The Financing of San Martin’s Expeditions
The question of whether Argentina or Chile contributed the larger share of the expenses of San Martln's two liberating expeditions has long been a subject of debate between historians of the two nations. Emilio Hansen, an authority on Argentine financial history, has declared that when the government of the province of Buenos Aires (as the successor to the government of the directorate of the United Provinces of Rio de la Plata) attempted in 1822 to consolidate its debt, it found it had a total indebtedness of 4,500,000 pesos. He maintains that a large part of this debt represented amounts still owed Argentina by Chile and Peru for the liberating expeditions to these two countries. Chile and Peru, he claims, had paid nothing on these debts. But, he said, it appeared also that Buenos Aires, had made no serious efforts to collect these sums.1 Another Argentine historian, Vicente F. L'opez, states that the "Argentine government had spent in money and recognized debts" four to five million pesos, used for expenses in liberating and defending Chile from 1817 to 1820, and that Argentina could not get Chile to recognize this debt even as a matter of decorum.2 On the other hand, Chilean historians generally have insisted that Chile received no financial aid from Argentina for the expedition to Peru. Says the distinguished Diego Barros Arana on this point: