Abstract
This study of the Roca-Runciman treaty, the Anglo-Argentine trade agreement of 1933, provides a revisionist view of a long-debated issue. Following the introduction of Imperial Preference, the treaty did preserve the access of Argentine chilled meat suppliers to the British market, but without injuring other interests, contrary to the claims of Argentine nationalists and other detractors. Tariff concessions to British exporters had no obvious effect on the growth of Argentine industry. Concessions to the chilled meat suppliers failed to damage cattle producers in the littoral provinces, exporters of lesser quality canned and frozen meat. The agreement had no effect on the British dominions, none of which produced beef of the same quality and quantity as Argentina. A decline in US exports to Argentina occurred prior to the enactment of the treaty, not as a result of it. British exporters did take advantage of a discriminatory system of exchange control that it created, but the main losers from this were major British investment interests led by the railway companies.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Other main points incorporated in the 1825 treaty included the ‘most favoured nation’ principle, freedom of religion, protection against arbitrary taxation, and exemption from military service. Under ‘most favoured nation’ provisions, tariff concessions granted to one country had to be granted to all.
- 2.
South American Journal, 6 May 1933; CrÃsol (Buenos Aires), 26 June 1936.
- 3.
Reginald Leeper (ambassador in Buenos Aires) to Ernest Bevin (foreign secretary), Aug. 1946, T 236/521, United Kingdom National Archives (hereafter UKNA).
- 4.
Cited in La Nación (Buenos Aires), 16 April 1936. The Daily Express also claimed that Italian supporters of Benito Mussolini in Argentina would sabotage British trade.
- 5.
Clarence H. Haring, ‘Depression and Recovery in Argentina’, Foreign Affairs, 14: 3 (1936), 512.
- 6.
Roger Gravil and Tim Rooth, ‘A Time of Acute Dependence: Argentina in the 1930s’, Journal of European Economic History, 7: 2–3 (1978), 337–78.
- 7.
The Times Book on Argentina (London: Times Publishing, 1927) summarised British trade and listed leading British firms in Argentina. For additional statistical material, see South American Journal, 4 April and 25 July 1931, reporting railway investment at £271 million in 1930, with yearly remittances from railways alone at £12 million.
- 8.
Figures for the British population in Argentina are estimates because of ill-defined community and ethnic boundaries and varying legal definitions of nationality. Children of British settlers, for example, were usually considered British subjects in the United Kingdom, but defined as Argentines in Argentina and counted as such in Argentine censuses.
- 9.
Dilke, reported in Standard (Buenos Aires), 6 Nov. 1904.
- 10.
‘Las relaciones comerciales anglo-argentinas’, in Alejandro E. Bunge, La economÃa argentina, Vol. III. Buenos Aires: CompañÃa Impresora Argentina, 1928, 120–2; see also Vol. IV, ‘Las relaciones comerciales anglo-argentinas’, 154.
- 11.
Malcolm Robertson (ambassador in Buenos Aires) to Austen Chamberlain (foreign secretary) 10 Dec. 1929, FO 118/607, UKNA. On another occasion, he claimed ‘British unemployment was the key to my activity in Argentina’: Robertson to Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson (no relation), 12 March 1929, FO 118/619, UKNA.
- 12.
‘Many of those arguing the British case [like Robertson] almost invariably cite the quite natural adversity of the trade deficit—with only passing reference to the mass of invisibles—as indicative of a favorable Argentine balance of payments’: Virgil Salera, Exchange Control and the Argentine Market. New York: Columbia University Press, 1941, 42.
- 13.
On railway earnings during the 1920s, see Foreign Office Minute, 2 Feb. 1932, FO 371/15797, UKNA, reporting an estimated £120 million in dividends, purchases of British goods valued at £66 million, and earnings from shipping of £9 million.
- 14.
Robertson to Robert Craigie (Head of American Department, Foreign Office), 11 March 1929, Papers of Sir Malcolm Robertson, Box 5, Churchill College, University of Cambridge (hereafter Robertson papers). Anti-Americanism formed only one aspect of his critique, which extended to the high prices of British goods, the alleged greed and incompetence of company chairmen, and sloppy British sales methods.
- 15.
South American Journal, 25 Feb. 1905.
- 16.
Ian L. D. Forbes, ‘German Informal imperialism in South America before 1914’, Economic History Review, 31: 3 (1978), 384–98.
- 17.
