Bull. Latin Am. Res., Vol. 17, No. 3, pp.

409—416, 1998
( 1998 Society for Latin American Studies. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd
All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain
0261—3050/98 $19.00#0.00

PII: S0261 - 3050(97)00070 - 3

RESEARCH NOTE

Exports and terms of trade in Argentina, 1811—1870

CARLOS NEWLAND
Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, MinJ ones 2159, (1428) Buenos Aires, Argentina

Abstract — This research note analyses the evolution of the Argentine external sector
between 1811 and 1870. New series of exports and terms of trade are presented. These show
the vulnerability of the economy to external and internal shocks, but also the continuous
growth of total exports and per capita exports along the period. ( 1997 Society for Latin
American Studies. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
Key words — Argentina, economic history, exports, terms of trade, Nineteenth Century

If trade has always been important for the Argentine economy, this is especially true for the
XIX century, when the development of the country was export-led. Although some studies
have dealt with the topic for the early years 1811—1870, they lack series that cover the whole
period.1 The purpose of the first section of this note is to present a new series of Argentina’s
exports. More than two decades ago D. C. Platt warned about the problems of using official
customs valuations, like those used in this text. Following his advice, the figures presented
should only be used as illustrations of very general tendencies.2
The evolution of the terms of trade in an open economy is of great importance, since it
determines the purchasing power of exports and influences the level of welfare attained by
the population.3 In the second part of the note the change in the international terms of trade
between 1811 and 1870 is analysed. Finally, some conjectures are formulated on the
movement of the domestic terms of trade, that is, those that were directly perceived by the
Argentine exporters and importers.

EXPORTS
After 1810, the year of Argentina’s de facto independence, there was a continuous increase in
exports, which grew until 1870 at an annual rate of 5.5 per cent, the equivalent of 3 per cent
per capita (see Table 1). A number of external factors contributed to this rapid growth,
including Europe’s industrialisation, the general rise in the levels of income in the developed
countries, and the continuous expansion of international trade. Exports were almost
exclusively animal products, among which initially cow hides and salted meat stood out,
although with time these lost ground to wool and tallow.4 The increase in exports can be
attributed in the first place to the growth of inputs used by the pastoral sector, including the
movement of the frontier, the arrival of foreign capitals and European immigration. Second,
there was an increase in livestock productivity, caused principally by the crossbreeding of
the local creole sheep with the European merino, which increased the quantity of wool and
410 Carlos Newland

TABLE 1 Argentine exports, 1811—1870 (in silver pesos, equivalent to one dollar or 0.20
pound sterling)

Total (000) Exports per capita

1811—1815 1290 3.1

1816—1820 2328 5.0
1821—1825 3551 6.7
1826—1830 2613 4.4
1831—1835 4718 7.2
1836—1840 4142 5.6
1841—1845 6895 8.2
1846—1850 7156 7.5
1851—1855 9384 8.9
1856—1860 17141 14.1
1861—1865 19843 13.8
1866—1870 34255 20.3

Sources: see Appendix A.

tallow obtained from each animal. Finally, internal migration moved population from the
provinces of the Interior with low labor productivity, to the more dynamic Littoral region.5
In 1830, as in 1860, average per capita exports from Argentina were about three times
greater than those of countries identified by Bairoch and Etemad as ‘Developed’ and 25
times greater than those of the ‘Third World’.6 This differentiates the country from other
cases, where a rapid rise of the exports was eased by the fact that the economies were
initially more closed.
Apart from a long term tendency of growth, momentary disruptions in trade existed. The
reduction of exports produced as a consequence of the blockades suffered by the port of
Buenos Aires stands out, namely that of the Spanish (1811—1814), the Brazilian (1826—1828),
the French (1838—1840), and finally, the Anglo-French blockade (1845—1848). The effects of
civil wars are more difficult to evaluate, partly because they often coincided with the
blockades. The internal conflicts in the Littoral, the exporting region, were especially
harmful between 1810 and 1820 and between 1838 and 1841. The 1850s stand out because of
the fall of pastoral output, due to the Indian attacks in the province of Buenos Aires. For its
part, the war of the Triple Alliance against Paraguay (1865—1870) does not seem to have
affected Argentina, since the country benefitted as a seller of food to its ally, the Brazilian
army.

