In colonial times, prior to the May Revolution of 1810livestock production promoted the claim of the landowners, advised by the lawyer Mariano Moreno, to ask the king of Spain for free trade with England, while an incipient and rudimentary agricultural activity was stopped by export duties on wheat that he sought to collect the Spanish crown. The changes that Argentina needed for its development came many decades later with fencing, bovine genetics, the railroad and the refrigerator.
This is what the historian indicated Juan Cruz Jaimewho in dialogue with “Country Air”which is issued by Radio Profilehighlighted the figure of the hero Manuel Belgrano, who “was the first agroindustrialist” that we had in Argentina, already in the times of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata.
“Already before Moreno, who signed the Representation of the Landowners before Spain in 1809, the figure of Manuel Belgrano is very important, since he created the first Agricultural Weekly of Industry and Commerce, which had a great impact. Belgrano was the character most ahead of his time in the Junta de Mayo, since he assured that for this territory to prosper, industry, agriculture and commerce needed to be united in a common good,” said Jaime.
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At the time of the formation of the First Government Board after the May Revolution, the historian said that the agricultural concept did not yet exist, since the main activity that was carried out in rural areas was livestock, through “livestock farming.” , which was very important in colonial times. There, the countryside had been a fundamental protagonist because a previous year, in 1809, was when the landowners of Buenos Aires hired Mariano Moreno to write a document where, before the King of Spain, they asked for free trade” with ships. Englishmen arriving at the Río de la Plata.
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He recalled that the Spanish Crown maintained a monopolistic trade policy in its colonies prior to the May Revolution and that in the case of Buenos Aires it benefited Buenos Aires merchants, a fact that gave rise to the proliferation of smuggling.
Jaime recalled that in 1810 “the land had no value, it was the land of Indians and malones, and to speak of the agricultural sector in the colonial era is to speak of a semicircle to the City of Buenos Aires, which was very small, which went from San Antonio de Areco, along route 8, to the Río Salado and Samborombón.”
Until 1810, the limits of the city of Buenos Aires were the current Córdoba avenues to the north, Belgrano to the south, and 9 de Julio to the west. Already since 1730, the Buenos Aires Cabildo began to sell land for the installation of country houses or farms in the current neighborhoods of Belgrano, Flores or Almagro, which produced fruits and vegetables to supply the local population. At this time there were three markets concentrating livestock, two for cattle, installed in Plaza Miserere and another in Las Heras and Pueyrredón, in Barrio Norte. The other was used for the sale of sheep and was located in Plaza Vicente López, which was called the “Mercado de las Cabecitas”.
In colonial times, the main meals that were made in Buenos Aires houses were locro and stews, and the sweets that stood out were mazamorra, which was made with crushed white corn and milk. “This was the easiest dessert to make and fundamental in colonial times,” said Jaime.
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Background of retentions in the Colony
The historian recalled that “during the times of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, there are antecedents of the export of wheat that they managed to cultivate in the territory that would later become Argentina. That trade went so well that the King of Spain imposed taxes on its export. This was never done again, so you can see that history is cyclical.”
“Only from 1840 to 1850 did we begin to see the development of grain crops by extending the agricultural frontier. By 1870, 15 thousand tons of corn were exported, and in 1890, this figure rose to 800 thousand. The qualitative leap occurred with the Generation of 80,” he expressed.
Milestones for Argentine agricultural development
In 1845, the English landowner and rancher Ricard Blake Newton installed the first fences in the Pampa Húmeda, which allowed livestock to be separated from the arable plots. Likewise, the first cattle to cross with the Creole ranch arrived in 1823, with the export of the first Shorthorn bull, while the arrival of the Hereford and Angus breed would have to wait until the 1870s. In colonial times, The dairy farms operated with permission from the King of Spain, where wild cattle could be caught loose in the countryside.
The genetic improvement was followed by the division of lots that took place after the Alsina Trench (1877) and later the Desert Campaign. Also between 1857 to 1880, the railroad was laid, and in 1866, the refrigerator was invented.
