Partners and Competitors

Rock, David

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-97855-0_7

David Rock^5,6

Part of the book series: Britain and the World ((BAW))

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Abstract

The chapter examines challenges to the position of the British in Argentina soon after 1900 led by US and German firms. By 1913, the latter dominated several major new areas of trade, leaving the British increasingly confined to older sectors led by textiles and railways. The 1920s appeared another period of high prosperity although the British were again undermined by US competition. Discussion leads into “bilateralism” during the 1930s through the Roca-Runciman treaty granting the British preferential shares of the Argentine market. The chapter concludes with World War II, a period in which Britain imported massive quantities of Argentine meat on a basis of deferred payment.

Two worthy gentlemen walking in arm in a wide field of common interest along a spacious sunlit esplanade.

Winston S. Churchill on Britain and Argentina, 1928

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Notes

1.
On shipping, see Juan E. Oribe Stemmer. “Freight Rates in the Trade between Europe and South America, 1840–1910.” Journal of Latin American Studies Vol. 21, No. 1, Feb 1989, 23–59.
2.
Minute of H.O. Chalkley, 6 June 1918. FO 371/3131.
3.
Grey quoted in South American Journal 28 May, 1910.
4.
Argentina became Britain’s seventh-largest market for coal. Cutlery and pottery remained large British exports remaining at around 10 per cent of the total long into the twentieth century. See The Economist 23 Mar., 27 Apr. 1946.
5.
Monson to FO 10 Jan. 1885. FO 6/386.
6.
Bulletin of the International Bureau of the American Republics. Argentine Republic. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1894, 130.
7.
South American Journal 28 May 1909.
8.
Forbes, German Informal Imperialism, 380–381; McCrea, International Competition, 419.
9.
Forbes, German Informal Imperialism, 394, describing the formation of the Deutsche-Überseeische Elektricitäts Gesellschaft. See also Compañía Alemana Transatlántica de Electricidad. La Compañía Alemana Transatlántica de Electricidad en ocasión del primer centenario de la independencia de la República Argentina. Berlin: Georg Büxenstein and Co. 1916.
10.
South American Journal 4 Nov. 1905. Figures showing percentage shares of the Argentine market among leading external suppliers appear in Vicente Vásquez Presedo. Migración de factores, comercio exterior y desarrollo, 1875–1914. Buenos Aires: EUDEBA, 1971, 74. Trade shares for 1908 are listed in Bulletin of the International Bureau of the American Republics. The Argentine Republic, General Descriptive Data prepared in June 1909. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1909, 15, showing the British share still larger than the combined shares of Germany and the United States, followed by France, Italy and Belgium. Trade shares for 1910–1914 appear in Virgil Salera. Exchange Control and the Argentine Market. Ph.D. diss.: Columbia University, 1941, 26.
11.
“England would lose out here very rapidly if it were not for her large financial investments.” Bulletin of the International Bureau of the American Republics. Vol. 31. Washington D.C. 1910, 507.
12.
Genaro Bevioni. Argentina 1910. Balance y memoria. Prologue by Roberto Lascella. Buenos Aires: Leviatán, 1995, 175; also Forbes, German Informal Imperialism, 390; Fernando Rocchi. “Britain versus Newcomers: The Struggle for the Argentine Market, 1900–1914.” Paper presented at the Second Annual Argentina Conference. University of Oxford, St Antony’s College, May 2001; Rocchi, Chimneys in the Desert, 90–91.
13.
According to Dehne, British apprehensions about the United States “paled in intensity when compared to fears of German infiltration into South American markets.” Dehne. On the Far Western Front, 29–30. Judging from the South American Journal, whether before or after the war, Americans stirred far more British concern than Germans.
14.
South American Journal 25 Feb. 1905.
15.
South American Journal 30 Dec. 1905.
16.
See Lloyd, Argentina.
17.
Quoted in Bulletin of the International Bureau of the American Republics. Vol, 30. Washington D.C. 1910, 7.
18.
W.H. Koebel. Modern Argentina. The El Dorado of today, with notes on Uruguay and Chile. London: Griffiths, 1907, 67.
19.
South American Journal 25 Feb. 1905. A persuasive approach to British “complacency” stressed the discouraging effects of foreign investment on variety and innovation since British firms abroad commonly serviced captive markets requiring minimal inventiveness. See C.P. Kindleberger. “Foreign Trade and Economic Growth: Lessons from Britain and France, 1850–1913.” Economic History Review. New Series, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1961, 295. A counterview denying British lack of competitiveness appears in Rory Miller. “British trade with Latin America (1870–1950).” In Peter Mathias and John A. Davis. International Trade and British Economic Growth: from the Eighteenth Century to the Present Day. Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell, 1996, 118–145.
20.
“German and North Americans’ strenuous efforts to extend their business” motivated the proposal. See South American Journal 1 July, 1905.
21.
McCrea, International Competition, 328–331, 415, 419, 423. Several similar issues are addressed in Alfred D. Chandler Jr. “The Development of Modern Management Structure in the US and UK.” In Geoffrey Jones and Walter A. Friedman. The Rise of the Modern Firm. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited: 2012, 306–334. Also Stephen J. Nicholas. “The Overseas Marketing Performance of British Industry, 1870–1914.” Economic History Review. New Series, Vol. 37, No. 4, 1984, 489–506; Roy Church. “Salesmen and the Transformation of Selling in Britain and the United States in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.” Economic History Review. New Series, Vol. 61, No. 3, 2008, 696. The issue of British “backwardness” and inability to assimilate American mass production techniques is strongly contested. See S.B. Saul. “The American Impact on British Industry, 1895–1914.” Business History Vol. 2, No. 1. 1960, 19–38.
