Rivers

The economic progress of the Argentine Republic is intimately connected with the development of its means of communication, its traffic-ways. The railways and the ports have been the chief factors of the country’s prosperity, as by facilitating the outlet of agricultural products, they have allowed the soil to attain its whole value.[18] It is therefore pertinent to state, in some detail, how the Argentine is equipped from this point of view, and the part played by such equipment in the commercial development of the country.

By the truly providential nature of its soil, the Argentine is not only marvellously fertile, but is also a country largely opened up by waterways, and offering exceptional facilities from the point of view of international exchange.

One of the most notable peculiarities of this country is that its rivers, which are, as it were, inland seas, accessible to vessels of the highest tonnage, and, penetrating the very heart of the most fertile regions, place it directly in communication with the exterior. What is still more notable is that these rivers flow with an almost constant current over level beds, between perpendicular banks, so that the river-banks form a series of natural ports, with wharves of indefinite length. Nature has well prepared the way for the handiwork of man.

The hydrographic system of the Argentine Republic falls into three main groups: (1) the rivers tributary to the basin of the Rio de la Plata; (2) the rivers which terminate their course in lakes or pools, or lose themselves in forming marshes or salt swamps, and are finally absorbed by the porous soil of the Pampa; (3) the rivers which empty themselves into the ocean.

To the first group belong all the rivers which water the Provinces of Corrientès, Entre Rios, Chaco, Jujuy, and Salta, a portion of those of Santa Fé, Córdoba, and Buenos Ayres, and the Territories of Chaco and Misionès. To the second group belong all the water-courses of the Provinces of Tucuman, Catamarca, Santiago de l’Estero, La Rioja, San Juan, Mendoza, San Luis, the greater part of those of Córdoba, and part of those of Buenos Ayres. To the third group belong also a portion of the rivers of Buenos Ayres, and all the rivers of Patagonia. As we have seen, the waterways of the Province of Buenos Ayres come under all three headings.

The best-known river of the Republic, and that which gives the Argentine its name, is the Rio de la Plata, formed by the junction of two rivers no less important, the Parana and the Uruguay. It forms an immense estuary, which pours into the ocean the waters of a whole hydrographic system, a vast basin occupying nearly 1,540,000 square miles, or a fourth part of South America. This estuary is 25 miles wide at its head, and where its waters reach the ocean attains a width of no less than 217 miles, its average width being 111 miles; and its superficial area covers 13,475 square miles.

Apart from certain hindrances of the nature of islands or sandbanks, the Rio de la Plata offers relatively easy access to vessels of the highest tonnage making for Buenos Ayres or towards the interior. Its level is influenced by the tides of the ocean, and also suffers very violent changes when the easterly or south-easterly winds pile up the waters of the sea in the estuary.

The river which is the continuation of the Rio de la Plata towards the north, and with it forms the vital artery of the Argentine, is the Parana; its length is 2980 miles, of which about one-half flows through Argentine territory. Its width varies from 22 to 31 miles, and its average annual flow is estimated at nearly 39,000 cubic yards per second, which represents one and a half times that of the Mississippi, twice that of the Ganges, four times that of the Danube, five times that of the Nile, and nearly a hundred times that of the Seine. It receives, in its turn, as an affluent, the Paraguay, a river which traverses the country of the same name, and thus places it in communication with the sea, by way of the Parana and the Rio de la Plata.

This network of rivers forms a magnificent series of waterways. Rising from the central provinces of Brazil, the Parana passes through the rich afforested regions of Chaco, communicates by means of its affluent with Paraguay and South Brazil, and then flows through the Provinces of Corrientès, Entre Rios, and Santa Fé; that is, through the regions of great forests and wide holdings, and then empties itself into the inland sea of the Rio de la Plata, where it mingles with the Uruguay, another means of communication between the Provinces of the East and the Atlantic Ocean.

Concerning its navigability, here are some data taken from an interesting little book by M. Georges Hersent on the port of Rosario:—

“During nine months of the year the navigation from the sea to the port of Rosario presents no difficulties to the great transatlantic steamers; indeed, it may be said that their maximum draught is limited only by the depth of the ‘Canal Nuevo,’ the new channel of Martin Garcia. Ships drawing 22 to 23 feet can load at Rosario and leave directly for the open sea, or come to discharge their cargo at the port.

