Economic Growth and Regional Differentiations

The River Plate Region at the End of the Eighteenth Century

Bibliographic Data

ID2825753
AuthorsJuan Carlos Garavaglia, Diane Melendez
Year1985
Volume65
Issue1
Pages51
Publication date1985-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueHispanic American Historical Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0018-2168 • E-ISSN: 1527-1900
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/2514670
OpenAlexW4242141656
LanguageEN
Citations received28

In 1772, geographer and mariner Francisco Millau wrote his Descripcion de la Provincia del Rio de la Plata, the result of his travels and trips in the River Plate territory, during an assignment given to the Marquis of Valdelirios. Although he was extremely surprised by the fertility of the land, he indicated that the products derived from the abundant River Plate livestock were sold at an extremely low price.' Three decades later, at a time when Felix de Azara was writing his famous Memoria sobre el estado rural del Rio de la Plata, leather and other cattle products had acquired such a price that this celebrated Aragonese writer did not doubt that the future of this region would lie in its livestock.2 The calculations that he made of the comparative yields of investing in agriculture and livestock (although, as we will see, these are based on excessively pessimistic assessments of agricultural productivity) seem to support his opinion clearly. At least for a number of decades, the Litoral would grow on the basis of its livestock wealth

Economic geography · Geography · Argentine historical studies · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · History and Politics in Latin America · Indigenous Cultures and History

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