[Footnote 80: The agricultural exports for 1906 wore sensibly lower than those of 1905, on account of a decrease of £3,864,392 in the exports of wheat.]
We see that agricultural products were responsible for the enormous increase in the trade statistics of 1908. They represented 66 per cent. of the total exports, and had increased nearly 50 per cent. in one year. The products of stock-raising have not increased; on the contrary, there is a falling off of more than £5,000,000 between 1905 and 1908, the value in 1905 being £28,208,597.
We see from the preceding data how greatly agriculture has developed in the Argentine during the last few years. To realise precisely how great this development has been, we need only recall the fact that the exportation of corn is now 10,000 times greater than it was thirty years ago: maize has increased by 800 per cent.; fodder, by 80 per cent.: linseed, by 70,000 per cent.; flour more than 600 per cent.[81] These figures show how rapid the growth of the Argentine has been, and what progress has been realised in spite of temporary crises.
[Footnote 81: Latzina, work already cited, p. 510.]
If we now consider the progress of external trade, not from year to year and in detail but as a whole, and over a large period, we can no longer doubt that this trade is destined to accomplish still greater development. Importation too, the field for which is somewhat restricted, may also realise a greater progress as the population increases. Again, once the Argentine develops her industries with greater energy, it is only natural that larger quantities of raw material will be imported, to be transformed into manufactured articles.
As for the increase of exports, we have only to turn to the data already given concerning the annual increase in the area of sown land, and the importance of those lands which have yet to reach their true value, but will do so as soon as the stream of immigration supplies them with settlers and colonists.
Moreover, the creation of a network of economical light railways, and the opening of new ports on the great rivers, will give the export trade new facilities, which will naturally result in an increased trade.
In the first edition of this book we remarked that there was still an unknown factor in the future of the foreign trade of the Argentine. Now there is, in the Presidential Message, an allusion to the eventual termination of the commercial treaties with the principal nations, with the intention of suppressing the “most favoured nation” clause, and of opening up direct negotiations.