“During the period of low water, which lasts for barely three months in the year—from September to the end of December—there are only two channels with a less depth than 21 feet, that of Las Hermanas and that of Paraguayo. In the former, the island of Las Hermanas separates the bed of the river into two channels, of which the one most in general use hitherto has a depth of only 20 feet; but vessels may avoid it to-day, as the western channel has been dredged and deepened, and is of more than sufficient depth.

“The second channel, which used to present some difficulty, is that of the Paraguayo, where there was only 17 feet of water. This state of things was happily not permanent, as the National Government has undertaken, at this spot, the work of deepening and levelling the Parana, which was completed in the course of the year 1904.

“We may add that the State is engaged in maintaining, over a minimum width of 108 yards, a depth of 19 feet below the level of low water in the channel of Martin Garcia, and of 21 feet 1¹⁄₂ inches over the whole course of the Parana, as far as Rosario. This maintenance will be necessary only at certain points in the river, as the depth of the latter is in general considerably above those figures.”

As we have already said, the real commercial value of the Parana lies in the peculiarity of its banks, which make it along its whole course a series of natural quays. These banks form in many places almost vertical walls, and as the bed of the river is almost everywhere 25 feet below the surface, it follows that ships of large tonnage can not only ascend the river as far as the city of Rosario, or even to Colastiné, but can moor themselves alongside the banks as to a quay, without any labour or preparation being necessary.

At some places—as at Rosario for example—the bank properly so-called is overhung by low cliffs, forming a kind of promontory raised many feet above the water-level, so that it is possible to utilise this difference of level in loading cargoes. By means of inclined planes or gangways, called canaletas, the goods collected in warehouses built upon the banks are quickly, thanks to the slope of the gangways, run into the holds of the vessels moored to the banks. It will be admitted that these conditions are unusually favourable to navigation, and explain the extraordinary development of a country in which nature has thus surpassed herself.

Regarded as traffic-ways, these rivers play a part of the highest importance, by giving easy access to the sea, without re-shipment, to provinces more than 600 miles inland, such as those, for instance, of Chaco and Corrientès.

The Rio de la Plata affords a natural traffic-way, accessible to all vessels, between Buenos Ayres and Montevideo, which are more than 120 miles apart. All the large transatlantic steamers which used some time ago to put in at La Plata now come up to Buenos Ayres, which has thus become the headquarters of a dozen wealthy steamer-lines engaged in the European service.

Thanks to the works established for the deepening of the Parana and the regularising of its course through the sandy districts, great steamers of 10,000 tons can to-day go up to Rosario: steamers of 6000 tons can easily reach Parana or Colastiné; and special boats built for the river service can ascend as far as Corrientès, and from there towards Brazil, Paraguay, or Uruguay: a distance of more than 1200 miles.

Besides these “flowing roads,” we must mention others, which, although of less importance, are none the less destined to exercise a beneficent influence over the economic life of the premier province, and the development of its agriculture, thanks to the cheap transit which they will offer in time to come. We refer to the network of canals which the Government of the Province of Buenos Ayres has projected or put in hand.

In the first edition of this book we announced the construction of a canal 155 miles in length, which would unite the Mar Chiquita, its point of origin, and Baradero, its terminus; embracing in its course the following centres of rural produce; Laforcade, Junin, O’Higgins, Chacabuco, Salto, Arrecifes, and Baradero. This enterprise, which was put in hand at the expense of the Province of Buenos Ayres, failed with a crash. After the work had been enthusiastically commenced, after several millions of dollars had already been spent, it was discovered that the work could never be completed in a successful manner, nor could it ever yield a return for the sums raised, which were thus swallowed up in this disastrous enterprise.

Men whose technical competence allowed them to speak with authority—for instance, the engineer, Luis A. Huergo—basing their statements on scientific principles, had estimated that the undertaking could never be practically realised; and, as we have seen, the result justified their predictions.

Ports and Harbours

The nature of the river-banks being such as we have described, the ports utilised by trade along the course of the great Argentine rivers are very numerous.

