“El porteño nace donde quiere.” (“A porteño is born wherever he wants.”)
~ Common Argentine quip about people from Buenos Aires
Joel Bowman with today’s Note From the End of the World: Buenos Aires, Argentina…
How goes the Greatest Political Experiment of Our Age?
We could give you the stats from the past couple of years, since a chainsaw wielding libertarian came to power with whacky ideas of free markets, balanced budgets and …
Country Risk: down from 2,700 to 510
Poverty: down from 57% to 28%
Annual Inflation: down from 211% to 30%
Debt: down $30 billion USD
Public Spending: down 30%
Public Employment: down 65k positions
Budget Surplus since 2024
Reserves: up $28 billion USD
Etc., etc., etc. …
But there’s always more to the story than numbers, which after all capture only part of the tale. That’s a story that belongs to the Argentine people and the land they call home.
Once known as “el granero del mundo” (the granary of the world), Argentina rose to wealth and prominence in the late 19th century, largely due to its fertile pampas, the rich farmland surrounding the capital. The estancieros (who owned them) and the gauchos (who worked them) raised and sold cattle, wool, leather, and grain, which were exported by the ton to the Old World.
To handle the explosion in exports, the engineer Eduardo Madero was commissioned to build an enormous port, which today bears his name. Puerto Madero (captured in the short clip, above) is a series of brick warehouses, docks, canals, and rail connections, purpose built to move Argentina’s exports efficiently onto ships crossing the Atlantic.
Fortuitously for the far-flung nation, the port construction coincided with the advent of refrigerated shipping, which changed the game entirely. Before refrigeration, Argentina could export hides and salted meat, but not its prized fresh beef. By the 1880s and 1890s, refrigerated vessels allowed the highly sought after Argentine meat to reach plates in European restaurants, hotels and homes. That transformed the country into an agricultural-export superpower.
Britain, in particular, invested heavily in the country’s railroads, which stretched out across the pampas, its frigoríficos (meat-packing plants), as well as in its banks and shipping infrastructure, and of course the port itself.
Within a couple of decades, Argentina ranked among the world’s most prosperous nations and its capital Buenos Aires, home to los porteños (people of the port), became known as the “Paris of South America.” And while its goods left the port, bound for the continent, it was the continent’s people, mostly Italians and Spaniards, who arrived at the same docks, looking for opportunity, adventure and a life down here at the End of the World.
But what one hand gives the other takes away… and wherever there is Creation, her wily sister, Destruction, is surely lurking nearby.
As demand for Argentina’s agricultural goods grew, so too did the size of the ships that would transport them. Barely had the last brick been laid on Puerto Madero’s docks when they were already too narrow for the newer generation of larger steamships. Within a couple of decades, trade had mostly shifted north to the larger Puerto Nuevo (new port) facilities.
Today, the area is mostly home to trendy cafes and swanky restaurants, at which you can expect to pay gringo prices for Argentina’s famous beef (there are better parrillas elsewhere… with far better prices.)
And just across the docks, from high in their sparkling towers of glass and steal, the nation’s “elite” political caste gazes out across the city and the pampas beyond, figuring out new ways to turn creation into destruction once again...
And now for your Notes From the End of the Week…
Final Notes…
We’re heading a little further south today, past Puerto Madero to the city’s historic San Telmo district, where we’ll catch some street tango, browse the many antique stores and maybe even grab one of those juicy ojo de bifes… with a cup or two of malbec, naturally...
Whatever you’re up to this weekend, we hope you’re enjoying it in fine cheer and good company.
As always, stay tuned for more Notes From the End of the World…
Cheers,
Joel Bowman
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