INTRODUCTION 9 



the competition of buyers is likely to diminish, or 

 that the cultivation of wheat and lucerne must become 

 less profitable. 



The two essential effects of the war seem to have 

 been the stopping of the stream of immigration and 

 the progressive reduction of the support which Europe 

 gave to the work of colonization in the form of advances 

 of capital. 



From 1914 to 1918 only 272,000 immigrants landed 

 at Buenos Aires, while 482,000 emigrants left the 

 country. In 1918 the figure of immigration and emi- 

 gration was only 47,000, less than a tenth of what it 

 was in a normal year before the war. The withdrawal 

 of European capital was felt from the very beginning 

 of the war, and it has gone on uninterruptedly, capital 

 from North America not being enough to supply the 

 deficiency entirely. At the same time the extraordin- 

 arily favourable balance of trade has led to the storing 

 of an ample reserve of capital in the country. Argen- 

 tina has, in a very short time, won a financial inde- 

 pendence which, in normal conditions, would have 

 entailed long years of work and prosperity. 



However it may seem, these two facts — the inter- 

 ruption of immigration and the accumulation of capital 

 — cannot be considered independently of each other. 

 The inquiry opened by the Social Museum of Argentina 

 {La immigracion despties de la guerra, Museo Social 

 Argentino, " Bol. Mensual," viii, 1919, nos. 85-90) 

 show that a speedy restoration of immigration is expected 

 in the Republic. Certainly it seems clear that the 

 political and social insecurity in Europe, the misery 

 of the old world, will probably enhance the attractions 

 of Argentina. We must remember, however, that the 

 stream of emigration from Europe to the Republic in 

 the nineteenth, and the beginning of the twentieth, 

 century was provoked by a complex combination of 

 economic conditions which were closely related to each 

 other. High wages in Argentina were connected with 