After La Plata and Buenos Ayres, which share the traffic of the northern part of the Province of Buenos Ayres, we must mention Campana and Zarate, for at these two ports also the exports of frozen meat are very considerable; San Nicolas, a great centre for cereals, whose harbour is to be transformed and equipped by the new concessionnaire, the “Société Anonyme du Port et Entrepôt de San Nicolas”; and Villa Constitución, whence the produce of the south of Santa Fé and Córdoba is exported, and whose capacity is 7000 to 8000 sacks a day.

After Rosario, which is the second centre of the Republic, the chief ports ascending the Parana are as follows: San Lorenzo, Diamante, Santa Fé, Colastiné, Parana, Esquina, Goya, Bella Vista, and Empedrado. Corrientès is the last important commercial centre on the banks of the Parana.

All these ports had an annual tonnage amounting to 2,188,000 tons in 1906, 2,366,000 in 1907, and 5,396,000 in 1908, so that the statistics for these three years of the traffic for the Parana, including Rosario, amounts in round figures to 9,891,000 tons, for the distance of 804 miles.

At Santa Fé work has been commenced on the installation o£ a more modern harbour; the Province, by consent of the State, has devoted a sum of £6,000,000 to this undertaking. There has also at times been a question of equipping the port of Colastiné, which is one of the principal centres of export for cereals and the timber brought by the French railway system of Santa Fé. The average trade passing through this port amounts to more than 500,000 tons, and, so far, there has been no need to add any improvements to the natural advantages of the river-banks. We see by this that there is no need to create ports on the Parana, only to utilise or develop existing conditions.

We give below a table of the trade statistics of the principal ports of the Argentine Republic, remembering that with the exception of Buenos Ayres their trade consists largely of the exports of produce:—

The premier port of the Argentine, and we might add of South America, is Buenos Ayres, which in extent and connections rivals the finest ports of Europe.

It consists of two harbours, of which one, situated at the mouth of a little river called Riachelo, is frequented principally by steamers of light draught and sailing-ships; the other is known as the Port of the Capital, or more commonly Port Madero, from the name of the contractor responsible for the harbour works. The port contains, altogether, four basins and 6¹⁄₃ miles of quays, four of which are situated on the flank of the city. Along these quays are disposed immense warehouses, able to contain 29 millions of tons of merchandise, as well as great flour-mills and grain-elevators, with a capacity of more than 200,000 tons, which cost more than £1,000,000 sterling.[20]

This harbour has cost in all some £7,000,000, and every year a sum of nearly 3 millions of paper piastres, or £200,000, is spent upon the work of maintaining the channel of approach at a proper depth. At the season when the traffic is densest, the port holds as many as 1400 steamers and sailing-vessels, loading and unloading. It is evident that, with the constant increase of commercial activity, further enlargements will soon be necessary. The Government is at the present moment considering a gigantic scheme of improvement, with a view to which several groups of European contractors have already submitted estimates.

In order to give some idea of the importance of the plant at the disposal of exporters at Buenos Ayres, we need only speak of the great market or embarcardero for live-stock. It covers an area of 350,000 square yards, of which 117,000 are occupied by buildings; its capacity is 40,000 sheep and more than 1500 cattle.

There is also another notable establishment, reputed to be the largest in the world: the Central Produce Market. The building is of four stories, covers an area of 180,000 square yards, and cost £830,000.

The following table shows the quantities, in metric tons, of products entering the market between February and September in 1905, 1906, 1907 and 1908.

Besides these products, in 1906 there were 87,400 tons of wool entered at the market; in 1907, 84,600 tons; and during the first nine months of 1908, nearly 43,000 tons. If the year 1908 seems to show a great decrease in the entry of wools, the fact is really due to the larger amounts entered in October, November, and December, which are not included in the figures for 1908.

These figures show the importance of this establishment to Argentine trade. It is not a mere depôt, as one might suppose, but a veritable Exchange, where important transactions take place in all the chief products of the country.

The port of Buenos Ayres owes its rapid development to this excellent equipment. In 1880, before the scheme of works was commenced, its trade amounted scarcely to 660,000 tons; since then it has maintained a constant increase, and now reaches the figure of more than 13,000,000 tons.

