companies rely for their usually very handsome profits much more on haulage of Cereals and Live Stock than on their passenger traffic, it must not be supposed that the latter is in any way neglected by them. Quite the contrary is the case. Possibly nowhere else in the world (except, perhaps, in Russia) is railway travelling as comfortable as on the River Plate, either as regards day or night accommodation or catering, the latter at moderate prices. All is roomy, well arranged and extremely comfortable; but thetrains de luxeof the River Plate are those which the Buenos Aires Great Southern Company runs to and from Mar-del-Plata in the season, with Pullman Drawing-room and Dining Cars. The permanent way is good and the running smooth over almost the whole of the two Republics. Trains going to the hotter regions are provided with baths.
Besides British, considerable French and Belgian capital is invested in Argentine railways. The “Province of SantaFé” and the “Province of Buenos Aires” railways are controlled by French Companies.
Incidentally it may be mentioned that in recent years most of the shares of the “Anglo-Argentine” Tramways Company (which owns the principal tramway system of the Capital) had found their way to Belgium.
A short while ago a United States Syndicate, deemed powerful and feared as menacing a monopoly, obtained control of some of the River Plate lines, notably those of the Central Córdoba, Santa Fé and Entre Rios Companies, under certain arrangements. This Syndicate has since, however, been unable to command the capital necessary to fulfil its part of those arrangements, and, practically, the control of the lines has now reverted to the original Companies, the first and last named of which are British.
The Argentine National Government has during the past few years built and has under construction several lines intended to develop districts which as yet do not offer sufficient temptation to private Companies.
No fresh construction has been begun in either country since the outbreak of the War, the Government and various Companies confining themselves only to such construction work as is absolutely necessary for the completion of extensions already commenced.
Railway construction in these countries does not usually offer any great difficulties. The triumphs of River Plate railway engineering were the line of the Buenos Aires Pacific Railway up and through the Andes and some parts of the lines of the Entre Rios Railway Company in parts of that Province in which for long it seemed impossible to discover a route amid the marshy or spongy soil. Another such triumph will probably occur when the Buenos Aires Great Southern Railway penetrates the Andes, as it no doubt will do one day, much further south than the Buenos Aires Pacific line.
The River Plate Republics are very accessible to foreign Commerce; possessing Atlantic Coasts, the River Plate and its two great navigable tributaries, the Uruguay and the Paraná.
The Port of Buenos Aires ranks seventh among the ports of the world in respect of the value of merchandise which enters and leaves it, and second in America, that is to say, coming immediately after New York. The next most important Argentine ports are those of Rosario, Bahia Blanca and La Plata; after which come Santa Fé, San Nicholás, Campana and Zárate, and many others on the Paraná and Rio Gallegos, Puerto Madryn, San Antonio and others on the South Atlantic. A new Port is in course of construction at Mar-del-Plata.
Montevideo only ranks in point of cargo values just before Bahia Blanca; that is to say, with some £15,000,000 as against the £115,500,000 trade of the Port of Buenos Aires.[22]Uruguay is, however, preparing in this regard for her further development by large new port works which have been under construction for some years past. On the Uruguay she has Fray Bentos, Paysandú (both largely concerned with meat extract and preserved meats export), Salto and Santa Rosa; and on the River Plate, besides Montevideo, Colonia and Maldonado; besides several relatively unimportant ports having as yet but scanty or no effective accommodation for vessels. This could also have been said of many of Argentina’s minor ports not so very long ago. Port accommodation in Uruguay will follow the increase and demands of her export produce and the requirements of her consequently enhanced prosperity.
As has been noticed under the heading “Racial Elements,” most of the immigration to the River Plate has hitherto passed Montevideo and landed at Buenos Aires. Over 300,000 immigrants landed in Argentina in 1913; composed chiefly, and in point of numerical importance, in the following order, of Spaniards, Italians, “Turcos” (Syrians or Levantines), Russians (mostly Jewish), French, Germans, Austrians, Portuguese and British. British arrivals on the River Plate consist chiefly of the salaried classes; who, not being classed as immigrants, do not appear on the Government returns from which the above figures are taken. The only other noteworthy point about Argentine immigration is that now the Spanish element largely predominates instead of, as formerly, the Italian.
