ABSTRACT
This paper studies the historical development of the automotive industry in Argentina from 1960 to 2013. The main argument is that multinational companies operating locally had an specific or distinctive way of capital valorisation, vis à vis other national cases. This specificity was essentially the appropriation of agrarian ground rent by the automotive industrial capital through two main mechanisms, namely, the cheapening of the labor force and high domestic or regional prices. In this way, the automotive multinational companies compensated for the small production scale, backward technology and low labor productivity of its factories in Argentina. These arguments are supported by the international comparison of wages, made with original statistical series, and the analysis of other evidence retrieved from specialized literature.
KEYWORDS: Automotive industry; International division of labour; Capital accumulation in Argentina; Industrial wages.