with the quality of teaching he was receiving at the University of Buenos Aires, Prebisch organised a research group with other committed peers, forming the foundations of the later renowned “Prebisch Team.” 153 It was here that Prebisch first began to note the inconsistencies between established economic theories on business cycles, and the realities experienced by Argentina. It appeared to Prebisch, through his research on Argentine economic history, that countries in the periphery – a term first coined by Prebisch that would become a mainstay of developmental lexicon – experienced business cycles differently to those in the “centre”, those more commonly known as the developed countries. However, it was not until his experience as Under Secretary of Finance in General José Félix Uriburu’s military government that Prebisch would become disenchanted with the neoclassical orthodoxy prevalent at the time. 154 Like many vulnerable economies, Argentina was faced with disaster and mass unemployment as international trade collapsed during the Great Depression. No longer could the government remain distant: strong state intervention was required to restore economic prosperity. Prebisch found his agenc y limited however, as Argentina’s export market was heavily dependent on Britain; Britain consumed ninety- four percent of total global beef exports, with Argentine exports comprising sixty-four percent of these products. 155 Argentina’s economic fate was therefore solely in the hands of the British, whom did not share the same dependency on exports as a consequence of being an industrialised nation. Argentina then, had no leverage in bilateral trade talks with its primary trading partner, a fact ruthlessly exploited by the British delegation to the Imperial Preference negotiations. Following the negotiations, Prebisch concluded that the actual “currency of international trade” was “power” 156 . Ricardian
153 Dosman, The Life and Times of Raúl Prebisch 1901-1986, page 36. 154 Dosman, The Life and Times of Raúl Prebisch 1901-1986, page 87. 155 Dosman, The Life and Times of Raúl Prebisch 1901-1986 , page 26. 156 Dosman, The Life and Times of Raúl Prebisch 1901-1986, page 81.
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