22.
D.B. Aldcroft. “Investment and Utilisation of Manpower in Great Britain and her Rivals, 1870–1914.” 287–307, in Great Britain and her World, 1750–1914. Essays in Honour of W.O. Henderson, edited by Barrie Ratcliffe. Manchester: University of Manchester Press, 1975.
23.
South American Journal 19, 26 Feb. and 13 Mar. 1910.
24.
South American Journal 16 July 1910.
25.
Evans to Times, cited in South American Journal 5 Feb. 1910.
26.
South American Journal 26 Mar. 1910.
27.
Tower. Report for 1912. FO 371/1573; Review of River Plate 28 June 1912.
28.
Simon G. Hanson. “The Farquahar Syndicate in South America.” Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 17, No. 3, 1937, 314–326; also Charles Anderson Gauld. The Last Titan: Percival Farquahar, American Entrepreneur in Latin America. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1964.
29.
Policy details in John Atkin. “Official Regulation of British Overseas Investment.” Economic History Review. New Series, Vol. 23, No. 2, 1970, 324–335.
30.
Southern Cross 15 Feb. 1918, quoting La Nación. Nationalist critics later called the system “colonial.” See Scalabrini Ortiz, Ferrocarriles argentinos and Ezequiel Martínez Estrada. X-Ray of the Pampas. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1971.
31.
On the abuses of the Central Argentine Railway, see La Nación 2 Aug. 1902, 4 Sept. 1904. Criticism of railways as a “ring” appears in N.L. Watson, The Argentine as a Market. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1908, 6–8. A statement of railway profits appears in South American Journal 2 April, 1910. By these calculations, returns averaged 4.7 per cent with some ordinary shares at times paying 5 per cent and higher.
32.
On railways directors, see St. Andrew’s Gazette Sept/Oct 1894 showing the continuing prominence of Frank Parish, George Drabble, John Fair and John Morris, the London head of the River Plate Trust, most of whom died around century-end. Damus, Railways, provides biographic data on managers and directors. On “interlocking” directorships, see Jones, British Financial Institutions, 135.
33.
As noted in the South American Journal 22 Feb. 1905.
34.
The legislation is outlined in Review of the River Plate 4 Oct. 1907. The text of the Ley Mitre (named after Emilio Mitre, son of Bartolomé Mitre) is published in Ernesto J. Tessone. Legislación ferroviaria; sistemas—revisión de nuestra legislación—régimen legal de los ferrocarriles. Buenos Aires: Lajouane, 1919.
35.
For discussion, see Review of the River Plate 27 May 1910 and 21 May 1915, with many later instances.
36.
Quoted in Arturo O’Connell, “Free Trade in One (Primary Producing) Country: The Case of Argentina in the 1920s,” in Guido Di Tella and D.C.M. Platt eds. The Political Economy of Argentina, 1880–1946. London: Macmillan, 1986, 75.
37.
Araya is discussed in Mario Justo López. Yrigoyen, Alvear y los ferrocarriles británicos. Buenos Aires Edhasa, 2012, 80–81.
38.
Shipping rates increased from 15 shillings (£0.75) a ton in 1914 to 170 shillings (£8.5) in 1916. See E. Tornquist and Co. Business Conditions in Argentina. Buenos Aires: Tornquist and Co. 1914–1919; also Albert, South American and the First World War, 74–75. On shipping, see Standard 31 May 1923 and Chamber of Commerce to Robertson 3 Aug. 1926. FO 118/589. “Coefficients of exploitation,” namely railway expenses as a proportion of revenues, are noted in Paul B. Goodwin, Jr. “The Politics of Rate-Making: The British-owned Railways and the Unión Cívica Radical, 1921–1928.” Journal of Latin America Studies, Vol. 6, No. 2, 1974, 259.
39.
A table of share quotations based on The Times appears in Goodwin, “Rate Making,” 262; also López, Ferrocarriles Británicos, 186–188 for tabulations of wartime share prices.
40.
On the Primitiva Gas Company, see Review of the River Plate 9 May, 1919 and on the tramways 25 Apr. 1919.
41.
On complaints about municipal taxes, see Review of the River Plate 28 Aug. 1916.
42.
The “Ley Sáenz Peña” is explored in Rock, Politics in Argentina, 34–39. Its chief features included using the military conscription list to create an accurate electoral roll and making the vote compulsory. It excluded voting by the large foreign born population and by women.
43.
See Rock, Radicalism, 95–129.
44.
Dickson to Tower 16 Aug. 1917. FO 368/1613. The Rosario conflicts prompted British investigations of German collusion in the strikes, although no proof ever appeared. See Despatch No. 326, FO 368/1693 (Crouch to British Consul) and statutory affidavits in Despatch No.69 FO 368/1877.
45.
On wartime economic conditions, see Pablo Gerchunoff. El eslabón perdido. La política económica de los gobiernos radicales (1916–1930). Buenos Aires: Edhasa, 2016, 25, 68. On wartime inflation, see Rock, Politics, 104–106.
46.
República Argentina. Boletín de Obras Públicas e Industrias. La política obrera del actual gobierno en sus relaciones con los obreros del riel. Buenos Aires, 1921, 4. The “ministers and even presidents” referred to men such as Ezequiel Ramos Mexía, minister of public works under Roque Sáenz Peña, and Manuel Quintana, a former railway lawyer, president in 1904–1906.
47.
For allegations of bribery and racketeering by local directors, see La Época 9 Nov. 1917 and 20 Aug. 1918; also Tower to FO 22 Nov. 1917. FO 371/3150.
