To-day a visitor to his magnificent “estancia” of Tandil may still see, under a glass shade, the knife and a model of the wagon which were the first instruments of his fortune.
The second story is more commonplace, but no less true. Twelve years ago two Neapolitan immigrants came to settle at Rosario. To gain a living, and no doubt in memory of their former trade, they founded in partnership a _boliche_; that is, a bar for the sale of drinks. When a certain time had elapsed, their business being far from prosperous, they decided that one or the other of the two was one too many, and so determined to separate. But which of the two should retain the _boliche_? They drew lots to decide the point; and he whom chance favoured retained the business alone, while the other went in search of his fortune elsewhere.
The latter, far from allowing himself to be discouraged, made for Rosario harbour, in search of a new trade: he assumed that of a dock-labourer or lighterman. This was at the time when the growing of maize was beginning, in the Province of Santa Fé, to give satisfactory results. Our hero, having spent some time in carrying sacks of grain upon his back from the quays to the vessels about to sail, conceived the idea of buying, with his savings, a sack of maize, and to sell it retail, in the country, for the purposes of seed. This first venture having succeeded, he continued his operations with a larger number of sacks; then, finally, he abandoned the trade of porter in order to enlarge his new business, which from that time increased by thousands of sacks, and soon became a great export business.
Thanks to the development of the culture of maize in this region, he has become one of the greatest merchants and speculators in this product, and enjoys to-day a fortune of many millions, while his companion, less happy in his affairs, still keeps the little drink-shop in Rosario.
THE PRODUCTION OF WHEAT IN THE ARGENTINE, COMPARED WITH THE YIELD OF OTHER EXPORTING COUNTRIES
The world’s wheat-harvest——Comparison between the statistics of consumption——The conditions of production in Russia and in the Argentine——Comparison with the United States, India and Canada—— The prospects of the Argentine export trade in wheat.