Estado y regulación económica en el Norte Argentino. El tabaco en la década de 1930

Historiography has given particular consideration to the study of government actions in relation to the Pampean economy in Argentina, given its relevance in the context of the economic strategy implemented in the late 19th century, mainly aimed at the exportation of agricultural products. Marginal economies, such as Argentinean northeast, have, therefore, been neglected to some extent by social scientists. One of the historically typical north-eastern productions - together with cotton, yerba-mate and quebracho wood- is tobacco. The purpose of this historical study is to identify the policies applied to the tobacco industry between 1930 and the first Perón administration, given its magnitude in the region and the fact that, unlike other agricultural products, tobacco generates an economy that, while keeping capital and enterprises concentrated in few hands, also involves vast social segments who live or survive on account of tobacco production and trade, and who lack an institutional protection such as Regulating Boards. To comprehend the public policies concerning this agrarian economy, their employment and effects on this marginal and peripheral region, constitutes an interesting challenge. It is particularly so if the intention is to add new explanations to compared agrarian historiography in a heterogeneous rural world. In this case, the approach is made from an inner view of this exemplary tobacco region, which cohabits with the thriving Pampean-oriented economy, precisely at the same time as the agrarian exportation reaches its pinnacle. This will allow an analysis of the causes of the long-term disregard of the region and their social actors.