INTERNATIONAL TERMS OF TRADE

In order to analyse the evolution of the international terms of trade, price indexes of exports
and imports have been elaborated (see Fig. 1). The export price index is a chained Laspeyres
index, which uses the international prices for dry hides, tallow, wool and salted meat. These
products represented, according to the estimates of the Argentine customs, more than 85
per cent of total exports, so that the index can be taken as sufficiently representative.7 For
import prices the geometric mean of two series with different weighs is used. The index is
composed of prices for cotton and woollen textiles, sugar, wine and flour. These represented
FIG 1 Price of exports, imports and international terms of trade, 1811—1870.
Research Note: Exports and terms of trade in Argentina, 1811—1870
411
412 Carlos Newland

TABLE 2 Price of exports, imports and international terms of trade, 1811—1870 (Base
1841—1845"100)

Exports Imports Terms of Trade

1811—1815 116 203 57

1816—1820 121 171 71
1821—1825 139 130 107
1826—1830 131 111 118
1831—1835 122 105 116
1836—1840 114 122 93
1841—1845 100 100 100
1846—1850 87 90 97
1851—1855 108 95 114
1856—1860 145 95 153
1861—1865 118 100 118
1866—1870 106 108 98

Sources: see Appendix A.

55 per cent and 60 per cent of total imports in 1822 and 1829 (years used for the first weight),
and 37 per cent and 40 per cent for 1866 and 1871 (years used for the second weights). The
loss of representability is caused by the fact that, over time, the country imported a greater
diversity of commodities.
The terms of trade obtained from the price indexes of exports and imports are presented
in Table 2. The period shows a notable improvement in the terms of trade, which increased
significantly from its initial level. This experience is similar to that of other exporters of
primary goods, such as Brazil, the United States and Spain, which also benefitted from an
improvement in the relative value of their commodities over the same years.8 The jump in
Argentina’s terms of trade between the decades of 1810 and 1820 was caused because whilst
pastoral exports became more expensive, imported cotton textiles cheapened dramatically,
thanks to the technological innovations that characterised the Industrial Revolution. The
other decade that stands out is the 1850s, when terms of trade improved thanks to the
Crimean War, which reduced Russian competition, producing a rise of the value of hides
and tallow. In the 1860s the terms of trade fell somewhat because textiles prices increased
during the American Civil War, and due to the tariff applied by the United States on
Argentine wool from 1867.

DOMESTIC TERMS OF TRADE

It should be pointed out that the presented terms of trade are not those perceived directly by
the Argentine population, since they were constructed with international and not domestic
prices. The absence of local price series impedes for the moment a similar calculation for
Argentine producers and consumers, although it is possible to speculate on their general
tendency. In the first place it should be said that the domestic terms of trade improved much
more dramatically than the international terms of trade. The ending of links with Spain
allowed Argentina to trade directly in world markets, avoiding the expensive intermediating
of the metropolis. Secondly, colonial tariffs, which were around 50 per cent for exports and
imports in 1809, were reduced so that by the early 1820s the tariff on exports was 4 per cent
 Research Note: Exports and terms of trade in Argentina, 1811—1870 413

and the average tariff on imports was 20 per cent.9 Finally, the reduction of freight and
insurance costs that followed the Napoleonic wars, and the increase in the scale of
Argentina’s trade, both helped reduce the margins of international trade, and forced
a convergence of local with international prices. These factors contributed to the quadrupli-
cation of the price of hides in Buenos Aires between 1810 and 1823, and the reduction in
two-thirds of the price of the imported textiles, thereby improving domestic terms of trade
by more than 500 per cent.10 Although it is true that after 1835 import tariffs increased from
an average of 20 per cent to 30 per cent, the jump could only have affected marginally the
tremendous initial improvement in the domestic terms of trade. On the other hand, in the
1850s the tariff was reduced to a level similar to that of the 1820s. Around the mid-century
other measures existed that reduced the transaction costs of the exported products. One of
these was the freedom to export directly from ports other than Buenos Aires, which before
charged supplementary tariffs to those applied at the provincial ports of origin. Another
was that internal tariffs and transit taxes were progressively eliminated. Finally, in the
1850s, treaties were signed with Chile and Bolivia which removed duties on local products
that crossed over terrestrial borders. On the negative side, the blockades had a harmful
effect upon the domestic terms of trade, since they produced a reduction in the price of the
exported goods and an increase in the price of the imported goods.11

CONCLUSION
The decades which followed Argentine independence in 1810 saw a continuous growth in its
pastoral exports, and the country participated fully in the worldwide increase of trade that
characterised the XIX century. The international terms of trade favoured this growth, since
they improved in relation to their initial level. The improvement in the domestic terms of
trade, a consequence of the convergence of domestic with international prices, was even
more noteworthy.