GRAIN ELEVATORS: MADERO DOCK, BUENOS AIRES
GRAIN ELEVATORS: MADERO DOCK, BUENOS AIRES
During the past twenty years the foreign trade of Argentina and Uruguay (especially that of the former country) has developed very largely and rapidly; its increase during the decade 1904-1913 being, in the case of Argentina, 108½% and in that of Uruguay 104%. The increase in both cases is considerably greater than that of the trade of any other South American country; as will be seen from the following figures:—
The figure $996,215,998 gold if divided by 7,731,257, representing the population of Argentina, gives $129 gold, or £25 11s. 10d., value of trade per inhabitant of that country; a very high figure indeed. The value of the trade of Uruguay per head of her population is £21 3s. 6d.
In 1913 Argentina alone provided the markets of theUnited Kingdom with cereals and meat to the value of £34,500,000 of a total of £92,300,000, or nearly 37½% of its total supplies. During the same year Uruguay sent meat to the United Kingdom to the value of some £202,000 sterling.
The value of the U.K. Imports from Argentine and Uruguay was considerably increased during 1915.
In 1913 values of the exports of the United Kingdom to the four most commercially important countries of South America were:—
Of the total value of the sales of the United Kingdom in the whole of South America, Argentina received 45%, amounting to £52,033,764 sterling.
During the five years 1908-1912 48½% of the whole maize imported by the United Kingdom came from Argentina; or only a little less than the total quantity of that imported from the United States, Roumania, Russia, India, Natal, Canada, Bulgaria and the Cape of Good Hope.
In respect of the total issue of Capital in the United Kingdom during the first six months of 1914, Argentina rankedfirst(with £12,809,200 as against £12,244,100 which went to Russia) among the foreign countries for which such issues were destined; andthirdif British Possessions are included in the comparison.
The Argentine Republic received 36·2% of total.
Argentina and Brazil divide practically between them the South American export trade of the United States, Argentina taking by far the larger share, and well over one-third of the whole received by all the South American countries put together. The value of the Argentine imports from the United States in 1913 amounted to $52,894,834 (U.S.A.), while Uruguay took U.S.A. goods to the value of $6,531,626 (U.S.A.).
During the year 1913 the Argentine Republic purchased in Europe the following amounts:—
Where will these purchases be made in the future?
It is regrettable, from several points of view, that the National Statistics of Uruguay are not kept and published with the same promptitude and regularity as those of Argentina, to say nothing of the admirable clearness of the forms in which the latter are issued. The Uruguayan authorities should really know that the absence of any complete scheme of statistical information regarding their country is more than apt to preserve a very common though erroneous impression that Uruguay can be of but little account since so little is known or heard of it. Little indeed is known with any accuracy of its production, outside the circle of persons directly interested in its trade; but this obscurity is due only to indifference to and negligence of the art of self-assertion.
International Trade of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay
International Trade of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay
In point of fact Uruguay might well be proud of thestatistics of her productivity; for, in reality, she has more cattle than and nearly as many sheep as the Argentine Province of Buenos Aires while her superficial area is only some two-thirds of that of that Province. Uruguay exports wool to the average value of some £4,000,000, hides £1,500,000, frozen and chilled meat £1,110,000, and animals on the hoof £230,000 annually. The value of its wheat exports for the five years ending 1910 has been stated at £730,000; flour £234,000, maize £82,000 and linseed £460,000 during the same period. As we have seen, the value of Uruguayan trade for the year 1913 was £23,900,000, and this figure, as well as those representing Cereal production and exports, are likely to be rapidly increased under normal conditions.
Wool constitutes about nine-tenths of the exports of Uruguay.
Up to and including 1907 the Imports of Uruguay were in excess of her Exports. In 1908, however, the balance went the other way and is likely to remain there.
The excess of Exports over Imports in 1908 was valued at $2,840,206 (Uruguayan) and in 1909 at $7,966,658. In 1912 the Imports appear to have risen to $49,380,000 as against exports $51,000,000. Probably these last figures are roughly accurate; but the last year for which any full official Statistics appear to have been published was 1911.
As has already been seen, the chief countries of destination of Argentine Exports prior to the War were (generally in the following order): The United Kingdom, Germany, France, Belgium, Brazil, the United States, Holland and Italy. Those of Uruguay went chiefly to France, Belgium, Germany, Argentina and the United Kingdom. While Argentina Imported principally from the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, France, Italy, Belgium and Spain; and Uruguay from the United Kingdom, Germany, the United States, France, Italy, Belgium and Argentina.
