When Perón became president on June 4, 1946, his two stated goals were social justice

and economic independence. These two goals avoided Cold War entanglements which would

have occurred by choosing capitalism over socialism or vice versa, but there were no concrete

means to achieve those goals. Perón instructed his economic advisors to develop a five-year

plan aimed at increasing workers' pay, achieving full employment, stimulating industrial growth

of over 40% while diversifying the sector (then dominated by agriculture), and greatly improving

transportation, communication, energy and social infrastructure (in the private, as well as public,

sectors).

During the first half of the 20th century, a widening gap had existed between the classes

which Perón hoped to close through the increase of wages and employment, making the nation

more pluralistic and less reliant on foreign trade. Even before he took office in 1946, President

Perón took dramatic steps that he felt would result in a more economically independent

Argentina, better insulated from events such as World War II; Perón believed there would be a

third. The reduced availability of imports and the war's beneficial effects on both the quantity

and price of Argentine exports had combined to create a near two billion cumulative surplus

during those years. In his first two years in office alone, he nationalized the Central Bank, paid

off its billion-dollar debt to the Bank of England, nationalized the railways (mostly owned by

British and French companies), universities, public utilities, public transport (then, mostly

tramways) and, probably most significantly, created a single purchaser for the nation's mostly

export-oriented grains and oilseeds, the Institute for the Promotion of Trade (IAPI). The IAPI

fought for control of Argentina's famed grain