Below is the inward and outward trade of the port of Buenos Ayres:—

To appreciate the value of these figures, we must compare them with those relating to the principal ports of the world, where we shall see that Buenos Ayres occupies, in matters of tonnage, the twelfth place among the ports of the world. The tonnage of Hamburg and Liverpool, which occupy the first two places, is only about 40 per cent, greater than that of Buenos Ayres.

The importance of the port of Buenos Ayres is chiefly due to the fact that it handles nearly all the imports of the Republic—84 per cent, in 1908—while of exports it handles 51 per cent. This confirms what we have already said of the absorption, by Buenos Ayres, of a great portion of the vital forces of the country, which develops it disproportionately to the rest of the country. The equipment of the new ports of Rosario, San Nicolas, and Santa Fé, and the enlargement of the port of Bahia Blanca, will constitute a useful task of decentralisation, favourable to the economic future of the country.

La Plata has the advantage over Buenos Ayres of a deeper basin, which renders its harbour accessible at all times to ships of the highest tonnage. Until 1903 it was the point of call for the large transatlantic liners outward or inward bound, which observed fixed hours of arrival and departure.

The harbour of La Plata, 3 miles from the town, contains about 2700 yards of quays and immense warehouses, capable of storing 600,000 sacks of grain. It is the terminus of the lines of railway serving the richest districts of the Province of Buenos Ayres, and is destined to undergo further developments, as the provincial Government intends to connect it with the agricultural centres by a network of light railways. This is the principal port to-day for the exportation of the agricultural products of the central Pampa.

On account of the economic importance of this port, the State has taken it over from the provincial Government, in consideration of a price of £2,360,000, with a view to nationalising it and exploiting it for the benefit of the Argentine State. This measure will allow of the organisation and the improvements which may be necessitated by the increase of its traffic. On the other hand, there is constant talk of connecting the port with that of Buenos Ayres by a canal some 29 miles long, which would form an artificial extension of both harbours.

Rosario holds second place in the Argentine, both in the matter of population and in the extent of its trade. It is the true agricultural capital of the Republic, and the principal outlet of eight Provinces, which use the Parana as their waterway. In his little book on the port of Rosario, M. G. Hersent speaks of the advantages of its situation in the following terms:—

“Situated in the very centre of an immense tract of country which is extremely rich and fertile, which to-day furnishes more than half the cereals exported by the whole Republic, Rosario is the necessary outlet of the harvests of nearly the whole Province of Santa Fé of the whole of Córdoba, and of a portion of Entre Rios; three provinces, whose area is almost equal to that of France. It is the market for the sugars and alcohols of Tucuman, the timber of Catamarca, and the minerals of Rioja and Chaco, which are so far exploited only in a rudimentary fashion.

“In order to fulfil this economic need of vital importance to the country, Rosario enjoys the most complete and efficacious means of access and penetration. Five great railroads converge upon it, bringing to it all the products of the interior, especially grain and cattle. This network of lines, whose rapid creation has been one of the most powerful factors of the development of Rosario, already contains more than 2700 miles of permanent way; in 1899 the traffic in the Rosario district already amounted to 3,400,000 tons of merchandise, consisting chiefly of the produce of the soil. The extension of this railway system is proceeded with in a more or less continuous manner, so as to increase the value and the opening up of new countries. Very shortly the line to Bolivia will have its terminus in Rosario.

“But that which gives this port, so well equipped, an incomparable value, is the magnificent Parana, which, on the one hand, places it in direct communication with the sea, and on the other unites it with the interior by a waterway of several thousand miles in length, constituting a means of transport as easy as it is economical, which brings it all the water-borne traffic of the upper Parana and of the Paraguay.”

The statistics given above show the important place which this port has taken in the last few years, and the continued increase of its traffic, which to-day amounts to some 3,000,000 tons per annum, whereas in 1899 it amounted only to 1,600,000 tons.

Hitherto these results have been obtained with a rudimentary equipment, and by utilising the fortunate disposition of the river-banks; but the intense pressure of traffic occurring at this point proves the necessity of a large harbour, which would allow the products of the interior to find their outlet towards the Parana and the sea. The need has given birth to the means without waiting for modern improvements.

