We shall ultimately have occasion to inquire how far this debt weighs upon the resources of the Treasury, what the burden per inhabitant amounts to, and how it stands in relation to the debts of other countries. For the moment we must glance backward in order to realise the historical conditions under which this debt was contracted, and what its destination has been.[102] The first credit transaction effected by the Republic abroad was concluded a few years after the Declaration of Independence. In 1822 the Province of Buenos Ayres, which had always been the heart and head of the Republic, taking its place, indeed, under certain conditions, and under others representing it in foreign countries, was fortunate in having at its head a progressive Government, which, by its profitable initiative, has left ineradicable traces behind it. The President was General Martino Rodriguez; the Ministers included Bernadino Rivadavia and Manuelo-Josepho Garcia. [Footnote 102: See, in _The North American Review_ for May 1902, an article by Señor Alberto Martinez, entitled: “National Debts of the World. IX. Public Debt of Argentina.”] This Government cast its eyes over the empty surface of the vast Argentine territory; it saw immense wealth unexploited, for lack of the necessary elements; it realised its great need of material progress, and understood, with a just and clairvoyant judgment, that of all these needs the most urgent were the construction of a port for the exchange of products with the outside world, the instalment of a water supply which would ensure health to the inhabitants, and the establishment of villages along the line of the new frontier, serving as desert outposts, and constituting a military pale to withstand and confine the irruptions of the savage Indians. For the realisation of these then important undertakings of public utility the Government of 1822 resolved to obtain the necessary resources, by raising a loan of a million sterling, giving as consideration a dividend of 6 per cent. and an annual redemption of 1 per cent.; the House of Baring to act as agents for the loan. Unhappily the executive power employed the resources furnished by this transaction in founding a bank which had a very short existence, and the intended public works were not effected. More than half a century elapsed before their realisation.