Acknowledgements — I thank the comments and suggestions received from Samuel Amaral, Javier Cuenca,
Agustı́n Llona, Barry Poulson, Leandro Prados de l a Escosura, James Simpson, Silvia Tedesco and Antonio Tena.
Amaral and Cuenca had the generosity of facilitating me unpublished statistical data of their elaboration. The first
version of this note was written when I was a Visiting Professor at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.

APPENDIX A
SOURCES OF TABLE 1 AND TABLE 2

Table 1:
Exports sources: years 1822, 1825, 1829, 1842 and 1843 were taken from Parish (1958: 511);
1848—1851: de Moussy (1860: II, 512); 1854—1870: Memoria del Ministerio de Hacienda
(Buenos Aires, 1871), 428—429. Years 1823, 1824, 1830—1836, 1841, 1852 and 1853 were
estimated based on projections of the existent data. Given that this procedure was not
adequate to calculate the figures for blockade years, exports were estimated adding the
imports of France, Great Britain and United States of products of the Rı́o de la Plata,
calculating the tendency starting from the year in which Argentine official figures existed.
Since the blockades produced an additional reduction of prices in Buenos Aires, the
414 Carlos Newland

estimated figures were reduced (during the months of blockades) proportionally to the
increase in the difference between local and international prices, according to the index of
pastoral prices given by Broide (1951: 179), and the index of prices of exports presented in
this note. For the years 1826—1828 only imports from the United States and Great Britain
were obtained. Source: Great Britain: Halperı́n Donghi (1982: 283—284); France: ¹ableau
General du Commerce de la France (Paris, 1838—1848); United States: Report on the
Commercial Relations of the ºnited States with Foreign Nations (1856: I, 779). The exports
between 1811 and 1821 were calculated supposing a quadruplication of the price of
tradables. The quantities were taken from Academia (1978: F). Argentine population was
taken from Maeder (1969). The exports are those estimated by the Argentine customs. The
official figures were increased by 18 per cent given the well known under registration of
Argentine trade; see Academia (1978: 35), Cortés Conde et al. (n.d.: 51), and de Moussy
(1860: II, 502).

Table 2:
Price of exports: the index is a chained Laspeyres index, with annual weights based on the
changing volumes. The annual weights facilitated the construction of the index, given that
prices of salted meat and wool were not available for the initial years. Prices: Dry hides
1811—1817: Microfilm Supplement to Gayer et al. (1953: 691); 1818—1852: Halperı́n Donghi
(1963: 65); 1853—1870: Reber (1972: 323); Tallow 1811—1817: prices of English tallow were
used (English Town), Microfilm Supplement to Gayer et al. (1953: 645); 1819—1852:
Halperı́n Donghi (1963: 65); 1853—1866: Reber (1972: 321); 1865—1870: projections of
the figures of Reber based on Faure (1878: 194); Wool: the official price given by the
American customs for Argentine wool, from U. S. Congress, Commerce and Navigation (vols.
1829—1870); Salted Meat: the official price given by the Cuban customs to Spanish Ameri-
can salted meat for the following years: 1836, 1838, 1841, 1845—1857, 1864. For the years
with unknown values between 1836 and 1864, projections of the existent values were used.
Source: Balanza de Comercio de la Isla de Cuba (Havana and Madrid, 1837—1879). For the
years between 1825 and 1835 the Cuban values were projected according to the price trends
appearing in Parish (1958: 511). For the years 1865—1870 the figure for 1865 was projected,
according to the behaviour of the values estimated by the Argentine customs in Registro
Estadı& stico de la Repu& blica Argentina (1867, 4, 393), and Estadı& sticas de la Aduana de Buenos
Aires (1868—1871). The exported volumes were taken from: 1811—1823: Academia (1978: F);
1825, 1829, 1837: Parish (1958: 511); 1830—1833: National Archives, U. S. Consular Reports,
reel 3; 1842—1843: Archivo General de la Nación X 42-10-11; Ministere des Affaires
Etrangeres, Correspondance Commerciale, Buenos Aires 2; 1843: Great Britain, House of
Commons, Sessional Papers, 1847, 64 (2: 398); 1849—1852: Maxwell (1863); 1853—1870:
Anales de la Sociedad Rural Argentina (1871, V, 163—166).
Price of Imports: The first weight of the two series used in the index corresponds to the
average of the imports (of the goods used in the index) for 1822 and 1829, the second for
1866 and 1871. Sources: 1822: Academia (1978: 53—56); 1829: Mariluz Urquijo (1969: 67);
1866: Estadı& sticas de la Aduana de Buenos Aires (1867: 80—81); 1871: Napp (1876:
XIV—LXV). The initial weight given to cotton textiles is their proportion in the total
imports and not its relative proportion considering only the goods used in the index. This
was done so as not to introduce a bias, since the rest of imports did not suffer a similar fall in
prices. Prices of cotton and wool textiles, 1811—1813: projections of the figures given by
 Research Note: Exports and terms of trade in Argentina, 1811—1870 415

