Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T16:26:26.815Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

9 - Latin America: 1700–1870

from Part I - Regional Developments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2021

By
Regina Grafe
Edited by
Stephen Broadberry  and
Kyoji Fukao
Stephen Broadberry
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
Kyoji Fukao
Affiliation:
Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo
Get access

Summary

This chapter discusses the paths of Spanish and Lusophone America from the late colonial period through independence for most of Latin America to 1870. Relative continuity from colony to independent empire in Brazil contrasts sharply with regime change from colonial to republican systems in mainland Spanish America. Late colonial economies expanded significantly. Trading systems were transformed in the later eighteenth century; mining and slavery-based staple exports expanded fast, as did market integration within Latin America. Indicators of living standards show great diversity but paint a relatively positive picture until at least the last quarter of the eighteenth century. War and independence in the early nineteenth century knocked mainland Spanish America off its path of preindustrial expansion, while Brazil continued to expand. Rather than a ‘reversal of fortune’ new Spanish American republics faced the costs of a transition from a corporate political economy to an incipient republican one. It destroyed the fiscal basis of the state, led to increased concentration of landholdings, and dislocated goods and financial markets. Also, weak states failed to replace corporate structures of protections of the weaker social strata with individual access to legal protections. Regime change created opportunities for growth in the long run, but its immediate result was more inequality and falling living standards for significant parts of the population.