The Surplus of Revenue over Expenditure in both Republics may appear to remain always so small as only just to have avoided conversion into deficits. It should, however, be recollected that these countries are constantlyengaged in carrying out Public Works which are necessary to the fuller development of their natural resources; such, for instance, as the very important new Port Works of Buenos Aires and Montevideo and the great Argentine systems of irrigation. Were the excess of Revenue greater it would still be spent, and wisely spent, on National Public Works and Improvements; which are the best assurance of its future which either country could make.
An instance of the rapid Commercial progress of the River Plate Countries is the fact that whereas in 1872 there were but four Banks in Argentina, in 1913 there were 143.
The latest (1914) Commercial and Industrial Census of the City of Buenos Aires shows that the number of Commercial (chiefly wholesale and retail trading) establishments in that City has increased from 17,985, as shown by the previous Census of 1904, to 29,600—an increase of 65%—while the number of Factories and Manufacturing establishments which in 1904 was 8,877 was in 1914 11,132—an increase of 25%. The motive power employed in these last-mentioned establishments has increased during the same period from 19,458 h.p. to 194,411 h.p.—an increase of 900%—while the number of persons employed has increased 112%.
An amusing but characteristic note is struck by comparison of the figures representing the annual sales of flour and tobacco respectively, the former being nearly $48,000,000 (paper) and the latter nearly £44,000,000 (paper).
Not such a great difference between the money spent in Buenos Aires on flour, much of which is exported, and on tobacco, which is all home consumed! Another is that nearly 1% of the whole population of the City consists of Medical Men; Brokers and Commission Agents (clubbed together and classed as professional men by the Census) run them very close, with Builders a good third, and the rest, in the sporting sense, nowhere.
Most of the wholesale and retail traders are Italians, Spaniards and Argentines, in this order; the Italians being in both cases nearly three times and the Spaniards nearly twice as numerous as the Argentines. After them come French, Russians (chiefly Jewish), Levantines and Egyptians (locally known as “Turcos”), Uruguayans, German, British and other nationalities in commerce; and French, Russians, Levantines and Egyptians, Belgians, Danes and Portuguese and other nationalities as Manufacturers.
A good many establishments of both classes are, however, shown to belong to Argentines and foreigners in partnership.
It is due to the compilers of the Census to remark that they have treated “Jews” as pertaining to a separate nationality, though therefore there is possibly some confusion under the heading “Russians.”
This is the largest and most densely populated and the most uniformly prosperous Province of the Republic.[23]It is bounded on the North by the Provinces of Santa Fé and Córdoba, on the West by the Territories of the Pampa Central and Rio Negro and on the East and South by the Paraná and Plate Rivers and the Atlantic Ocean. Its capital, La Plata, is of a somewhat sadly monumental aspect. It is indeed as yet but a monument to the still unrealized dreams of its modern founders and architects. It was to have been a great city with a busy port; it is now a place where Provincial parliamentarians, lawyers, university students and Law Court and Police officials spend some hours each day, coming each morning and returning each evening from and to the superior activity and attractions of the Federal Capital.
Nevertheless, La Plata has long, wide, eucalyptus-planted avenues; its chief Plaza, in which are the Municipality and the Cathedral, is not much smaller than Trafalgar Square; its Museum is world-renowned for its palæontological collections; and its Law Courts, University, Theatre, Police Offices and the above-mentioned Municipality arehuge, magnificently solid-looking buildings. But the lack of all perceptible movement in La Plata leads one to imagine that if its broad avenues and noble Plazas are not grass-grown the fact is due much more to the action of street cleaners than to that of traffic. Truly, one may often gaze down a very long vista of pavement between tall eucalyptus trees for many minutes without seeing one single other human being.
The Port works of Buenos Aires have drained its only source of commerce from La Plata. Still, some day the trade of the Republic may need it also.
At the same time it is only just to add that La Plata makes out a claim to nearly 100,000 inhabitants. Where they all get to when one visits it is mystery. Perhaps they in their turn spend their days in Buenos Aires; returning home to sleep in the deep stillness of the Provincial Capital.
