This book describes how people of limited means within the Spanish American economy managed to get started and survive as entrepreneurs between 1750 and 1850. Based on ten years of research and a wide variety of primary and secondary sources, Professor Kinsbruner's cross-cultural profile of small retail grocers offers significant insights that cont

The Republic of Genoa was once a major commercial power. Following the Republic's decline in the seventeenth century, Genoese merchants adapted and thrived in the changing Atlantic market. Scholars have examined how other foreign merchant groups operated within the Spanish empire, but until now no one has examined how the Genoese adapted to the challenges of increasing competition in Atlantic trade. Here, Catia Brilli explores how Genoese intermediaries maintained a strong presence in Spanish colonial trade by establishing themselves at the port of Cadiz with its monopoly over American trade, and through gradually consolidating strong commercial ties with the Río de la Plata. Situated at the intersection of European, Atlantic, and Latin American history and making extensive use of Spanish, Italian, and Argentinian sources, Genoese Trade and Migration in the Spanish Atlantic, 1700–1830 provides a unique perspective on eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century transatlantic trade.

This anthology focuses on James J. Parsons' work in Latin America and in Spain, with the resulting neglect of his publications on other regions, particularly California. It includes the integration of economy and ecology. .

This book describes the established pattern of regional studies of colonial Spanish America with a study of the social history of colonial Quito rooted in the experience of its lower strata. It shows what the James Orton described as a colonial history "as lifeless as the history of Sahara".

This book presents conceptual issues regarding household commodity production and agrarian capitalism and refers to specific issues in Costa Rican historiography. It discusses the regional case-study, addressing issues such as the role of peasant farming in the development of agro-export production.

This book describes and analyzes the adaptive strategies of traditional and prehistoric farmers in one part of the Andes, in an effort to understand the varying interactions between people and their habitat over the last five hundred years.

This book argues that in addition to being a war of national liberation, Mexico's movement toward independence from Spain was also an internal war pitting classes and ethnic groups against each other, an intensely localized struggle by rural people, especially Indians, for the preservation of their communities.

In this extraordinary new book, Andrew Konove traces the history of illicit commerce in Mexico City from the seventeenth century to the twentieth, showing how it became central to the economic and political life of the city. The story centers on the untold history of the Baratillo, the city’s infamous thieves’ market. Originating in the colonial-era Plaza Mayor, the Baratillo moved to the neighborhood of Tepito in the early twentieth century, where it grew into one of the world’s largest emporiums for black-market goods. Konove uncovers the far-reaching ties between vendors in the Baratillo and political and mercantile elites in Mexico City, revealing the surprising clout of vendors who trafficked in the shadow economy and the diverse individuals who benefited from their trade.

Nineteenth-century Chile was an exceptional phenomenon in Latin America: Constitutional procedures were observed, the army remained in its barracks, and development proceeded at a perceptible pace, even to contemporary observers. This book examines the enormous contribution British merchants made toward Chilean prosperity and stability during this period. The prospect of trade initially brought the British to Chile in the early 1800s. Great Britain soon provided the largest markets for Chilean produce, and British factories produced the largest share of Chile’s manufactured imports. British merchants organized the trade and provided services and expertise wherever needed. John Mayo documents the economic aspects of the British presence in Chile, but he also surveys the social, diplomatic, and political relations between the two countries. What emerges is a picture of a mutually profitable partnership based on the simplest of all motives—self-interest.

Research on the Central American colonial experience-long overshadowed by the scholarly focus on Mexico and Peru-has begun to blossom, greatly expanding our knowledge of land and life in the region under Spanish rule. The first bibliography of its kind, Demography and Empire offers a comprehensive survey of recent literature in Spanish and i