A Socioeconomic History of Argentina, 1776-1860

by Jonathan C. Brown

Overview

This book surveys Argentina's development from the establishment of the Viceroyalty of the Rio de la Plata within the Spanish-American empire to the building of the first railways in the independent nation. Two aspects of Argentina's development receive special attention. First, the author examines the international markets for Argentina's products, taking into account the industrial revolution then under way in Europe and the United States. Second, he discusses the influence of traditional native technology on Argentine production and transport. In addition to describing commercial development at the port of Buenos Aires, the study discusses the expansion of ranching and farming onto the virgin pampas. Although the prosperity of Buenos Aires was not duplicated in the interior provinces, the export trade did permit commercial recovery from depression and civil war throughout Argentina. The author concludes that the conventional dependent or neo-colonial theory of Latin American development does not apply to Argentina's economic expansion. The staple theory of economic growth proves to be more accurate, for the linkages produced by the export trade actually diversified domestic economic activity and broadened entrepreneurial and labour opportunities in Argentina.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521102100
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/18/2008
Series:	Cambridge Latin American Studies , #35
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

1. Silver and contraband in the colonial Rio de la Plata; 2. Buenos Aires in the Golden Age: the viceregal economy; 3. Industrial markets for Argentine raw materials; 4. Buenos Aires as outpost of world trade; 5. Buenos Aires as emporium of regional trade and processing; 6. Expanding the frontiers of production on the pampa; 7. Expansion of pastoral society on the pampa; 8. Formation of the Anchorena cattle business; 9. Depression and renaissance of commerce in the Interior provinces.