Las consecuencias de la competencia de transportes sobre la hegemonía británica en la Argentina (1919-1939)

Abstract

This paper analyses the consequences on british investments in the argentine transport system of the introduction of motorcar transport. The great boom of the argentine economy in the twenties coincides with the massive import of motor-cars and lorries. The competition which they developed against the railways and the tramways began to make itself felt only after the world crisis of 1929, when the drop in agricultural prices obliged the producers to look for cheapers ways of transport than the railways, and the economic depression gave a new impulse to the public transport in the City of Buenos Aires. The laws of Transport Coordination, suggested and promoted by british interests, were designed to limit this competition, in an effort to maintain the stronghold on an economic system that was rapidly changing under the impact of the world economic crisis, and the rise of the United States as a new economic power.