The real chief port of the Province of Buenos Aires is Bahia Blanca. First of all, in 1896, the National Government decided to build the naval port and arsenal now in existence there: subsequently the Buenos Aires Great Southern and the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway Companies realized the conveniences and situation of Bahia Blanca as a place of export for the produce of their great and ever-increasing southern and south-western zones and each company constructed a port for the almost exclusive purposes of its own traffic.
The Great Southern Railway’s port is calledIngeniero Whiteand that of the Pacific RailwayPuerto Galvan. Besides these, separate and distinct constructions, Bahia Blanca has a fourth port,Cuatreros, at the interior end of the bay, which exports large and increasing quantities of frozen and chilled meat.
The great railway ports of Bahia Blanca are fitted with every modern mechanical appliance, huge cranes, electric endless belts for loading loose grain, and immense grain warehouses and elevators. The town of Bahia Blanca israpidly growing in importance and influence. Its municipal administration is largely in the hands of British exporters and merchants.
On the Atlantic coast, between Bahia Blanca and Buenos Aires and some 400 kilometres from the latter city, is the famous seaside resort of Mar-del-Plata, the Argentine Monte Carlo—Trouville-Biarritz-cum-Ostend (before the War!).
During the season there (at all other times of the year it is deserted) vast Hotels and Restaurants charge famine prices for accommodation and food and there is always more demand than available supply of either. Wealthy Argentine families have, of course, their palatial “Chalets,” and theRambla, as the great promenade by the sea is called, is a very brilliant scene at all times during the weeks in which it is fashionable.
Music and dancing contribute to the nights’ amusement at the Casino, large Hotels and private houses; and at the Club members can indulge in those games in which chance plays a greater rôle than skill.
As one young gentleman, who had failed to get a bed at any of the Hotels he thought worthy of his patronage, once remarked, “No matter, one can always play Baccarat till it is bathing time again.”
The air of Mar-del-Plata, that of the wide Atlantic, would doubtless be a powerful restorative to anyone who could resist the temptations of amusement sufficiently to give it a chance. Some people possibly do, but if so keep very silent about it.
Mar-del-Plata is, however, destined to show a more serious side of its possibilities in consequence of the building of a commercial port; the construction of which has been entrusted to a French firm, also the constructors of the new port works of Montevideo. Potatoes which are deemed the best in the Republic come from near Mar-del-Plata.
Other chief towns of the Province of Buenos Aires areAvellaneda(situate on the Provincial side of the boundaryline between the Province and the Federal City of Buenos Aires, but to all intents and purposes a district of the latter with which it is connected by unbroken lines of streets and houses),Chivilcoy,Pergamino,Tres Arroyos,Nueve de Julio,Azul, the residential suburbs (of Buenos Aires),TemperleyandLomas de Zamorraand many smaller “camp” towns.
All these minor camp towns of the Province of Buenos Aires look much alike and none of them are very interesting in appearance. Their stores, however, do good business in supplying the needs of large surrounding rural districts, and some of these towns have periodical cattle shows and sales which are well worth visiting.
Temperley and Lomas de Zamorra consist chiefly of Villa residences, of all sizes and styles of architecture, and some shops.
The Province of Buenos Aires, half as large again as the whole Republic of Uruguay, possesses some of the best land in Argentina, and in it farming has reached the highest developments as yet attained in either Republic. In it intensive farming has already made its first appearance in South America—as needs must when high land-values drive. The surface of this Province is one almost unbroken level plain.
It at present produces one-third of the whole output of wheat, nearly a similar proportion of maize, one-fifth that of linseed, 87% of that of oats, and also contains about 37% of the live stock of the whole Republic.
Good water is obtainable nearly everywhere in practically close proximity to the surface. This fact, combined with the comparatively few running streams and the tendency of these to dry up in hot weather, causes some parts of this Province to have the appearance of a forest of tall skeleton iron windmills. These are set up over artificially sunk wells, to draw water for animals and domestic purposes.
A detailed description of the Province of Buenos Aireswould extend to a very great length indeed; as this Province is, as far as its climatic conditions permit, a compendium of the industrial activity, at its best, of the whole Republic. That it is so is due to its situation on, or always in relatively close proximity to, the estuary of the River Plate; the cradle of the civilization and progress of the countries under discussion.
Farming and most other industries find their highest expression within easy reach of and in the Federal Capital.
