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Uruguay Postindependence Era
During the decades immediately following independence,
however, political instability, not livestock production
techniques, limited the development of Uruguay's rural
economy.
Until the mid-1800s, rival factions vied for control of
the
countryside, obstructing commerce and confiscating or
destroying
cattle and other property. Foreign investment, which was
to play
an important role in building up Uruguay's infrastructure,
was
delayed. And although the rural population was small to
begin
with, many settlers left the countryside in search of more
peaceful surroundings. Those who remained operated cattle
ranches
(estancias) or practiced subsistence agriculture.
Rural struggles for political control thus slowed the
growth
of the livestock sector. By contrast, Montevideo,
Uruguay's
capital, where political struggles were less strident
because of
the city's booming trade and bustling social and cultural
life,
rapidly became a hub of economic activity. Montevideo was
not
founded until 1726, but its superb port allowed it to gain
an
increasing role in regional and international trade. In
the
1800s, the Uruguayan capital became an important
transshipment
point because European importers and exporters preferred
its port
to that of nearby Buenos Aires (until the latter was
improved in
the 1870s). However, the volume of foreign traded goods
passing
through Montevideo had only a minimal impact on rural
Uruguay. As
a result, the city's development outpaced and diverged
from that
of the countryside. The different economic interests in
the two
areas helped drive a wedge between rural elites, who had
amassed
large landholdings and resented foreign involvement in the
economy, and urban businessmen, who adopted
outward-oriented
attitudes and profited from trade. Later, profits from
exports
would become important to rural livestock producers as
well, but
the contrast between urban and rural economic (and
political)
orientations would persist.
Data as of December 1990
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