Ernesto Bosch

Ernesto Bosch (left) and fellow UBA Law School alumnus José Nicolás Matienzo confer in the Law School auditorium in 1930. Ernesto Bosch (January 8, 1863 – August 22, 1951) was a prominent Argentine landowner, lawyer, and diplomat who served as the first President of the Central Bank of Argentina.

Life and times Early life and career Ernesto Mauricio Bosch Peña was born to Rosario Peña and Francisco Bosch in Buenos Aires, in 1863. Raised in privileged circumstances, he enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires and earned a juris doctor in 1889; his thesis dealt with life insurance. Bosch married Elisa María de Alvear, with whom he had nine children.

He cultivated an interest in international law, and upon graduation, was appointed Secretary of Legation in the Argentine Embassy in Paris. He served in the same capacity in Berlin, and in 1894 was named Chargé d'affaires in the United States; in this capacity Bosch helped secure Argentina's position as an ally to the latter nation. He returned to his country in 1898, and was appointed Federal Interventor (Receiver) of San Luis Province, then in the throes of separatist sentiment. Bosch served as Administrator of the Postal and Telegraph Service in 1904, and in 1905, he was named Ambassador to France.

President Sáenz Peña's failing health, and the unofficial assumption of presidential duties by Vice President Victorino de la Plaza led Bosch to resign on February 16, 1914. The alliance he and Sáenz Peña sought became reality shortly afterwards, however, when the Veracruz Incident in April prompted the first ABC Powers Conference in a bid by the three countries to mediate the United States dispute with Mexico.

The September 1930 coup against President Hipólito Yrigoyen resulted in Bosch's reappointment as Foreign Minister by General José Félix Uriburu. Bosch enjoyed cordial relations with the U.S. government, which supported the influential Standard Oil in its dispute with the deposed Yrigoyen over the latter's oil policy. Bosch resigned on October 9, 1931, to direct the panel that drafted Argentina's proposal at the World Disarmament Conference of 1932.

Central Bank President The Roca-Runciman Treaty of 1933 and the resulting abandonment of the Caja de conversión governing monetary policy since 1890 led to the formation of the Central Bank of Argentina on May 28, 1935, upon which Bosch was named its first president; completing a seven-year term, he was reconfirmed in 1942. His upholding treaty obligations to deposit World War II era trade surpluses in the Bank of England ran counter to nationalist policies advanced by the powerful Vice President, Juan Perón,