As far as its physical aspect is concerned, the Province of Buenos Aires has been accused with considerable justice of being generally uninteresting. Certainly its surface is one huge flat plain, until one gets south to the ranges of the Sierra de la Ventana and the Tandíl hills. Past them, nothing but monotonous plain again till its southernmost boundary, the Rio Colorado, is reached.
Its only romantic scenery, though that is delightful indeed, is on its north-eastern frontier, along the small River Tigre and the majestic Paraná; the banks and innumerable islands of which are clad with useful osiers, flowering reeds, peach trees and a large riot of other beautiful and luxuriant vegetation. Many a spring day can be passed in idyllic enjoyment among the islands of the Tigre.
At Tandíl, on the south-eastern side of the Province, there are quarries of fine marble and building stone, and until a year or so ago there was a famous rocking-stone perched on another rock, the surface of which is inclined at an angle of something like 45 degrees. To all appearances a mere gust of wind would have toppled the upper stone down into a hollow beneath; but the tale goes that Señor Benito Villanueva, a wealthy and sportsmanlike Argentine, once tied a rope round the rocking-stone and attached the other end to a double span of oxen on the plain below. The oxen pulled; but without any other effect on the rocking-stone than temporarily to cant it just as many centimetres as it could be moved by a good push from a man’s hand.Now, alas for Tandíl, someone has succeeded in dislodging the rocking-stone from its uncanny-looking eminence, so that it has, literally, fallen from its high celebrity.
Buenos Aires is, naturally, the Province of palatial estancia houses surrounded by model farms. The Queen Province. The most densely populated and cultivated and the one with the largest revenues.
This Province ranks next to that of Buenos Aires in respect of area and population, while its output of both maize and linseed is slightly greater than that of the Queen Province; in regard to wheat it stands third among the Argentine Provinces, Córdoba coming immediately after Buenos Aires, and in respect of oats it again comes second. In point of live stock it comes only fifth, after Buenos Aires, Entre Rios, Corrientes and Córdoba.
It is bounded on the North by the Territory of the Chaco, on the West by the Provinces of Santiago del Estero and Córdoba, on the South by the Province of Buenos Aires and on the East by the River Paraná.
The northern part of Santa Fé is covered with vast forests, continuations of those of the Provinces of Santiago del Estero and the Territory of the Chaco. These forests are rich in Quebracho wood, and from them also come large supplies of firewood and charcoal.
The other parts of Santa Fé are devoted to stock and agriculture.
The streams of this Province, although more numerous than those of Buenos Aires, have (with the exception of the great River Paraná) the same tendency to dry up as have those of the Queen Province, and, therefore, water-drawing windmills are in proportionate evidence.
Its Capital, the city from which it takes its name, is one of the oldest in the River Plate countries. Its movementis, however, little else than that of a merely political capital; the town of Rosario, with its port, being the centre of most of the commercial activity of this part of the Republic. Until the rise of Bahia Blanca, Rosario held the undisputed rank of the second commercial centre of Argentina.
The City of Santa Fé nevertheless possesses an old-world beauty and charm, with its palm avenues and spacious Plazas, its many churches and its large one-storied residences. Rosario, on the other hand, is as unsightly and uninteresting a place to the eye as could well—or, rather badly—be conceived. It has, however, a large share of the cereal export trade. This Province has also other important ports on the Paraná, viz. the port of Santa Fé itself, Villa Constitution, Colastiné and several minor ones, all of which are available for ocean-going ships.
After Buenos Aires, Santa Fé is the Province with by far the greatest and most conveniently situated railway mileage.
Mixed agriculture and stock farming is practised in many districts; though Santa Fé has not yet felt the economic need of other than extensive farming. Still, land values have, until recent events prejudicially, if only temporarily, affected all such values, followed those in Buenos Aires on an upward course. Santa Fé sends large quantities of potatoes to the Buenos Aires and local markets.
The milling industry of this Province ranks not only next in importance to that of Buenos Aires, but its output of flour is very much greater than that of Entre Rios, the next most important Province in this regard. The Department of Reconquista, in the North of the Province, has sugar mills, and other industries are the production of ground-nut oil, dairy produce, tanneries, preserved meats and maize alcohol.
This Province is bounded on the North by the Province of Santiago del Estero, on the North-West by the Provinceof Catamarca, on the West by the Province of La Rioja and San Luis, on the South by the Territory of the Pampa Central and the Province of Buenos Aires, and on the East by the Province of Santa Fé.