48.
Memorandum of La Fraternidad 17 Nov. 1917.
49.
See Tower to FO, 13 Feb. 1918. FO 371/3150
50.
For pre-1910 labour history, see Juan Suriano. Cultura y política libertaria en Buenos Aires, 1890–1916. Buenos Aires: Manantial, 2001.
51.
Manuel Montes de Oca in La Prensa 22 Nov. 1917.
52.
For details, see David Rock. “Lucha civil en la Argentina: La Semana Trágica de enero de 1919,” Desarrollo Económico, Vol. 11, No. 42, Mar. 1972, 165–215; also “La Semana Trágica y los usos de la historia.” Desarrollo Económico, Vol. 12, No. 45, June 1972, 185–192.
53.
For the Vasena company, see Review of the River Plate 14 Nov. 1919. Before the war, it became one of three sizable industrial firms acquired by British interests. See Rocchi, Chimneys of the Desert, 90–91.
54.
On the Patriotic League, see Sandra McGee Deutsch. Counterrevolution in Argentina 1900–1931: The Argentine Patriotic League. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986; Luis María Caterina. La Liga Patriótica Argentina: un grupo de presión frente a las convulsiones sociales de la década del veinte. Buenos Aires: Corregidor, 1995.
55.
Lengthier examination of wartime and early post-war labour conflict appears in Rock, Radicalism, 125–200; also Goodwin. Rate Making and his Los ferrocarriles británicos y la UCR. Buenos Aires: Ediciones La Bastilla, 1975.
56.
Quoted in Review of the River Plate 26 Aug. 1921.
57.
Sir David Kelly. The Ruling Few, or, The Human Background to Diplomacy. London: Hollis and Carter, 1953, 114.
58.
Department of Overseas Trade. Report of the British Economic Mission to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1929, 22. A tabulated summary exhibiting Argentina’s enormous salience in Latin America appears in Vernon L. Phelps. The International Position of Argentina. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1938, 9. Argentina had two-thirds of the radios in Latin America and 65 per cent of education spending.
59.
South American Journal 15 Jan. 1925. On these figures, the rate of return totalled 4.82 per cent. On British firms in Argentina, see Roger Gravil. “Anglo-US Trade Rivalry in Argentina and the D’Abernon Mission of 1929.” In David Rock ed. Argentina in the Twentieth Century. London: Duckworth, 1975, 45. On foreign investment, see South American Journal 25 July 1931. The same issue reported railway investment at £215 million in 1913 and £271 million in 1930, with yearly remittances rising from £7 to £12 million.
60.
Estimates from Rory Miller. “The British Communities and the Management of British Firms in Post-war Latin America.” Mimeo. These figures show British population totals of 33–39,000 in Argentina, 7300 in Brazil, 6000 in Chile and 2400 in Mexico.
61.
South American Journal 25 May 1929. High profits of other leading British firms are noted in Rippy, British Investments.
62.
Hanson, Argentine Meat, 242–250. For an outline biography of William Vestey, the Liverpool-born entrepreneur who founded the company, see Richard Perren. “Biography of William Vestey.” http://www.bluestarline.org.william-vestey.htm
63.
Standard 7 Nov. 1929. On post-war investment, see López, Ferrocarriles, 37, 253–255.
64.
Summaries appear in South American Journal 4 Jan. 1930.
65.
Outline histories of all the railway companies appear in Times Book on Argentina, 66–95.
66.
David Kelly, Foreign Office Minute 2 Feb. 1932 FO 371/15797. Quoted in Colin M. Lewis, “More ‘anglo-criollo’ than British: early ‘British’ investments in Argentinian railways and utilities,” mimeo. See also Phelps, Argentina, 234 for year by year figures for 1921–1930. He called Britain a “mature” creditor on the grounds that by the 1920s the outflow of funds far exceeded the inflow.
67.
Figures appear in South American Journal 27 July 1931.
68.
See Jorge Fodor, Arturo A. O’Connell, Mario R. dos Santos. “La Argentina y la economía atlántica en la primera década del siglo xx.” Desarrollo Económico, Vol. 13, No. 49, 1973, 8.
69.
See Derek H. Aldcroft. “Economic Growth in Britain during the Inter-War Years: A Reassessment.” Economic History Review. New Series, Vol. 20, No. 2, 1967, 311–326, examining the growth of new British industry during the period. Despite 10 per cent unemployment in 1929, another authority describes the inter-war as “a period of growth almost as rapid as any of comparable length in British measured history.” J.A. Dowie. “Growth in the Inter-War Period: Some more Arithmetic.” Economic History Review. New Series, Vol. 21, No. 1, 1968, 94.
70.
Review of the Plate 21 and 28 July 1922.
71.
See Standard 5 Feb. 1925.
72.
Standard 8 July, 1926.
73.
Standard 8 Mar. 1928.
74.
Behind the scenes, relations were less cordial. Legation minister Sir Beilby Alston complained about “the uncouthness of the Argentines and nothing is truer than the saying ‘you only have to scratch the skin to find the savage in this country.’ It only shows you cannot trust these people like white people.” Alston to FO 8 Sept. 1925. Private and Confidential FO 118/557. Documentation of the Prince’s visit appears in FO 118/557 and FO 118/584 (August 1925). The statue of Canning, an undistinguished addition to the public monuments in Buenos Aires, took twelve years to build.
75.
Standard 6 Feb. 1927.
76.
