There were two incompatible economic interests in Argentina in the period following her independence. The one was that of a modern and export economy in the region of Buenos Aires where developed pastoral production for the world market. The other was that of a traditional economy with relatively well developed handicraft industries in the inland provinces. The former stressed the need to integrate Argentina to the international competitive market but the latter to protect herself against aggressive penetration of European capitalism. Bernardian Rivadavia, a Benthamite politician, and General Juan Manuel de Rosas, a gaucho caudillo, represented either of these interests respectively. The first example of British investment in Argentina took place in 1824 when the government of Buenos Aires province floated a loan with a face value of £l,000,000 in London. Due to Rivadavia's failure in re-orienting the economy on the liberal princeple the loan was soon defaulted. The regime of free trade in the early nineteenth century was short-lived. The dictator General Rosas who took over the power in 1829 closed Argentina to foreign capital and technology. However the extension of pastoral production for export to interior parts of pampas caused the thinking of the estancieros a marked transformation. The old costly method of transport in wagons must yield to railway if Argentine produce was to continue to enter the world market. After the downfall of xenophobic Rosas in 1852, his liberal successors sought the assistance of foreign capital to construct railways to the remote regions of the country. British importunities concerning the defaulted debt of 1824 had been settled before the resumption of capital inflow from Britain took place. The first Argentine railway of 10 km was opened in 1857. After then total mileage increased to 2,516 km in 1880, 9,432 km in 1890, 16,563 km in 1900 and 32,494 km in 1913. From the beginning of railway building Argentina relied heavily on British capital. This was not only because of insufficient capital accumulation in Argentina but also because of speculative land investment on the side of indigenous capitalists. As railway building tended to raise the value of land in the pampas, merchants in Buenos Aires and provincial estancieros alike found it more profitable to invest in land in railways. Thus previously antagonistic two interests were bridged by railway development and merged into liberal oligarchy. Providing guarantees to British railway investment the oligarchy worked for the material progress of the country but oriented their action towards the satisfaction of their own interests. The effects of British railway investments on the Argentine economy were best typified by rapid growth and changing structures of the Argentine overseas trade. In the period 1880-1914 Argentina had falled to be an economic subordinate of the creditor nation ; specialized her production in a limited number of exportable primary products and deedly dependent upon Britain both for export and import. Britain extended her informal empire to Argentina, not through military or diplomatic maneuvering, but through railway investments.

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