According to Peter Winn, British railway workers brought soccer to the Rio de la Plata during the Industrial Revolution. Of course, the British got the game from roving Roman armies. In fact, in the middle ages, the game was played with 500 to a side.
Hold on. Why did the British come to Argentina and Uruguay? They came for leather and Peruvian silver, thinking that if they ventured further south they'd be rewarded with more silver. Leather they did find, however, and with the help of Portuguese traders (and the Treaty of Utrecht) gained a foothold in the region. Uruguayans, benefiting from the trade conditions, enjoyed cheap British manufactured goods. As the demand for leather in England increased, merchants pushed into lands north of the Rio Negro. All goods went through the port in Montevideo. Now do you see how railroad workers from England got here? Not to mention the soccer club they founded.
Besides leather, meat was processed into beef jerky and exported to slaves in Cuba. That's why it's called "tasajo" in both countries.
When the British first arrived in 1806 to take over Buenos Aires, they apparently coupled the military mission with an economic endeavor, selling more than 1 million pounds in textiles in four months. Even though the British military presence was felt for only a few months, apparently the governments kept more than close relations considering that by the end of the nineteenth century there was over 36 million British pounds invested in Uruguay, at the time more than in China or W. Africa.