On exchange rates and effects of the return to the gold standard on British exports, see Review of the River Plate 24 Aug. 1923 and Standard 17 Dec. 1925; on pleas for lower priced British goods, see Standard 5 Oct. 1922 and 17 Dec. 1925. Also D.E. Moggridge. The Return to Gold: The Formulation of Economic Policy and its Critics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969; John Redmond. “The Sterling Overvaluation of 1925: A Multilateral Approach.” Economic History Review. New Series, Vol. 38, No. 4, 1985, 520–532.
77.
On wartime commerce, see Tornquist, Business Conditions in Argentina. On post-war coal prices, South American Journal 2 Nov. and 28 Dec. 1929; W.H.B. Court. “Problems of the British Coal Industry between the Wars.” Economic History Review, Vol. 15, Nos. 1 and 2, 1945, 7.
78.
Quoted in Paul B. Goodwin. “Anglo-Argentine Commercial Relations: A Private Sector View. 1922–43.” Hispanic American Historical Review, Vol. 61, No. 1, 1981, 32.
79.
Robertson to Austen Chamberlain 20 April 1928. RBTN: Catalogue of the Papers of Sir Malcolm Robertson. Box 5.
80.
Letter to South American Journal 21 Nov. 1925.
81.
On post-war trade shares, see Mario Rapoport. Historia económica, política y social de la Argentina. Buenos Aires: Macchi, 2000, 158; Gravil, Anglo-Argentine Trade Rivalry, 43; Salera, Exchange Control, 166.
82.
On US trade competition, see Review of the River Plate 18 Jan. 1924; also Report by Consul at Comodoro Rivadavia, Sept. 1926 FO 118/588. A commentary on the automobile trade appears in South American Journal 3 Oct. 1925. Credit is emphasised in Jonathan R. Barton. “Struggling against Decline. British Business in Chile, 1913–1933.” Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1 2000, 235–264; also Gravil, Anglo-Argentine Trade Rivalry, 45.
83.
Department of Trade, Report of the British Economic Mission, 68.
84.
Manoeuvres by US companies are reported in Standard 27 Jan. 1929; also Robertson to FO 14 March 1929. FO 371/13460. Cited in Gravil, Anglo-Argentine Connection, 163.
85.
Gravil, Anglo-Argentine Trade Rivalry, 50. Examples of firms selling out on the grounds of war debts or double taxation are cited in South American Journal 2 Feb. 1929.
86.
On attempted takeovers, see Goodwin, Anglo-Argentine Commercial Relations, 35–36, 275.
87.
Standard 25 May 1929.
88.
Robertson to Vansittart 31 Jan. 1928. Robertson Papers Box 5.
89.
Guedalla, Argentine Tango, 40.
90.
Quoted in South American Journal 21 Mar. 1931.
91.
South American Journal 25 May and 16 June 1931.
92.
McCrea, International Competition, 324, 333, 435.
93.
Robertson’s correspondence noted his concerns about British unemployment: “It is almost despairing to see the figures of unemployment rising.” (Robertson to A. Chamberlain 10 Dec. 1929 FO 118/607). “British unemployment was the key to my activity in Argentina.” (Robertson to Robertson 12 Mar. 1929 FO 118/619). For discussion, see W.R. Garside. British Unemployment 1911–1939. A Study in Public Policy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990, 10–13; also Sean Glynn and Alan Booth. “Unemployment in Inter-War Britain: A Case of Re-Learning the Lesson of the 1930s.” Economic History Review. New Series, Vol. 36, No. 2, 1983, 328–348.
94.
Review of the River Plate 2 Mar. 1923, citing La Nación.
95.
Standard 6 June, 30 Dec. 1926; [London] Evening Standard 11 Dec. 1928. Foreign Office responses to Robertson’s comments are noted in FO 118/617.
96.
Robertson to Astor 15 Sept. 1927. FO 118/603.
97.
On the early stages of the institution, see Department of Trade, Report of the British Commercial Mission, 53. Attempts to promote cultural links from Britain recurred during the 1930s as students from Oxford and Cambridge universities went to Argentina accompanied by Philip Guedalla. See South American Journal 12 Sept. 1931, 14 Jan. 1933.
98.
Standard 3 July, 1927. See Robertson to Astor 15 Sept. 1927 FO 118/603 proposing a British association similar to the Alliance Française. His plea to the British government for study scholarships appears in Robertson to A. Chamberlain 10 Dec. 1928. FO 318/607. Robertson’s interest in cultural exchange persisted after his departure from Buenos Aires. In World War II he became president of the British Council founded in 1934.
99.
For trade figures, see Miller, Britain and Latin America, 194. Data from the early 1930s showed British trade deficits of £38 to £40 million against invisible earnings of £25 million (see Anglo-Argentine Trade Negotiations 15 Feb. 1933 in T 118/57). The issue is discussed in South American Journal 15 April 1936; see also Phelps, Argentina, 196–197; Salera, Exchange Control, 72, who claimed the British deliberately ignored invisible earnings when seeking trade concessions from Argentina. The issue recurred in later years, as for example in Review of the River Plate 28 Feb. 1955.
100.
See Robertson to FO 12 Dec. 1926 FO 118/591. The slogan had two renderings in Spanish. Argentines used the form “comprar a quien nos compra” as an exhortation, “Let’s buy from those who buy from us.” The unwieldy imperative form used by Robertson “comprennos que nosotros podremos comprarles” means “Buy from us so that we can buy from you,” implying the British would continue buying from Argentina only if the Argentines increased their purchases from Britain.
101.
On the Argentine stock breeders, see Fodor and O’Connell, Economía Atlántica. Warnings about the threat to Argentina from imperial preference appeared in the earlier 1920s in writings by Alejandro E. Bunge collated in La economía argentina. Vol. 3. Buenos Aires: Agencias generales de librerías y publicaciones, 1928, 120–122; also Vol. 4, “Las relaciones comerciales anglo-argentinas,” 150.
