Frontier Development: Land, Labour, and Capital on the Wheatlands of Argentina and Canada, 1890-1914

This is the first comparative study of the agrarian systems of the frontier lands of Argentina and Canada in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jeremy Adelman challenges much received wisdom about the economic success' of North America and thefailure' of Latin America. His book opens up important new directions for the future research in economic history.
This is a scholarly and stimulating study of settlement and expansions on the frontier lands in Canada and Argentina during their Golden Years' of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Jeremy Adelman challenges many of the assumptions made about the economicsuccess' of North America and the `failure' of Latin America.

Based on extensive primary research in Argentina, Canada, and Britain, Dr Adelman's book points to the central importance of property relations in economic history. The distribution, control, and use of land, labour, and capital shaped these emerging economies. At the centre of the analysis is the development of family farming in Canada, and large estates in Argentina. Each system presented opportunities and posed costs - Argentine estates proving more efficient than hitherto argueed, while
Canadian farms involved high social and economic costs. The approach taken here suggests directions for future research for comparative historians.