Los límites de la gran empresa agraria en el nacimiento del capitalismo rioplatense. Una estancia entrerriana durante la primera mitad del siglo XIX

Abstract

In this article we analyze the performance of a large River Plate estancia from the early 1800s until it was sold after a great expansion of the activity in the mid-nineteenth century. The research shows that this rationally operated estancia experienced strong challenges for sustaining competitiveness. Those challenges were enhanced by the large-scale activities developed, which determined a poor economic performance according to the last financial statements. Beyond the nature of the firm’s management and the control of productive factors, the unstable economic conditions as well as the high costs for fitting to new activities in a period of structural change, hindered the resolution of the bottlenecks in large estancias, provoking the lost of competitiveness in the dynamic staple export phase.