The shift to "modern" and its consequences: changes in property rights and wealth distribution in Buenos Aires, 1839-1914

DJENDEREDJIAN, JULIO; SANTILLI, DANIEL

Property Rights in Land. Issues in Social, Economic and Global History

Routledge

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2017; p. 74 - 90

From 1839 to 1914, rural areas of Buenos Aires experienced significant changes. They included the transformation of old rights on land access, and the settling up of new or ?modern? property rights, granted by specific government offices. Through a sample case, this paper is trying to evaluate the impact of these changes in land prices (which rise at a pace often double than other production factors), and how that rise affected wealth distribution. All the period is scored by fast economic development, shifting from extensive cattle production to sheep farming and then to commercial crops. But, if this development asserted increases in the proportion of landowners on total population, at the same time inequality between owners grew, or did not declined substantially. As our case study shows, capital investment that took place since 1881, with the new system of property rights in full force, was a contributing factor to hold up inequality. But, the peak of inequality was reached through the previous period, when new property rights were settled up. If conclusions are not to be generalized, in any case they show a new approach to the effects of ?modern? property rights in a context of fast rural growth.