Colonización agrícola y distribución de la riqueza inmobiliaria en la provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina, 1864-1875

Abstract

The paper seeks to measure wealth distribution in the agricultural colonies of Santa Fe Province, Argentina from the 1860s to the 1880s. Santa Fe province is located in the Pampean region, an area of fertile plains and the source of Argentina’s agricultural and economic development in the nineteenth century. Using records from the contribución directa (a provincial tax on the individual wealth of each contributor) for fiscal years 1864, 1867, 1868 and 1875 (supplemented with records of the National Census of 1869), we analyze the evolution of the spatial distribution of wealth in the older colonies and compare that variable with the satellite colonies that began to appear in the late 1860s. The goal is to show the unique patterns by which the colonization process led to changes in farm and land productivity.