Early development Buenos Aires itself was founded as a port by Captain
Juan de Garay in 1580 for the
Spanish Empire. It was stymied early on, however, by merchants from the
Viceroyalty of Perú, who had the port closed in 1595. The difficulty of transporting European goods from
Lima fostered an active
smuggling trade in Buenos Aires, and locals' reliance on contraband did not subside until after the 1776 establishment of the
Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata. Following this concession, exports (mainly
salted meat and
cowhides) flourished, and
customs duties became the paramount source of public revenue. Until the latter part of the nineteenth century, however, the natural harbor of
Balizas Interiores (Interior Beacons) served as the main port. Before the current infrastructure was built, Buenos Aires had only a mooring or pier of shallow and low, swampy terrain. It was, moreover, of difficult access, as the city it served was located atop an
incline, and heavy
silt deposits on the
Río de la Plata estuary limited seaborne access, as well. Merchant ships anchored several miles offshore, where passengers and cargo transshipped to shallow-draft vessels that approach the shore. Silt and other alluvial material from the
Matanza River (south of Buenos Aires) prevented the opening of a sufficiently deep channel to facilitate shipping. Law 280, passed by the
Argentine Congress in 1868, ordered technical studies to determine the most appropriate place for the construction of a modern port. Proximity to the city was deemed essential to maintain the central government's fiscal control of its operations, mainly exerted through the collection of
duties. The distribution of these latter monies, the leading source of public revenue throughout the 19th century and as late as 1940, was the chief point of contention between Buenos Aires leaders and those from the hinterland. Drawing from an initiative first raised by Act No. 1257 October 1822, Madero contracted British engineer Sir
John Hawkshaw to design the new facility. Conceived as four contiguous
impounded docks with a floating entry basin at each end, the works began in 1884. The first dock was completed in 1888, and inaugurated on 28 January 1889, by the most prominent early supporter of the plan, Carlos Pellegrini (who was now
Vice President of Argentina). The
Panic of 1890 delayed these works, however, and they were completed only in 1897. The port, known as
Puerto Madero, had by 1907 become insufficient to meet growing maritime traffic. Puerto Madero, and its complementary Catalinas docks, could handle a maximum of 30,000 tons of cereals daily (
cereals were the leading export of Argentina, and the
foreign exchange these shipments earned were key to the
mercantile model of the time). They operated near or at capacity, however, and an expansion of the port was authorized in September 1907 by President
José Figueroa Alcorta. Luis Huergo's dormant plans for staggered docks were approved in 1911, and work promptly began on the
Puerto Nuevo (New Port). Located north of Catalinas Norte, this project was directed by Richard Souldby Oldham, Walker & Co., was delayed by the scarcity of material and financing brought about by World War I, and would ultimately require 15 years. This would add a
breakwater, five more docks, and then a sixth, to the existing infrastructure, and when these additions were inaugurated in 1925, the Port of Buenos Aires was the largest in Latin America, and the southern hemisphere. ==Operations==