Next to the railways the improvements in shipping have helped the development of Argentina; the shipping trade of Buenos Aires has increased at the rate of one million tons per annum for the past few years, and the entries into the port form an interesting and instructive table: 

The following statement gives the total tonnage that passed through the port of Buenos Aires from 1880 to 1909, and will more clearly show the increase and advance made in the last thirty years.  These figures include both steamers and sailing-vessels, and local as well as foreign trade:—­

Tons. 1880 ... 644,750 1881 ... 827,072 1882 ... 995,597 1883 ... 1,207,321 1884 ... 1,782,382 1885 ... 2,200,779 1886 ... 2,408,323 1887 ... 3,369,057 1888 ... 3,396,212 1889 ... 3,804,037 1890 ... 4,507,096 1891 ... 4,546,729 1892 ... 5,475,942 1893 ... 6,177,818 1894 ... 6,686,123 1895 ... 6,894,834 1896 ... 6,115,547 1897 ... 7,365,547 1898 ... 8,051,045 1899 ... 8,741,934 1900 ... 8,047,010 1901 ... 8,661,300 1902 ... 8,902,605 1903 ... 10,269,298 1904 ... 10,424,615 1905 ... 11,467,954 1906 ... 12,448,219 1907 ... 13,335,733 1908 ... 15,465,417 1909 ... 16,993,973

In 1897, out of the total number of steamers that entered Buenos Aires, viz., 901, with a tonnage of 2,342,391; 519, with a tonnage of 1,327,571, were British.  Taking the year 1909 we find that 2,008 steamers and 137 sailing-vessels entered the port of Buenos Aires from foreign shores with a tonnage of 5,193,542, and 1,978 steamers and 129 sailing-vessels left the port for foreign shores with a tonnage of 5,174,114; out of these, British boats lead with 2,242 steamers and 37 sailing-vessels, or say 53-1/2 per cent. of the total.  Germany comes next with 456 steamers and 2 sailing-vessels, or say 10-3/4 per cent, of the total.  Italy with 307 steamers and 67 sailing-vessels is next, and then France with 264 steamers.  The total number of steamers that entered and left the port from local and foreign ports is 13,485, with a tonnage of 14,481,526, and 20,264 sailing-vessels with 2,512,447 tons, which make up the amount of 16,993,973 tons, as shown above.

In the year 1884 the experiment of freezing beef, killed in Buenos Aires, and shipping it to Europe was first tried.  That was successful, but an immense improvement was made when the process of chilling became the common means by which meat could be exported.  The frozen beef trade in Argentina has had a wonderful development; it commenced in 1884, and the export of chilled meat has progressed steadily at the rate of 25,000 beeves yearly, until, in 1908, it reached the enormous quantity of 573,946 beeves, or 180,000 tons.  Frozen mutton has remained comparatively steady, and has only increased by 38,000 tons in twenty-two years, or from 2,000,000 sheep frozen in 1886 to 3,297,667 in 1908, whilst “jerked beef,” which was mostly sent to Cuba and Brazil, has fallen from 50,000 tons per annum to 6,651 tons.  The value of frozen and preserved meats exported in 1908 was L5,233,948.