102.
See Craigie to Robertson 10 Aug. 1929. Robertson Archive, Box 5.
103.
For discussion, see Goodwin, Anglo-Argentine Commercial Relations, 37; Fodor and O’Connell, Economía Atlántica, 38–41; also Department of Trade, Report of the British Economic Mission, 5–23.
104.
Robertson to Craigie 11 March, 8 July, 12 June 1929. Robertson Papers Box 5.
105.
South American Journal 11 Oct. 1930.
106.
For a listing and commentary of the vehicles on display, see Commercial Motor 17 Feb. 1931. In http://www.archive.commercialmotor.com/article/17th-february-1931/ 58/the-british-empire-at-Buenos.
107.
Standard 6 Feb. 1927.
108.
On the Imperial Exhibition, see Easum, British-Argentine-United States Triangle, 125.
109.
South American Journal 20 June 1931. For other examples, see South American Journal 15 Feb. 1930 (Great Southern) 12 July 1930 (Pacific Railway).
110.
South American Journal 4 Oct. 1930.
111.
Examples include South American Journal 14 Feb. and 14 Mar. 1942, plus many others.
112.
South American Journal 18 Jan., 8 Feb 1936.
113.
South American Journal 18 June 1938. Data on later years appears in Clarence H. Haring. “Depression and Recovery in Argentina.” Foreign Affairs Vol. 14, No. 3, 1936, 518; Julian S. Duncan. “British Railways in Argentina.” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 52, No. 4, 1937, 559–582. See p. 571 for railway stock values in 1929 and 1937.
114.
Standard 7 July, 1933.
115.
Kelly, Ruling Few, 293.
116.
Gorell to Barres 3 Feb. 1939. FO 371/22706, quoting Ovey.
117.
On a wage reduction scheme implemented by the Great Southern Railway, see South American Journal 11 Feb. 1933.
118.
See South American Journal 29 Oct., 5 Nov., 10 Dec. 1938; 12 Aug. 1939.
119.
The terms of sale of the railway are summarised in South American Journal 7 Jan. 1939.
120.
Paul H. Lewis. The Crisis of Argentine Capitalism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1990, 56, notes a 1942 memorandum by the companies accusing the government of running the railways down in order to acquire them cheaply after the war.
121.
South American Journal 21 Jan. 1933 quoting Review of the River Plate.
122.
Robertson to Crowe, 15 July 1929. FO 118/622.
123.
On the transitions in British politics, see W.R. Garside. “Party Politics, Political Economy and British Protectionism, 1919–1932.” History, Vol. 83, Issue 269, 1998, 47–65.
124.
South American Journal 14 Jan. 1933.
125.
Hanson, Argentine Meat, 256 compares Argentina and Australia as meat producers stressing the former’s superiority.
126.
The system is described in Phelps, Argentina, 64.
127.
Quoted in South American Journal 7 Nov. 1932.
128.
Meat questions were discussed on 15 Feb. and 16 Mar. 1933. See T 188/57.
129.
Daniel Drosdoff. El gobierno de las vacas, Tratado Roca-Runciman. Buenos Aires, La Bastilla, 1972, 24–44 listing forty-nine British companies affected by blocked remittances. For details see discussions of 22 Feb. 1933. T 188/57. Negotiation of the loan sponsored by Barings was completed in October 1933. For details, see South American Journal 21 Oct. 1933.
130.
Discussions about Britain’s share of foreign exchange are detailed in reports for 15 February, 13 March, 3 April 1933. T 188/57.
131.
Minutes of meeting of 28 March 1933. T188/57.
132.
Details appear in South American Journal 6 May, 1933.
133.
For a tabulation of official and free markets rates, with differences between them of up to 25 per cent, see Salera, Exchange Control, pp. 269–271.
134.
It was decided by Craigie and others “not to let grievances [of transportation companies] take precedence” (T188/57).
135.
Lever Hermanos. Report no. 7, 1937. Unilever Archive: UNI/RM/DC/2/2/4/7.
136.
See South American Journal 3 July, 1938. For the controversy about railway exchange losses, see Salera, Exchange Control, 150. The claim of exchange losses was based on the argument that the companies had set up their businesses at the exchange rate of 11.45 pesos to the pound but now had to purchase sterling for supplies and remittances at rates of between 15 and 20 pesos.
137.
Haring, Argentina, 512. Salera, Exchange Control, contains another strong statement of US opinion.
138.
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, (see its numbers of 19 and 26 February, and 13 March).
139.
Salera, Exchange Control, 166, shows a comparative table of table of Argentine imports from Britain and the United States.
140.
Salera, Exchange Control, 240.
141.
For discussion, note Phelps, Argentina, 227.
142.
Lobbying by textile interests is reported in South American Journal 22 Feb., 9 May, 13 June, 4 July 1936.
143.
As emphasised in Phelps, Argentina, 95. See Salera, Exchange Control, 149 for modifications to the exchange control system instituting the power to devalue the currency.
144.
Stanley G. Irving. Great Britain. Department of Overseas Trade. Economic Conditions in the Argentine Republic. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, March 1935.
145.
Agreement between His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom Relating to Trade and Commerce. London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1936, 4.
146.
Joslin, Banking, 231.
147.
For judgements on the programme six years from its beginnings, see Standard 21 and 28 Apr. 1939.
148.
A single newspaper columnist in Britain is quoted wanting Argentina to become “a fully-fledged member of the British Empire.” See R.A. Humphreys. Latin American and the Second World War, volume 1, 1939–1942. London: Athlone, 1981, 30. Other newspapers led by the Daily Express, owned by Max Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, representing imperial interests, remained stoutly opposed.
