Navigating in Troubled Waters: South American Exports of Food and Agricultural Products, 1900–1950

The objective of this article is to offer empirical evidence regarding the behaviour of the exports and relative prices of agricultural and food products from South America between 1900 and 1950. These were years of intense turbulence, which profoundly affected the countries of the region, generating a deep pessimism concerning the potentiality of the export-led development model. This study offers a new quantitative base to analyse the evolution of exports of agrifood products from South America between 1900 and 1938. The paper also offers a series for the evolution of the terms of trade in the region which takes into account in its construction, for the first time, the relative weights of South American exports of the distinct agricultural products. El objetivo del artículo es ofrecer evidencia empírica sobre el comportamiento de las exportaciones y precios relativos de productos agrarios y alimentos de América del Sur, entre 1900 y 1950. Estos, fueron años de intensas turbulencias que afectaron profundamente a los países de la región, lo que generó un hondo pesimismo sobre la potencialidad del modelo de desarrollo dirigido por las exportaciones. El trabajo presenta una base cuantitativa nueva para analizar la evolución de las exportaciones de productos agrarios y alimentos de Sudamérica entre 1900 y 1950. También ofrece una serie de términos de intercambio para las exportaciones agrarias de Sudamérica, que utiliza por primera vez para su construcción los pesos relativos en éstas de los distintos productos agrarios. This study has received financial support from the Government of Spain, through its Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, project ECO 2012-33286. It has also received backing from the European Social Fund and the government of Aragon, through the Research Group «Agrifood Economic History» (19th and 20th centuries)