La disputa por la Nación: rentas y aduanas en la construcción estatal argentina, 1850-1865

This paper will thoroughly analyze the incomes and fiscal policies of the Argentine Confederation, mainly by comparing them to those of the then state of Buenos Aires. Historical research has generally put forward that the Confederation's role was not very important from the standpoint of its income, and thus, was unfeasible as a viable project. Nevertheless, such impressions were based more on suppositions than on real figures. By analyzing diverse reports from the Treasury and other unpublished material from a wide range of sources, the study proposed here demonstrates that it was not necessarily so. In spite of the limitations due to the scarcity and dispersion of such sources, it becomes clear that the manifest destiny of Buenos Aires as the rector of the Argentine Nation was not at all written in the stars.