149.
The impact of the post-war depression on provincial cattlemen in noted in Review of the River Plate 12 Aug. 1921; also Albert, South America and the First World War, 68–69; J. Colin Crossley and Robert Greenhill. “The River Plate Beef Trade” in Platt, Business Imperialism, 284–334. Exports of canned meat increased fourteen times over during World War I before declining steeply in 1918–1922.
150.
On the Irazusta brothers in La Nueva República, see David Rock. Authoritarian Argentina. The Nationalist Movement, its History and its Impact. Berkeley and Los Angeles. University of California Press, 1992, 76–84.
151.
Minutes of Meeting of 28 March 1933. T188/57.
152.
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), pp. 50–3.
153.
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), pp. 430–2.
154.
On affinities with later postcolonial writings see David Rock. “Argentina from Informal Empire to Postcolonialism.” In Informal Empire in Latin America: Culture, Commerce and Capital, edited by Matthew Brown. London: Blackwell Publishing, 2009, 49–77.
155.
Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz. Historia de los ferrocarriles argentinos. Fourth Edition. Buenos Aires: Reconquista, 1940, 84.
156.
Standard texts of Historical Revisionism noted in this book are Rodolfo Irazusta and Julio Irazusta. La Argentina y el imperialismo británico. Los eslabones de una cadena. Buenos Aires: Tor, 1934, and, Raúl Scalabrini Ortiz. Historia de los ferrocarriles argentinos. Fourth Edition. Buenos Aires: Reconquista, 1940. For analysis, see Michael Goebel. Argentina’s Partisan Past: Nationalism and the Politics of History. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2011; Tulio Halperín Donghi. El revisionismo histórico argentino, Buenos Aires: Siglo Veinteuno, 1972.
157.
R.H. Hadow 5 Aug. 1940 in FO 371/24166.
158.
Standard 17 Dec. 1935.
159.
“Nationality of Persons Born in the Falkland Islands.” (1935) FO 118/664.
160.
Speech at the chamber of commerce cited in Standard 9 Oct. 1936.
161.
Ovey quoted in Standard 15 May 1940.
162.
Kelly, Ruling Few, 110. Also Review of the River Plate 3 Mar., 1 Sept. 1922 reporting the tenth anniversary of the British Society in the Argentine Republic and listing its affiliated associations. The British Society itself at the time had 2000 members.
163.
Standard 13 Feb. 1923. Dorning was by then in his fifties. His current bowling figures of 8 for 97 were less impressive than in 1901 when he achieved 9 for 14.
164.
Review of the River Plate 4 Sept. 1925.
165.
Guedalla, Argentine Tango, 53.
166.
Review of the River Plate 24 Nov. 1944.
167.
The venture was widely reported in the Standard and the Buenos Aires Herald, one supporting it, the other opposed. FO 118/663 and FO 369/2341 contain settlers’ letters, many complaining about insects. See also Oliver Marshall. “Peasants or Planters? British Pioneers on Argentina’s Tropical Frontier,” in Hennessy and King, The Land That England Lost, 143–158.
168.
Unpublished annualised statistics issued of the early 1970s showed a slightly different pattern. They suggest the wartime negative balance began in 1916; post-war immigration peaked at 1923 in 1923; the years 1928 and 1929 showed small positive balances. See Entrada, salida y saldos de extranjeros. Mimeo. The figures indicated a positive balance of British migration after 1875 of 17,200 compared with 1.8 million Italians.
169.
Commentaries on unemployment stressing a wide range of affected occupations appeared in the Standard in 1932 and 1933 but rarely afterwards. On Toc H, see Standard 30 May 1933, on the British Society’s soup kitchens 3 Dec. 1933, and on BABS 7 Apr. 1934.
170.
Data from Entrada, salida y saldos de extranjeros. Figures on arrivals and departures for 1938 from Standard 29 Apr. 1939.
171.
Census reported in Standard 30 Apr. 1936. The 1936 data overstated people who had either died or left the country by failing to note those who moved from the federal capital into adjacent suburbs in the province of Buenos Aires.
172.
McCallum in Standard 15 Oct. 1942.
173.
A later discussion about membership of the railway pensions scheme set up in 1915 found that no one had joined “except in a few cases of contract men engaged after the scheme came into operation.” Pensions Association to FO 12 June 1958. FO 371/131971.
174.
Unilever comments on recruitment of British managers appear in reports for 1924, 1935 and 1939. See UNI/RM/DC/2/2/4/nos. 1, 8, 12.
175.
Memorandum to H.O. Chalkley 30 Sept. 1929. FO 118/616. The contract system did not die out entirely. It continued on a smaller scale, in the Anglo Frigorífico for example, into the early 1960s.
176.
See Revista del Ferrocarril Sud Jan. 1930. The May 1931 edition of the Central Argentine Magazine noted that it was the last of its kind published in English catering for a readership of retired railwaymen living in Britain.
177.
Standard 15 Dec. 1933.
178.
Data in FCO (Ferrocarril del Oeste). Fojas de servicios. Personal de vías y obras, n.d. Museo Ferroviario. Buenos Aires.
179.
On Chascomús, see Standard 3 April, 1944.
180.
Edward Every. South American Memories of Thirty Years. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1933, 179.
181.
Green to Robertson 23 June 1926. FO 11/250.
182.
St. Andrew’s Scotch School quoted in Review of the River Plate 7 Apr. 1922.
183.
Advertisement in Standard 2 July, 1931.
184.