To-day the port of Rosario has entered upon a new phase, which may clear the way for a still greater development. Its exploitation has been made the object of a concession which, in 1902, was granted to a French company, having at its head Messieurs Hersent & Son and the Creusot works, on condition that the latter should undertake the equipment of the port on modern lines. The scheme comprises, among other items, the construction of over 2 miles of quays and a dock which will, with the existing quays, give a total of 2³⁄₄ miles; the construction of warehouses, the mechanical equipment of the quays, and also the installation of a grain-elevator of large capacity, which will load a cargo of 5000 cubic yards in four hours.

To-day this scheme is nearly realised, and Rosario will be able to meet all the requirements of a perpetually increasing trade. The new railway lines, which will soon reach the port, will complete its organisation.

As recompense, the Government has granted the concessionnaires, for forty years, the monopoly of gathering all harbour dues over a radius of 7·4 miles around the city of Rosario, and over a distance of 12·4 miles up-stream and down-stream. The State shares in the takings of the concession to the extent of 50 per cent. of the net profits after the expenses of exploitation are deducted, which are estimated at 40 per cent. of the receipts, and after the subtraction of the sums necessary for paying the interest on and redeeming the capital engaged.

From all these data concerning the ports of the Parana, it will be seen that great efforts are now being made to increase the means of communication in proportion to the economic expansion of the country, and to multiply and facilitate outlets upon the points nearest to the centres of production. These efforts are also tending to decentralise the traffic, to the profit of a larger number of ports: in order to avoid the over-crowding of a few great centres to the detriment of other parts of the country. This policy will have happy results: firstly, from the point of view of the export trade, since it will decrease the net cost of transport; and secondly, from the standpoint of the import trade, as the imports, instead of converging upon Buenos Ayres and thence proceeding by rail, will reach the neighbourhood of the inland centres of consumption more directly and at less expense.

For these same reasons serious improvements have been carried out at the port of Bahia Blanca, which is situated on the sea-coast in the south of the Province of Buenos Ayres, whose importance has increased more especially since the opening of the military harbour to commerce. Bahia Blanca is one of the termini of many railways of the south; it is thus connected with the regions of agriculture and stock-raising on a large scale, which are able to send their produce directly from this port to Europe. The wool trade is particularly brisk there, and the cereal trade also, since the Pampa has been transformed into a wonderful agricultural country.

Seconding this development, already stimulated by the Southern Railway Company, which built the harbour known as “Ingenio White,” the Buenos Ayres and Pacific Railway Company has also commenced at Bahia Blanca a magnificent harbour, called Galvan Harbour. Built of reinforced cement, it is equipped with powerful grain-elevators, built of stone, splendid iron warehouses, sheds, etc. This harbour, when completed, will have cost some £10,000,000; it has already a considerable trade, which will increase in proportion to the agricultural development of the great belt it is intended to serve, which includes the Provinces of San Juan, San Luis, Mendoza, the Territory of the Central Pampa, and a large part of the Province of Buenos Ayres. The importance of this harbour will also be increased by the various railways which will unite Bahia Blanca to the remote districts of the Republic. The French company, now building a line running between Rosario and Bahia Blanca, will also have its own harbour, the Puerto Belgrano, and is actively carrying on its construction.

Finally, the creation of a harbour has been projected at Mar del Plata, the fashionable watering-place of the Argentine, and another in the Bay of Samborombon, two hours from Buenos Ayres.

To sum up: the Argentine possesses at the present time, in the matter of ports, an equipment capable of keeping pace with the growth of its powers of production. Its rivers are truly arms of the sea, collecting on their banks, thanks to their numerous ports, the products of the central Provinces, which are thus connected with the Atlantic over a distance of more than 600 miles. It is the same on the Atlantic sea-board, where advantage has been taken of the least natural facilities afforded by the coast-line to multiply the outlet to exportation, in proportion as the progress of agriculture has travelled south.[21]

It is true that this great organisation can only yield the true measure of its value in years of good harvests, since upon the latter all commercial activity depends; yet it must be recognised that, however largely the future has been discounted in equipping these ports, the estimates of future traffic have scarcely ever hitherto been deceptive.

