THE GROWTH OF BUENOS AIRES 31 



which show the great importance of this date in the 

 history of Argentine commerce : 



1850 1851 1852 1853 1854 



Imports into the Province of Cata- 



marca : 



From the Pacific across the Cor- 

 dillera (in millions of piastres) 72 50 71 40 12 

 From the Atlantic (Buenos Aires 



or Rosario) .. .. .. n 7 20 64 116* 



In 1854-5 the Cordillera route definitely ceased to 

 be of commercial importance to Catamarca, and it 

 was afterwards used merely for the export of cattle. 



But the attraction of Buenos Aires after 1853 was 

 not merely due to its commercial life and its inter- 

 mediate position between the provinces of the interior 

 and Europe. It was chiefly based upon the economic 

 development of the region of the Pampas, which 

 began about this date, and altered the balance between 

 the two halves of Argentina. The exploitation of the 

 Pampa, the improvement in breeding methods, and 

 the introduction and expansion of agriculture on the 

 plain of the Pampa, which fill all publications on 

 modern Argentina, are in themselves one of the great 

 events in the economic history of the nineteenth 

 century. They had also an indirect but profound 

 influence upon the life of other parts of Argentina. 

 The consuming capacity of the Pampa increased 

 simultaneously with its wealth and population. 

 It absorbed the products of the neighbouring provinces 

 and in turn made customers of them, distributing 

 amongst them, according to the services they rendered, 

 part of the gold it obtained from beyond the Atlantic. 

 One after the other the provinces lost the relations 

 which had hitherto connected them with foreign lands. 

 There was the same development all over the zone 

 of cereals and lucerne the direction of the stream of 

 commerce was reversed. In some places, as at 



1 B. Poncel, Mes itineraires dans les Provinces du Rio de la Plata t 

 Province de Catamarca (Paris, 1864). 



