ABSTRACT
At the beginning of the 1930s, Britain's prolonged impotence in the Argentine market was abruptly reversed into a position of overwhelming dominance. Throughout the 1920s Britain's attempts to overcome United States and German competition had been frustrated by the renewed postwar commitment to free trade and laisser faire in the United Kingdom. Argentine nationalism was rapidly developing, while the British were increasingly practicing, in peacetime, policies which had their only remote precedents in wartime. The correct identification of interests was not between the cattle industry and the Argentine nation, but between cattlemen and political power in the republic. In general, the scale of concessions made to British exports is totally incompatible with notions that the Argentine government was devoted to the development of national industry. Argentine nationalism was rapidly developing, while the British were increasingly practicing, in peacetime, policies which had their only remote precedents in wartime.