Imlah (1969), based upon Cuenca Esteban (1994: 102); 1814—1870: Imlah (1969: 208—210);
Wine: Balcells (1980: 375—379); Sugar: Deer (1950: II, 531); Flour: 1811—1860: ¹he Statistical
History of the ºnited States. From Colonial ¹imes to the Present (New York, 1976: 209);
1860—1870: Bauer (1975: 233).

NOTES
1. See Amaral (1993); Brown (1979); Burgı́n (1975); Halperı́n Donghi (1963); Lynch (1989); Reber (1979) and
Salvatore (1987).
2. Platt (1971: 130).
3. For Argentina’s terms of trade after 1870 see Ford (1955) and Dı́az Alejandro (1975: 92—100).
4. On the expansion of wool production see Sabato (1990).
5. On the evolution of pastoral production see Newland and Poulson (1996).
6. In 1830 Argentina exported 6 dollars per capita, the developed countries 2.5 and the Third World 0.3. The
figures for 1860 are, respectively, 15, 6.8 and 0.8. Sources: Argentina, Appendix A. Developed Countries and
Third World: Bairoch and Etemad (1985: 27). The official figures for Argentina have been increased in 18%
due to the underestimation mentioned in the Appendix A.
7. On the composition of Argentine exports see Parish (1958: 511); Great Britain, House of Commons, Sessional
Papers, (1847) 64:2, p. 398; Estadı& stica de las Aduanas de la Repu& blica Argentina correspondiente al AnJ o de 1870
(Buenos Aires), pp. 122—125.
8. See Leff (1982: 81—83), Prados (1982: 82) and Poulson (1981: 234).
9. The tariff levels are those in force in Buenos Aires. The magnitudes for 1809 are tentative, and were calculated
according to Bliss (1959: 41), Humphreys (1940: 30), Salvatore (1987: 280) and Street (1967: 164). The tariff
levels for the 1820s onwards for imports correspond to a simple average of tariffs applied to clothes, food,
wine and goods not specified. In the case of exports the tax in general was similar for all products. Sources:
1822: Registro Oficial, vol 1821, p. 115; 1836: Idem, vol 1835, pp. 164—5; 1837: Registro Oficial, vol. 1837, pp.
123—124; 1854: Parish (1958: 588—589); 1862: Registro Nacional (1883), IV, pp. 610—611; 1870: Registro
Nacional (1883), V, p. 510.
10. Academia (1978: 20, 34 and G).
11. On changes in prices during the blockades, see Halperı́n Donghi (1978).

REFERENCES
Academia Nacional de la Historia (1978) Informes sobre el comercio exterior de Buenos Aires durante el gobierno de
Martı& n Rodrı& guez. Academia Nacional de la Historia, Buenos Aires.
Amaral, S. (1993) Del mercantilismo a la libertad: las consecuencias económicas de la independencia Argentina. In
¸a independencia americana: consecuencias econo& micas, eds. L. Prados de la Escosura and S. Amaral pp.
201—216. Alianza, Madrid.
Bairoch, P. and Etemad, B. (1985) Structure par produits des exportations du ¹iers-Monde 1830—1937. Droz,
Geneve.
Balcells, A. (1980) El problema agrario en CatalunJ a. ¸a cuestio& n Rabassaire (1890—1936). Madrid.
Bauer, A. (1975) Chilian Rural Society from the Spanish Conquest to 1930. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Bliss, H. (1959) Del »irreinato a Rosas. Ensayo de historia econo& mica argentina 1776—1829. Editorial Richardet,
Tucumán.
Broide, J. (1951) ¸a evolucio& n de los precios pecuarios argentinos. Buenos Aires.
Brown, J. (1979) A Socioeconomic History of Argentina, 1776—1860. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Burgı́n, M. (1975) Aspectos econo& micos del federalismo argentino. Solar, Buenos Aires.
Cortés Conde, R., Halperı́n Donghi, T. and Gorostegui de Torres H. (n.d.) Evolución del Comercio Exterior
Argentino. Mimeo, Instituto Torcuato Di Tella.
Cuenca Esteban, J. (1994) British textile prices, 1770—1831: are British growth rates worth revising once again?.
Econ. Hist. Rev. XLVII, 66—105.
Deer, N. (1950) ¹he History of Sugar. London.
Dı́az Alejandro, C. F. (1975) Ensayos sobre la historia econo& mica argentina. Amorrortu, Buenos Aires.
Faure, F. (1878) ¸e Havre en 1878. Havre.
416 Carlos Newland