As reported by the South American Journal, 4 Nov. 1905. On pre-war shares in the Argentine import trade, see Vicente Vásquez Presedo, Migración de factores, comercio exterior y desarrollo, 1875–1914. Buenos Aires: EUDEBA, 1971, 74.
- 18.
Letter to South American Journal, 21 Nov. 1925. See also Phillip Dehne’s chapter in this volume.
- 19.
South American Journal, 22 Nov. 1930.
- 20.
For discussion, see Jorge Fodor, Arturo A. O’Connell, and Mario R. dos Santos, ‘La Argentina y la economÃa atlántica en la primera década del siglo XX’, Desarrollo Económico, 13: 49 (1973), 3–65.
- 21.
For a tabulation, see Forrest Capie, Depression and Protectionism: Britain between the Wars. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1983, 23.
- 22.
Quoting the British consul in Comodoro Rivadavia, Sep. 1926, FO 118/588, UKNA.
- 23.
Roswell C. McCrea, Thurman W. Van Metre, and George Jackson Eder, International Competition in the Trade of Argentina. Worcester MA: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1931, 328.
- 24.
The multi-agency system declined in the 1870s in favour of more specialised practices. However, these nevertheless fell short of the more modern US-style sales methods proposed by McCrea: see David Rock, The British in Argentina: Commerce, Settlers and Power, 1800–2000. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, 209–10.
- 25.
McCrea, International Competition, 323–423.
- 26.
Yrigoyen had been president of Argentina between 1916 and 1922, before giving way to Marcelo T. de Alvear, who ruled until 1928.
- 27.
Robertson to Craigie, 10 Aug. 1929, Box 5, Robertson papers.
- 28.
Like Robertson, Craigie was also married to an American: Antony Best, ‘Sir Robert Leslie Craigie’. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, DOI: 10.1093/ref:odnb/32613.
- 29.
See Craigie to Robertson, 12 June 1929, Box 5, Robertson papers.
- 30.
Alfred Mitchell-Innes (British minister in Montevideo) to Foreign Office, 8 April 1919, FO 371/3504, UKNA, quoted in David Rock, Politics in Argentina, 1890–1916: The Rise and Fall of Radicalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975, 149.
- 31.
See Carl Solberg, Oil and Nationalism in Argentina: A History. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1979.
- 32.
See also Gaynor Johnson’s chapter in this volume, for more on D’Abernon’s background and career.
- 33.
As noted by Roger Gravil, The Anglo-Argentine Connection, 1900–1939. Boulder CO: Westview Press, 1985, 167.
- 34.
For Foreign Office discussions, see FO 118/618. Never made public, the dispute—trade preferences versus free trade—pervaded Robertson’s correspondence with Craigie in 1929.
- 35.
Surveys of the transition include David Rock, Argentina 1515–1987. Berkeley and Los Angeles: California University Press, 1987, 215–20.
- 36.
Quoting William McCallum, chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in the Argentine Republic, in South American Journal, 23 Nov. 1935.
- 37.
South American Journal, 14 Jan. 1933.
- 38.
Discussions of 22 Dec. 1932 (Craigie) and 14 March 1933 (Runciman), T 188/57, UKNA.
- 39.
Minutes of First Meeting, Burgin and Roca, 15 Feb. 1933, T 188/57, UKNA.
- 40.
Minutes of First Meeting, Burgin and Roca, 15 Feb. 1933, T 188/57, UKNA.
- 41.
Minutes of Second Meeting, Burgin and Roca, March 1933, T 188/57, UKNA. Walter Runciman had no direct role in the negotiations, but signed the treaty and submitted it to Parliament in his position as president of the Board of Trade.
- 42.
Details appear in South American Journal, 6 May 1933.
- 43.
For data, see Felix Weil, Argentine Riddle. New York: John Day, 1944, 258. A longer listing of sources appears in Rock, Argentina, 1516–1982, 402, note 30.
- 44.
George Wythe, Industry in Latin America. New York: Columbia University Press, 1945, 22–3, 48.
- 45.
Salera, Exchange Control, 234.
- 46.
On British policies, see South American Journal, 2 Jan. and 17 April 1937. On Italian competition, see South American Journal, 2 March 1929; on Japanese competition, see Standard, 20 Sep. 1938, quoting Stanley Irving, British commercial attaché in Buenos Aires.
- 47.
