The importance of the Spanish American economy to the finances of the Spanish Crown has been studied for long time. In Bankruptcy of Empire: Mexican Silver and the Wars between Spain, Britain, and France, 1760-1810, Carlos Marichal goes in depth into this issue, arguing that “the enormous extraction of Mexican silver... was used mainly to finance an extraordinary succession of wars between Spain, Britain, and France”. He focuses on Mexico because, he states, “in terms of colonial tax productivity, it is hard to find examples in history that surpass Mexico in the eighteenth century”. By focusing in British and French empires, Marichal hopes to contribute to the growing field of transatlantic history.

https://dialnet.unirioja.es/descarga/articulo/7064581.pdf

Bankrupt of empire: mexican silver and the wars between Spain, Britain, and France, 1760-1810

Herencia colonial y desarrollo económico en Iberoamérica: una nueva crítica a la "nueva ortodoxia"

This study looks at human capital in Spain during the early stages of modern economic growth. In order to do so, we have assembled a new dataset on ageheaping and literacy in Spain for both men and women between 1877 and 1930 based on six population censuses with information for 49 provinces. Our results show that age-heaping was less prevalent during the second half of the 19th century than previously thought and did not decrease until the early twentieth century. By contrast, literacy increased throughout the whole period. Interestingly, age-heaping and illiteracy rates depict similar spatial patterns which confirm the stark differences in human capital within Spain. Lastly, we raise critical questions as regards sources, methods, and the interpretation of age-heaping.

Two stories, one fate: Age-heaping and literacy in Spain, 1877-1930

/pdf/eru-korehio-de-mehiko-el-colegio-de-mexico-2vmd0fv813.pdf

エル・コレヒオ・デ・メヒコ(El Colegio de México)

In recent decades, economic historians have debated when globalization began. Based upon a narrow definition of globalization focused on price convergence, providing evidence of market integration, one side argues that globalization began in the early nineteenth century. A competing argument defines globalization in broad geographical terms, citing multidisciplinary evidence to support the claim that globalization began during the sixteenth century. Both views are reviewed in this essay. When commodity market integration is considered under the narrow definition of globalization, now known as “hard globalization”, our study reveals abundant evidence of price convergence across markets in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe prior to the nineteenth century (notwithstanding deliberate mercantilist trading company policies designed to hinder convergence of prices). Assessment of globalization must expand beyond purely economic aspects (including price convergence). Imported epidemics dramatically depopulated the Western Hemisphere upon initial arrival of Europeans, for instance, resulting in eventual transoceanic shipment of millions of slaves. Oceanic connections also generated Columbian and Magellan exchanges that transformed physical geographies across Earth, promulgating worldwide agricultural and population explosions with multidimensional feedback loops that continue to reverberate to this day. Our conclusion is twofold: (a) globalization began during the sixteenth (not nineteenth) century, and (b) twenty-first century globalization is characterized by cultural, ecological, economic, epidemiological, demographic, and political interactions initiated 4.5 centuries ago upon fusion of Eastern and Western hemispheres, after 10,000+ years of mutual isolation due to ocean levels that rose by hundreds of feet during the interglacial Holocene.

The Significance of Early Globalization: Arguments and Evidence

This article presents new evidence and analysis on age heaping -a proxy for numeracy and therefore for human capital- in New Spain during the Enlightenment. Human capital plays an important role in economic growth and welfare. It is also one of the dimensions of inequality. Our results are at odds with many of the usual assumptions on which most Mexicanist historiography is based. Age heaping levels of males and females and ethnic groups across locations in Central New Spain are estimated and compared through ad hoc indicators with other countries. We infer that a more empirical emphasis on the institutional legacy of the viceregal period and more attention to human capital since pre-Conquest times will benefit the progress of Hispanic American economic history.

/pdf/numeracy-in-central-new-spain-during-the-enlightenment-3d5oobplrm.pdf

Andrés Calderón-Fernández

Papers

Numeracy in central new spain during the enlightenment