Monteith Drysdale, St. Andrew’s Scotch School, 195. The German State paid the salaries of teachers working abroad and counted such service towards their pensions.
185.
See Duckworth, “British Schools in Argentina.” The report recommended stronger emphasis on English language teaching. It argued children were leaving school too early in order to find jobs in British firms and that teachers imported from Britain were underpaid. On the refusal to support the schools financially, see Percy, Board of Education to Perry, Foreign Office 27 Oct. 1927. FO 118/595.
186.
See Haxell to River Plate Trust (1919) FO 118/533.
187.
Ernesto Watson in La Nación, quoted in Review of the River Plate 14 Sept. 1927.
188.
Kelly to FO 21 June 1942. FO 371/33576.
189.
Standard 9 Mar. 1924 and 16 Dec. 1933.
190.
Standard 14 Dec. 1935.
191.
Standard 1 May, 1943.
192.
Monica Milward of the News Chronicle. Twentieth Century Club, Album no. 2, 6 July, 1946.
193.
Standard 26 Aug. 1937.
194.
Jessie Owen. Friendship, Service and Gratitude. Northlands Schools, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1937–1949. Mallorca: Imprenta Pronto, 2001. The school is commemorated in Northlands. 85th Anniversary, 1920–2005. Buenos Aires: Tiago Biaviz, 2005; also J.H. Price. “Northlands and Antecedent Events (1881–1961).” Mimeo.
195.
Incidents recorded in Standard 9 Apr. 1943.
196.
Ysabel F. Rennie The Argentine Republic. New York: Macmillan, 1945, 165.
197.
Sir Nevile Henderson. Water under the Bridges. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1945, 199. Robert Fraser informed Henderson the community had raised £80,000 within a month to support the hospital.
198.
Standard 4 Jan. 1942 listing major British firms no longer in business. They included importers Juan and José Drysdale and three banks, the London and Brazil Bank, the British Bank of South America, and the Anglo-South American Bank.
199.
Gutiérrez and Korol, Alpargatas, 412–413. Profits were very high during the late 1930s without matching the peak of World War I.
200.
Standard 28 Aug. 1937–23 Jan. 1938. The official exchange stood at £1 = 16.48 pesos.
201.
Details are recounted in Standard 14 Dec. 1938, 29 Mar. 1939.
202.
Dodd to FO 13 Sept. 1939 FO 446/20.
203.
On the formation of the BCC, see British Community Council Bulletin July 1964. Standard 29 Apr. 1940. BCC politicking is recorded in Standard 9 June and 16 Oct. 1939; 29 Apr. 1940.
204.
Consul to FO late 1940. FO 446/11 reporting 1.5 million pesos raised, one-third of which went to the British Red Cross. Sources do not indicate how fundraisers dealt with exchange control regulations when remitting funds to Britain.
205.
Standard 8 July, 1940.
206.
Standard 31 Aug. 1940.
207.
Standard 15 June 1940.
208.
S.R. Robertson in Standard 30 Mar. 1949. The Bemberg family controlled most of the brewing industry of Buenos Aires. The death of Marie Armande Ovey is reported in Standard 10 Aug. 1954. “It fell to her to be an inspiration for the war effort to British women…with an elegance and flair for dress possessed by few, even among Parisiennes.”
209.
Review of the River Plate 5 May, 1944.
210.
Kelly’s letter to The Times reported in Standard 6 Mar. 1945.
211.
Marie-Noële Kelly, the ambassador’s Belgian wife, acknowledged the contributions of Argentine donors. See Standard 11 Sept. 1945.
212.
Imbert in La Prensa. Translation in Review of the River Plate 15 Dec. 1944.
213.
Col R.E. Miller in Standard 18 May, 1940; 25 May 1940.
214.
Reports of 2 Jan. 1941 in FO 446/18.
215.
Small discrepancies appeared among the officially stated number of volunteers. The final figure counted 1542 men and 534 women. Standard 8 July, 1952. War casualties were reported in Standard 5 May 1947.
216.
Review of River Plate 16 Nov. 1945.
217.
Standard 7 Oct. 1942.
218.
Standard 12 Nov. and 10 Dec. 1945. 613 Argentine men joined the British Royal Air Force mainly as air crew; 179 women joined the female branch of the force. See Christopher Speake. “From Buenos Aires with Love.” Aeroplane Nov. 2007, 12–17. A heroic portrayal of the Argentine volunteers appears in Claudio Gustavo Meunier. Alas de trueno=Wings of Thunder. Buenos Aires: The Author, 2004.
219.
Discussion of export promotion on the outbreak of war appears in Mario Rapoport. “La política británica en la Argentina a comienzos de la década de 1940.” Desarrallo Económico Vol. 16, No. 62, 1976, 203–228.
220.
Standard 26 April 1942. British exports fell 71 per cent in volume in 1939–1943 and earnings by half. See Peter Howlett. The Wartime Economy. In Roderick Floud and Paul Johnson eds. Cambridge Economic History of Modern Britain, Vol. III, 15.
221.
South American Journal 13 Sept. 1941.
222.
A contract for steel tubing turned over to the United States provided one example. See South American Journal 18 Nov. 1944. Discussion of the “self-denying ordinance” agreed between British Ambassador Lord Halifax and Secretary of State Cordell Hull in mid-1943 is discussed in Thomas C. Mills. “The electrification of the Central Brazilian Railway and British Interests in Latin America during World War II.” Paper presented in Britain and Brazil II, Political, Economic, Social, Cultural and Intellectual Relations, 1808 to the Present. King’s College, University of London, 10–11 March, 2016.
223.