Ford, A. (1955) Export price indices for the Argentine Republic 1881—1914. Inter-American Economic Affairs IX,
42—54.
Gayer, A., Rostow, W., and Schwartz, A. (eds) (1953) ¹he Growth and Fluctuations of the British Economy,
1790—1850. Clarendon Press, Oxford, Microfilm Supplement deposited in the British Library.
Halperı́n Donghi, T. (1963) La expansión ganadera en la Campan8 a de Buenos Aires. Desarrollo Económico 3,
57—110.
Halperı́n Donghi, T. (1978) Bloqueos, emisiones monetarias y precios en el Buenos Aires Rosista. In Homenaje
a Jorge Basadre, pp. 307—341. Lima.
Halperı́n Donghi, T. (1982) Guerra y finanzas en los orı& genes del estado Argentino (1791—1850). Editorial de
Belgrano, Buenos Aires.
Humphreys, R. A. (ed.) (1940) British Consular Reports on the ¹rade and Politics of ¸atin America 1824—1826.
London.
Imlah, A. H. (1969) Economic Elements in the Pax Britannica. Rusell and Rusell, New York.
Leff, N. (1982) ºnderdevelopment and Development in Brazil. Vol. I: Economic Structure and Change, 1822—1947,
Allen and Unwin, London.
Lynch, J. (1989) Foreign Trade and economic interests in Argentina, 1810—1850. In Ame& rica ¸atina en la e& poca de
Simo& n Bolı& var. ¸a formacio& n de las economı& as regionales y los intereses econo& micos europeos 1800—1850, ed.
R. Liehr pp. 139—155. Colloquium Verlag, Berlin.
Maeder, E. (1969) Evolucio& n demogra& fica argentina desde 1810 a 1869. Eudeba, Buenos Aires.
Mariluz Urquijo, J. M. (1969) Estado e industria 1810—1862. Macchi, Buenos Aires.
Maxwell, D. (1863) Planillas estadı& sticas de la exportacio& n en los anJ os desde 1849 a 1862. Buenos Aires.
de Moussy, M. (1860) Description geographique et statistique de la Confe& de& ration Argentine. Paris.
Napp, R. (1876) ¸a Repu& blica Argentina. Buenos Aires.
Newland, C., and Poulson, B. (1996) Puramente Animal. Pastoral production and early argentine economic
growth. Mimeo.
Parish, W. (1958) Buenos Aires y las Provincias del Rı& o de la Plata. Hachette, Buenos Aires.
Platt, D. C. M. (1971) Problems in the interpretation of foreign trade statistics before 1914. Journal of ¸atin
American Studies 3 (2), 119—130.
Poulson, B. (1981) Economic History of the ºnited States. Macmillan, New York.
Prados de la Escosura, L. (1982) Comercio exterior y crecimiento econo& mico en EspanJ a, 1826—1913: tendencias
a largo plazo. Banco de Espan8 a, Madrid.
Reber, V. (1972) British Mercantile Houses in Buenos Aires. 1810—1880. Ph. D. thesis, University of Wisconsin.
Reber, V. (1979) British Mercantile Houses in Buenos Aires. 1810—1880. Harvard University Press, London.
Sabato, H. (1990) Agrarian Capitalism and the ¼orld Market. Buenos Aires in the Pastoral Age, 1840—1890.
University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque.
Salvatore, R. (1987) Class Struggle and International Trade: Rio de la Plata’s Commerce and the Atlantic
Proletariat, 1790—1850. Ph. D. thesis, The Univer sity of Texas at Austin.
Street, J. (1967) Gran BretanJ a y la Independencia del Rio de la Plata. Paidos, Buenos Aires.