Córdoba is the second Province of the Republic in point of wheat and linseed production, being not far behind Buenos Aires in this regard. Its maize production, however, does not amount to one-third of that of either Buenos Aires or Santa Fé, while in oats it about ties with the latter. In live stock it ranks fourth among the Argentine Provinces, though it has less than half the number possessed by Entre Rios and only about half of that of Corrientes. In the matter of population it ranks fourth among the Provinces of the Republic, with about one-third that of Buenos Aires.
As one travels towards the ancient capital of this Province one begins to realize that the cosmopolitan delights of the city of Buenos Aires do not reflect the soul of the Republic: the soul that fought for its liberty under the blue sky and warm sun of 25th of May, now over a hundred years ago. One begins involuntarily to dream of the Gaucho Wars and to feel the atmosphere of wilder bygone times amid the steep water-cut and cacti-crowned banks of the five great rivers which traverse the land from west to east. And when one gets to “The Learned City” the illusion is not dispelled. Only one extremely modern-looking Hotel in a corner of the Plaza jars; the rest of old Córdoba exhales the magnolia-scented atmosphere of Old Colonial days. The Cathedral, the University (founded in 1613) and the innumerable churches, the bells of which all clang incessantly on Feast-days, all help to preserve in the old part of the City of Córdoba an atmosphere of the Middle Ages, when monasteries and learning were indissolubly connected. And of monks and nuns, brown-robed, black-robed, white-robed and blue-robed, many there be in Córdoba. Wherever one looks, across the Plaza, up one street or down another, one sees them walking in twos or small groups with a uniformlymeasured step which, as one instinctively feels, nothing could hurry nor retard. And the black-coated citizens of Córdoba walk silently with eyes downcast. But there is fierceness behind those cast-down eyes and quick hot blood in the veins of those men in black; as anyone would soon find out to his cost were he suspected of too close enquiry into local political ways and means.
The writer speaks feelingly on this subject since when, a few years ago, he was visiting Córdoba with a quite natural but equally innocent curiosity for the old-world corners of the City, he unfortunately disclosed in conversation with an eminently respectable-looking, immaculately dressed gentleman that he, the present author, was a journalist.
Soon afterwards his adventures began. He was molested in indirect ways, and finally invited to pay a visit to the Central Police Station. There he was given cigarettes and coffee by the Comisario, who floridly apologized and expressed his deep regret and shame for the treatment an honourable stranger had received. It was, however, but a series of regrettable accidents arising from unfortunate error of certain bad characters who were now in durance vile in consequence.
Here he rang a bell and ordered the answering policeman to bring in the culprits. They were duly brought in and recognized.
“Now,” said the Comisario, “you will have no more trouble. Besides,” he added, “one of our plain-clothes men will accompany you in future wherever you go—for your better protection.”
The plain-clothes man certainly obeyed orders; so persistently that the whole why and wherefore at last dawned on my confused brain.
The intention was to worry me so much in a polite quasi-legitimate fashion that I could have no ostensible cause of complaint; but, at the same time, so that I should incontinently quit the ancient City of Córdoba in disgust.The reason for all this was the fact that, having nothing better to do on the evening of my arrival, I had wandered into the basement of my Hotel and there found a person who looked like, and indeed was, a leading local politician running a roulette to catch the nickels of a crowd of working men. At that time the roulette was the scarcely concealed vice of the town, rife in the back room of every bar.
It is an illegal game in Argentina, as elsewhere except Monte Carlo, and shortly after my visit it was the cause of a great outcry and scandal in which several Provincial High Officials were involved.
I was a journalist and, therefore, dangerous. So a course of delicate hints to me to get out had been planned and executed.
Following the gambling scandal, a leading Opposition politician was shot dead in his carriage on the high road a short way outside the city. When I read this news I was glad that I had not persisted in seeming to pry into cupboards containing Córdoba’s official skeletons, and for similar reasons I am still somewhat shy of Córdobese gentlemen with downcast eyes and soft, measured tread.
All that, however, belongs toOldCórdoba. The parts of the city called New Córdoba and Alta Córdoba are replete with palatial residences as fine and as new as residential palaces need be.
The City of Córdoba is not only the traditional seat of learningpar excellenceof the Republic, it is also, as a consequence of old-time associations no doubt, its chief centre of clerical influence.