Rodolfo Irazusta and Julio Irazusta, La Argentina y el imperialismo inglés: los eslabones de una cadena. Buenos Aires: Tor, 1934.
- 48.
Minutes of Meeting of 28 March 1933, T 188/57, UKNA.
- 49.
Accounts of the incident and the controversy surrounding it include Daniel Drosdoff, El gobierno de las vacas: Tratado Roca-Runciman. Buenos Aires: La Bastilla, 1972, 50–3.
- 50.
For a summary of trends, quoting Central Bank sources, see Guido Di Tella and Manuel Zymelman, Las etapas del desarrollo económico argentino. Buenos Aires: EUDEBA, 1967, 430–2.
- 51.
Summaries appear in South American Journal, 4 Jan. 1930.
- 52.
South American Journal, 20 June 1931; also 15 Feb. 1930 (Great Southern Railway); 12 July 1930 (Pacific Railway).
- 53.
On the so-called Roca Loan arranged by Barings, see South American Journal, 21 Oct. 1933.
- 54.
South American Journal, 18 June 1938. Data on later years appear in Julian S. Duncan, ‘British Railways in Argentina’, Political Science Quarterly, 52: 4 (1937), 559–82. See p. 571 for railway stock values in 1929 and 1937.
- 55.
South American Journal, 21 Dec. 1935; Standard, 15 Jan. 1936; also Standard, 4 Jan. 1942 for a listing of major British firms that no longer existed. On the restructuring of British banking between the wars, see David Joslin, A Century of British Banking in Latin America. London: Oxford University Press, 1963, chapters 13 and 14.
- 56.
As emphasised by Vernon L. Phelps, The International Economic Position of Argentina. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1938, 95.
- 57.
Stanley G. Irving (Department of Overseas Trade), Economic Conditions in the Argentine Republic. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO), 1935, 3.
- 58.
Minutes of Meetings, 15 and 16 Feb. 1933, T 188/57, UKNA.
- 59.
Discussions about Britain’s share of foreign exchange are detailed in reports of meetings on 15 Feb., 13 March, 3 April 1933, T 188/57, UKNA.
- 60.
Agreement between HM Government and the Argentine Government Relating to Trade and Commerce. London: HMSO, 1936.
- 61.
Daily Express, quoted in Standard, 3 Aug. 1938. Before sterling decimalisation in 1971, five shillings was equivalent to £0.25.
- 62.
South American Journal, 17 May 1936, quoting Beaverbrook.
- 63.
Quoted in South American Journal, 7 Nov. 1932.
- 64.
For a tabulation of official and free market rates, showing differences between them of up to 25 per cent, see Salera, Exchange Control, 269–71.
- 65.
It was decided by Craigie and others in explicit terms ‘not to let grievances [of transportation companies] take precedence’: Minute, T 188/57, UKNA.
- 66.
Lever Hermanos, Report no. 7, 1937, UNI/RM/DC/2/2/4/7, Unilever Archive, Port Sunlight.
- 67.
South American Journal, 23 April and 3 July 1938.
- 68.
Phelps, The International Economic Position of Argentina, 227.
- 69.
Salera, Exchange Control, 113–4; see also Phelps, The International Economic Position of Argentina, 168.
- 70.
McCrea, International Competition, 431.
- 71.
South American Journal, 10 June 1933.
- 72.
John Gunther, Inside Latin America. New York: Harper, 1941, 246.
- 73.
On the 1945 loan, see Alec Cairncross, Years of Recovery: British Economic Policy 1945–51. London: Methuen, 1985, 92–109. For subsequent US pressure, see The Economist, 26 Oct. 1946.
- 74.
The sale of the destroyers is noted in South American Journal, 18 June 1936. In 1910, the periodical recorded the advent of US primacy in this field: South American Journal, 19 and 26 Feb. and 13 March 1910.
- 75.
For these trade figures, see Salera, Exchange Control, 166.
- 76.
Salera, Exchange Control, 240.
- 77.
For discussion of the political exploitation of Roca-Runciman, see David Rock, Authoritarian Argentina: The Nationalist Movement, Its History and Its Impact. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993, 112–24.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rock, D. (2020). The Roca-Runciman Treaty of 1933: Defending Which British Interests?. In: Mills, T.C., Miller, R.M. (eds) Britain and the Growth of US Hegemony in Twentieth-Century Latin America. Britain and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48321-0_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48321-0_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-48320-3
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-48321-0
eBook Packages: HistoryHistory (R0)