CHAPTER II

The same progressive spirit which the Argentine has manifested in the improvement of inland or maritime waterways is to be seen in the establishment of its network of railways. Here again development has been rapid, and results plainly effectual in making the wealth of the country available. To cite one example only, it is thanks to the railways that agriculture and stock-raising have been able to attain to such large dimensions in the Province of Buenos Ayres; a Province far less favoured than its northern neighbours in the matter of waterways. All the lines running south have greatly contributed to the transformation of the Pampa and the increase of the cultivated area over an immense radius where before there was nothing but untilled soil, which was hardly suited even for stock-raising.

The railway has thus played a great part in civilising the Argentine; raising new wealth from soil as yet unexploited, joining up the chief agricultural centres, and affording them an outlet to the rivers or the sea. The railway has also been auxiliary to the colonising movement, stimulating the creation of new settlements along its track by concessions of soil.

This latter work is not yet terminated, if we are to judge by the great number of concessions now under consideration, in which the initiative is due to the State or to private individuals. On the other hand, there is a great tendency to build cheap narrow-gauge railways, in order to save expense either in building or in working, so as to obtain a final reduction of the freight tariff. In short, we find, in the case of railways as well as in the case of waterways, that while the continuation of good harvests is counted on, there is also an effort to keep up, by multiplying the means of transport, with the economic expansion of the country.

It was in 1854 that the Government of the Province of Buenos Ayres granted the first railway concession, for a line 24,000 vares[22] in length, running west from Buenos Ayres. In 1857 a first section, some 6 miles long, was opened for traffic.

After these humble beginnings the railway system of the Argentine developed with great rapidity; on the 1st of November 1908, its total length was 13,700 miles, representing an average development of nearly 273 miles per annum. All the Provinces are represented in these figures, but of course in very unequal proportions; as the opportunities of construction have not been everywhere the same. Their installation has gone hand in hand with agricultural development; and the Provinces most adapted to agriculture have also been favoured with the most plentiful means of transit, as the following table will show.

Among these Provinces we must note Buenos Ayres, Santa Fé and Córdoba as the three which have made most agricultural progress; for they alone furnish more than 80 per cent. of the total exports. Among the Territories La Pampa has the greatest mileage of railways; a mileage which will very shortly be doubled, to judge by the number of new lines projected, which in the near future will cross it in every direction, thus facilitating the outlet of its abundant produce.

It is in the last ten years that the network of Argentine railways has reached its full expansion, as is shown by the second table; which also gives the amounts of capital invested in these undertakings.

The number of railways at present in operation is thirty, this figure including the railways and cable tramways or mechanical traction lines in the country districts, both public and private, as in either case they serve for the transport of produce. Of these thirty lines twenty-seven are worked by private companies and three by the State. The latter are lines of no great value, which the Government has itself constructed, or which it has had to take over, either in the general interest or to redeem their heavy guarantees.

In the matter of comfort the great Argentine railways leave nothing to be desired, and many Europeans, out of touch with the rapid changes of this progressive country, would certainly be much astonished to learn that one may cross the Pampa or reach the foot-hills of the Andes in trains equipped with sleeping-cars and restaurant-cars of the latest type. Perhaps there is rather less ornament and fewer carpets than in the European sleeping-cars, but the same cleanliness will be found, the same service, the same conveniences.

The rolling-stock is also the object of incessant improvements. To give only one example, the Southern Railways Company has placed in service a new type of locomotive, with two pairs of double-expansion cylinders. These engines have ten wheels, of which six are coupled and four mounted in the front on bogies; their maximum power enables them to draw an effective load of 2160 tons up an incline of 1 in 500. As for the goods wagons, their capacity is 40 tons in the broad-gauge lines and 25 tons on the narrow gauge.

According to statistics, on the 1st November 1908, the various railways had in service 2992 locomotives, 2031 passenger-cars, and 33,800 goods wagons or trucks.

The companies are enabled to import free of tariff, during the first ten and sometimes the first twenty years of their tariff, all their fixed and rolling stock; it is thus to their advantage to obtain from abroad the most effective equipment, in order to obtain the greatest possible profit from the governmental favour.

The table given below contains various data as to the various concessions; it gives the gauge of the lines, their mileage, and the profits of the principal companies.