South American Journal 19 Oct. 1940 reporting the Central Argentine Railway, the leading carrier of grains from Santa Fe and Córdoba, had once more defaulted on its payments to debenture holders. Net wartime railway receipts are tabulated in García Heras, Frustrated Nationalization, 137.
224.
MOF to FO 14 Aug. 1940. FO 370/24201. The ministry estimated it would require 1 million tons of meat a year from all sources, domestic and foreign, in order to produce 47.5 million daily rations.
225.
South American Journal 26 Jan. 1944. The total included pork and lamb.
226.
O’Brien quoted in Journal of the British Chamber of Commerce August 1967.
227.
See Interdepartmental Committee on South and Central America 16 Aug. 1940. FO 371/24201. The discussion described the functioning of the system so far. See also García Heras, Frustrated Nationalization, 138.
228.
Quoted in Alec Cairncross. Years of Recovery. British Economic Policy 1945–51. London: Methuen, 1985, 355.
229.
Norman to Duncan 29 Aug. 1940. FO 371/24201. Discussion of the issue in the British Civil Service began almost immediately on the outbreak of war. See interdepartmental discussions 6, 7 and 12 Dec. 1939. FO 371/22706; also Waley to Scott 3 Oct. 1939 FO 371/22708. Quoted in Nicholas Bowen. “The End of British Economic Hegemony in Argentina: Messersmith and the Eady-Miranda Treaty.” Inter-American Economic Affairs Vol. 28, No. 14, (Spring 1975), 9. Similar arrangements were made with Brazil and Uruguay.
230.
Treasury discussion of 7 Sept. 1940. FO 371/24201.
231.
Keynes broadcast 12 Sept. 1940. FO 371/24201.
232.
Wright, British-Owned Railways, 224; Skupch, Nacionalización, 480; García Heras, Frustrated Nationalization, 141–143.
233.
As reported in South American Journal 30 Dec. 1944, Argentine debt held in London fell from £38 million to £11.5 million. See also Noel Fursman. “The Decline of the Anglo/Argentine Economic Connection in the Years Immediately after the Second World War: A British Perspective.” Ph.D. Diss. University of Oxford, 1988, 429.
234.
British officials in Washington discussed with Prebisch purchasing larger quantities of Argentine grain with the help of a US loan. See Butler (Washington) to FO 17 Nov. 1940. FO 371/24203. The idea reappeared in Buenos Aires as Lord Willingdon, leading the British mission in Latin America, reported Pinedo’s offer to buy out the debentures of the principal railway companies for £100 million and to employ the sterling balances to buy railway ordinary shares. Under this idea, railway stock belonging to the holding company would be slowly transferred to the government in a form of long-term plan of nationalisation the country could afford. See Willingdon to FO 12 Dec. 1940. FO 371/24203. For an overview, see Edgar J. Dosman. The Life and Times of Raúl Prebisch. Montreal: McGill/Queens University Press, 2008, 117–143.
235.
On the initial failed negotiations, see South American Journal 13 Jan., 3 Feb. 1940.
236.
On the transitions of 1941, see Rock, Argentina, 240–242 with supporting bibliography; also Dosman, Prebisch, 144–152.
237.
A large literature covers wartime US-Argentine relations. See Arthur P. Whitaker. The United States and Argentina. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1954; Harold F. Peterson. Argentina and the United States, 1810–1960. Albany: State University of New York, 1964; Michael J. Francis. The Limits of Hegemony. United States Relations with Argentina and Chile during World War II. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1977. Joseph S. Tulchin. Argentina and the United States: A Conflicted Relationship. Boston: Twayne, 1990. Domestic politics are explored in Robert A. Potash. The Army and Politics in Argentina, 1928–1945: Yrigoyen to Perón. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1969. For an overview, see David Rock. “Argentina 1930–1946: Economy and Politics in Depression and War.” Cambridge History of Latin America, vol. 8. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989, 3–72.
238.
Accusations in July–August 1944 appear in FO 37707.
239.
On such issues, see dossiers in FO 371/30312; also minutes of 13 and 29 Jan. 1943. FO 371/33525.
240.
Kelly to FO 22 July 1944 FO 371/37707.
241.
Churchill, In http://Hansard.millbanks.system.com. Commons/1944/August 2/war-situation, 1484.
242.
The forecast for meat rations in discussed in R.A. Humphreys. Latin America and the Second War, Volume 2, 1942–1945. London: Athlone, 1982, 180–182, citing FO 371/377715. See also Churchill to Roosevelt 28 Aug. 1944. FO 371/37707. A recent discussion is Thomas C. Mills. Post-War Planning and the Periphery. Anglo-American Economic Development in South America, 1939–1945. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2012, 168–169.
243.
South American Journal 20 Mar., 15 May, 31 July 1943.
244.
On 1942 trends, see South American Journal 20 Dec. 1942.
245.
South American Journal 2 Oct. 1943.
246.
South American Journal 6 May, 1944.
247.
H.M. Taylor quoted in Standard 16 Oct. 1943.
248.
On Perowne’s views, see Rory M. Miller. “British Firms and Populist Nationalism in Post-war Latin America.” Paper prepared for International Economic History Congress, Helsinki, 2006.
249.
Examples appear in Review of the River Plate 10 Mar. 1944. Free medical service led to heavy deficits and soon had to be abandoned. See Review of the River Plate 5 Jan. 1945.
250.
Kelly quoted in Standard 30 May 1945.
251.
Thompson in Standard 2 June 1945.

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Department of History, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
David Rock
Centre of Latin American Studies, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
David Rock

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Rock, D. (2019). Partners and Competitors. In: The British in Argentina. Britain and the World. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97855-0_7

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