Argentina's inability to sustain the prosperity that, in the late 1920s, made it one of the richest countries in the world has led to much speculation about the causes of that failure. Many have placed a good deal of the blame on Argentina's failure to create a self-sustaining process of industrialization. However, as Fernando Rocchi points out in the book under review, there have been few modern systematic studies of the early stages of industrialization. Many commentators have just accepted the view, principally put forward by the industrialists, that early industrialization occurred in a largely hostile environment: the primary providers of credit, the state-owned banks, proving unwilling to grant loans and the state offering little or no tariff protection.

Rocchi sets out to shift this vision. His work is wide ranging, well written, and highly perceptive. An impressive array of sources includes, but is not limited to, company and bank records and diplomatic archives. Given the state of the archives and libraries, this is an extraordinary accomplishment. Often showing how individual companies operated, the author gives a micro-level view as well analyzing the larger trends.

As Rocchi points out, Argentine industrialization departed from the classical model, because the country had little in the way of an artisanal tradition. Most of its skilled workers were immigrants. For Rocchi the key hindrance to industrialization lay in the small size of the market, which prevented achievement of the efficiency needed to win markets abroad. Rapid population growth, the creation of a national market, and a culture of consumption could not overcome lack of scale. Argentina also lacked key inputs such as coal and iron and had relatively high labor costs.

Rocchi argues, quite convincingly, that industrialization was not constrained by the inability to obtain capital from the state-controlled banks. Using the archives of the Banco de la Nación and the Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, he demonstrates that numerous large and medium-sized companies did receive loans from state controlled banks. Companies also raised money on the stock market. He does argue, however, that self financing, which was very common, may have been the best strategy given the volatility of consumer demand, dependent on foreign purchases of Argentine exports. However, Rocchi does not really demonstrate that consumer demand was seriously less dependable than in other countries.

How much tariff protection industry enjoyed is difficult to demonstrate, given the complex way rates were calculated, but Rocchi makes clear that industrial production was frequently sheltered by either protective or revenue tariffs. Arguments in Congress show that critical support existed for the idea of protecting industry. Clearly, the conditions for industrialization were much more complex than has usually been thought, and it would be difficult simply to dismiss them as hostile.

Rocchi has larger goals than just showing the beginnings of industrialization. He devotes a well-crafted chapter to the creation of a consumer society in Buenos Aires, one which in many ways resembled that of the contemporary North Atlantic world, with department stores and the like. Harrods, the well known English department store, even had a branch in Buenos Aires. The author also includes a chapter on how Buenos Aires–based firms created national markets for themselves, intensifying the central role of the city in the Argentine economy. Large firms were created, as were trusts. Rocchi also discusses how conflict with the labor force helped forge cooperation between industrialists.

The picture that Rocchi gives us is that of a rather dynamic manufacturing sector that responded relatively well to growing demands but was limited by the size and nature of the economy. This is a generally persuasive argument but not one without flaws. The author is at times somewhat too determined to claim originality for his arguments. He clearly builds on others, and although he has made by far the best case for his ideas, at times he does not give these others all their due. More importantly, although the book purports to cover the period from 1870 to 1930, it distinctly slights the period after the first fair presidential election in 1916. We therefore lack a full discussion of the impacts of World War I and of the 1920s. In the latter period the nature of industrialization shifted due to the intensification of direct investment by foreign firms, particularly from the United States. If one is going to make arguments about the nature of industrialization just prior to the Great Depression, it would be helpful to know more about these changes.

Despite these caveats, Fernando Rocchi has given us an excellent work that reshapes our vision of early industrialization in Argentina. It also helps us to understand some of the innate problems of the economy and shows why some later prescriptions for the economy did not solve its problems. Like all good books, this should inspire further research. Anyone interested in the problematic history of the Argentine economy will find it a stimulating and convincing work.