ARGENTINE
704
ARGENTINE
Don Baltasar Hidalgo de Cisneros (1809). The
revolutionary movement which ended in the inde-
pendence of the coimtry, began in the Argentine
territory, as everywhere else in South America, in
180S, at the time of the imprisonment of King Ferdi-
nand of Spain by Napoleon. The formal declaration
of independence was made, 9 July, 1816. In 1853,
after the country had passed through the ordeals of
several civil wars, a war with Brazil, and the Rosas
Dictatorship, the federal Constitution which is now
in force (amended in 1860) was framed and promul-
gated. Since then the Argentina has prospered and
developed rapidly.
Sources of We.^lth. — The most important factors of the wealth and prosperity of the Argentine Re- public may be grouped under three different heads: agriculture and agricultural industries, cattle-raising and its cognate occupations, and commerce. The chief agricultural pursuits are the cultivation of wheat, maize, linseed, alfalfa, sugar cane, tobacco, and grapes. The whole area of cultivation, in 1904,
was estimated conservatively at 7,500,000 hectares,
or 18,750,000 acres (Urien and Colombo, "Geografta
Argentina," Buenos Ayres, 1905). According to
official information of 1901, the area of cultivation
of the different products was as follows: —
Acres
Acres
Wheat
8,449,372
Tobacco
131,740
Maize
3,638,365
Sugar cane
115,000
Alfalfa
3,125,000
Grapes
110,825
Linseed
1,530,000
The agricultural industries are chiefly the manu-
facture of flour, sugar, cigars, wines, spirits, and ales.
The exportation of flour in 1901 represented a total
of 71,742 tons, estimated at 82,711,208 in gold.
Cattle-raising and its cognate industries constitute
the most lucrative business of the Argentine Re-
public. Nature has endowed Argentina with ad-
vantages for agricultural and pastoral farming
hardly to be found in any other country of the
world.
Foreign Trade. — The foreign trade of the Argentine Republic is mainly with the countries enumerated
in the following table. The values of this trade are given in gold. —
Imports
from
Exports to
1904
1905
1904
1905
§64,517,103
$68,391,043
$36,445,139
844,826,670
17,109,716
21,248,202
30,596,559
37,594,281
24,926,278
29,083,027
29,522,112
37,058,221
9,069,123
8,727,076
17,566,034
20,780,850
24,473,877
28,920,443
10,214,989
15,717,458
19,127,902
20,284,673
4,344,952
6,468,941
6,032,973
5,328,004
10,427,012
13,039,395
Countries
Great Britain
France
Germany
Belgium
United States
Italy
Brazil
The commercial statistics of the United States give the trade with Argentina for five years, as follows
1901 1902
Imports (to U. S.) $8,065,318 .SU, 120,721
Exports (from U.S.) 11,537,668 9,801,804
The chief imports from Argentina into the United States in 1904 were hides and skins, $4,389,123; the chief exports from the United States to Argentina were agricultural implements, $4,996,476; timber, $2,996,912, and mineral oil. 81,868,957.
1903
1904
1905
$9,430,278
$9,765,164
$15,316,492
11,437,570
6,902,027
23,564,056
Shipping and Navig.\tion. — In 1902, the reg-
istered shipping consisted of 101 steamers of 38,770
tons, and 151 sailing vessels of 38,071 tons; total,
252 of 76,841 tons. In 1904, the number of ocean-
going vessels which entered the port of Buenos Aires
was 2,072 with an aggregate tonnage of 3,896,197
tons, as against 1,842 of 3,461,208 tons in 1903.
I. Public St.\tus of the Church. — Under the second article of the federal Constitution, " the Federal Government supports the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion". According to the last com- plete, official national census, referred to above, of every thousand inhabitants of the country there were 991 Catholics, 2 Jews, and 7 Protestants and dissenters of whatever kind. The total population (3,954,911) is distributed as follows: native Catholic population, 2,944,.397, of whom 1,449,793 are male, and 1,494,604 female; foreign Catliolic population, 976,739, divided into 617.470 males, and 359,269 females. The total Catholic population is 3,921,136. The non-Catholic population included 26,750 Prot- estants, 6,085 Jews, and 940 other non-Catholics. Tlie federal congress appropriates every year a cer- tain amount of money to as.sist the Church in meet- ing its cx|)cnses. For the fi.scal year of 1905 these appropriations amounted to $857,420 in the na- tional currency. Out of this .sum, 8617,420 were Ket aside for the salaries of Churcli functionaries and eccle.sia.sties of all kinds, and for defraying the necessary expen.ses of Divine worship. The balance (8240,000) represented " subsidies " to certain churches in the provinces.
II. Hierarchy. — The Argentine hierarchy con-
sists of the Archbisliop of Buenos Aires, and the
Bisliops of Cordoba, La Plata, Parand, San Juan de
Cuyo, Santa F6, Salta, and Tucumdn. The right to
appoint a bishop belongs, of course, to the Holy See;
but the federal Senate has the right, when a vacancy
occurs, to .send three names to the President of the
Union for transmission to Rome, where the choice
is to be made, if made at all, out of the three nominees.
Each cathedral is provided, aceortling to Spanish
usage, with a chapter, i. e. a number of canons and
ecclesiastical officials appointed by the Government
upon nomination of the respective bishops. There
is an ecclesiastical seminary in each diocese, under
the control of the bishop, for the support of which
an appropriation is made yearly. The Holy See is
represented at Buenos Aires by an Apostolic inter-
nuncio, who ranks as the dean of the diplomatic
corps. The .Argentine Nation has in Rome a cliarg^
d'affaires. Until lately the representation of the
Argentine Republic at tlio Pontifical Court was en-
trusted to the Argentine representative in Paris.
The Catholic .spirit which animated the framers
of the federal Constitution is forcibly illustratcil by
the provisions of article 76, which requires as a
condition of eligibility for the position of President,
or Vice-President, of the Union, "to belong to the
Rom;in Catholic Apostolic religion"; and by those
contained in clauses 15 and 20, article 67, which
respectively empower the federal Congress " to pro-
mote the conversion of the Indians to the Catliolic
religion ", and " to admit into the territory of the
