ABSTRACT

The concept of the Anglo-Argentine Connection implies that a special relationship existed between Britain and Argentina. It arose from the conviction that Britain's relations with Argentina were different than those with most other countries. The concept of the Anglo-Argentine Connection can be viewed as the manipulation of sentiment to veil the inequalities in economic exchange between industrial Britain and primary-producing Argentina. The origins of the Anglo-Argentine Connection may be traced from British penetration of the South Atlantic in the seventeenth century to the intimate association between London and Buenos Aires in the 1820s. The implication of labourers travelling annually from Europe and even skilled workers being attracted out of Argentine cities is that rural underpopulation, attributable ultimately to the landowning structure, created severe bottlenecks in the agricultural labour market. The federal government had to assist in the settlement of provincial and municipal indebtedness simply because European capital markets were unlikely to distinguish clearly between different Argentine authorities.