Keywords

colonial trade systemsindependenceinequalityminingregime changeslaverystandard of livingstaple exports
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Economic History of the Modern World , pp. 219 - 245
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, D. and Robinson, J. A. (2012). Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty, New York: Crown.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S. and Robinson, J. (2002). ‘Reversal of Fortune: Geography and Institutions in the Making of the Modern World Income Distribution’, Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117(4), 1231–1294.Google Scholar
Arroyo Abad, L. (2014). ‘Failure to Launch: Cost of Living and Living Standards in Peru During the 19th Century’, Revista de Historia Economica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 32(1), 47–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arroyo Abad, L. and van Zanden, J. L. (2015). ‘Optimistic but Flawed? A Reply’, Revista de historia Economica/Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 33(1), 77–82.Google Scholar
Arroyo Abad, L. and van Zanden, J. L. (2016). ‘Growth under Extractive Institutions? Latin American Per Capita Gdp in Colonialtimes’, Journal of Economic History, 76(4), 1182–1215.Google Scholar
Arroyo Abad, L., Davies, E. and van Zanden, J. L. (2012). ‘Between Conquest and Independence: Real Wages and Demographic Change in Spanish America, 1530–1820’, Explorations in Economic History, 49(2), 149–166.Google Scholar
Assadourian, C. S. (1983). El Sistema De La Económia Colonial, Mexico: El Mercado Interior, Regiones Y Espacio Económico.Google Scholar
Baskes, J. (2013). Staying Afloat : Risk and Uncertainty in Spanish Atlantic World Trade, 1760–1820, Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Bergad, L. (2007). The Comparative Histories of Slavery in Brazil, Cuba, and the United States, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bértola, L. and Ocampo, J. A. (2012). The Economic Development of Latin America since Independence, Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bignon, V., Esteves, R. and Herranz‐Loncán, A. (2015). ‘Big Push or Big Grab? Railways, Government Activism, and Export Growth in Latin America, 1865–1913’, Economic History Review, 68(4), 1277–1305.Google Scholar
Burkholder, M. A. and Chandler, D. S. (1977). From Impotence to Authority. The Spanish Crown and the American Audiencias, 1687–1808, Columbia: University of Missouri Press.Google Scholar
Cardim, P., Herzog, T., Ruiz Ibáñez, J. J. and Sabatini, G. (2012). Polycentric Monarchies: How Did Early Modern Spain and Portugal Achieve and Maintain a Global Hegemony?, Portland: Eastbourne.Google Scholar
Coatsworth, J. H. (2006). ‘Political Economy and Economic Organization’, in Bulmer-Thomas, V., Coatsworth, J. H. and Cortés-Conde, R. (eds.), The Colonial Era and the Short Nineteenth Century, vol. 1 of The Cambridge History of Latin America, Cambridge University Press, 237–273.Google Scholar
Contreras Carrenza, C. (1999). ‘En la mineria hispoamericana después de la independencia. Estudio comparative de Bolivia, Chile, México y Peru’, in Bornemann, M. M. (ed.), In dos décados de investigación en historia económica comparada en América Latina: Homage a Carlos Sempat Assadourian. Mexico: El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Históricos, 255–283.Google Scholar
Contreras Carrenza, C. (2010). ‘La Mineria En El Peru En La Epoca Colonial Tardia, 1700–1824’, in Chocano, M., Contreras, C., Quiroz, F., Mazzeo, C. A. and Flores, R. (eds.), Compendio De Historia Economica Del Peru, Tomo 3: Economia Del Periodo Colonial Tardio, Lima: Banco Central de Reserva del Peru – El Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 103–168.Google Scholar
Contreras Carrenza, C. (2014). ‘Crecimiento Económico En El Perú Bajo Los Borbones, 1700 – 1820’, working paper PUCP Depto de Economia.Google Scholar
Costa, L. F., Rocha, M. M. and Sousa, R. M. de. (2013). O Ouro Do Brasil, Lisbon, Impresa Nacional-Casa da Moeda.Google Scholar
Costa, L. F., Palma, N. and Reis, J. (2015). ‘The Great Escape? The Contribution of the Empire to Portugal’s Economic Growth, 1500–1800’, European Review of Economic History, 19, 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, L. F., Lains, P. and Miranda, S. M. (2016). An Economic History of Portugal, 1143–2010, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobado González, R. (2015). ‘Pre-Independence Spanish Americans: Poor, Short and Unequal … or the Opposite?’, Revista de Historia Economica / Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 33(1), 15–59.Google Scholar
Dobado, R. and Marrero, G. (2014). ‘El Mining-Led Growth En El México Borbonico, El Papel Del Estado Y El Coste De La Independencia’, in Hausberger, B. and Ibarra, A. (eds.), Oro Y Plata En Los Inicios De La Economia Global: De Las Minas a La Moneda, Mexico: El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Históricos, 177–216.Google Scholar
Duenas, A. (2010). Indians and Mestizos in the ‘Lettered City’: Reshaping Justice, Social Hierarchy, and Political Culture in Colonial Peru, Boulder: University Press of Colorado.Google Scholar
Floud, R., Wachter, K. and Gregory, A. (1990). Height, Health and History: Nutritional Status in the United Kingdom, 1750–1980, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fradkin, R. and Garavaglia, J. C. (2009). La Argentina Colonial: El Río De La Plata Entre Los Siglos Xvi Y Xix, Buenos Aires: Siglo Veintiuno Editores.Google Scholar
Gárate Ojanguren, M. (1990). La Real Compañía Guipuzcoana De Caracas, San Sebastian: Sociedad Guipuzcoana de Ediciones y Publicaciones.Google Scholar
Gárate Ojanguren, M. (1994). Comercio Ultramarino E Ilustración: La Real Compañía De La Habana, San Sebastian; Donostia.Google Scholar
Gelman, J. (2011). ‘Senderos Que Se Bifurcan. Las Economias De América Latina Luego De Las Independencias’, in Bértola, L. and Gerchunoff, S. (eds.), Institucionalidad Y Desarrollo Economico En América Latina, Santiago: Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), 19–42.Google Scholar
Grafe, R. (2012). Distant Tyranny. Markets, Power and Backwardness in Spain 1650–1800, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Grafe, R. (2015). ‘Tyrannie À Distance: La Construction De L’état Polycentrique Et Les Systèmes Fiscaux En Espagne (1650–1800)’, in Beguin, K. (ed.), Ressources Publiques Et Construction Étatique En Europe, Paris: Open Edition Books, 167–186.Google Scholar
Grafe, R. and Irigoin, A. (2012). ‘A Stakeholder Empire: The Political Economy of Spanish Imperial Rule in America’, Economic History Review, 65 (2), 609–651.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Halperin Donghi, T. (1992). ‘Backward Looks and Forward Glimpses from a Quincentennial Vantage Point’, Journal of Latin American Studies Supplement, 219–234.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irigoin, A. (2000). ‘Inconvertible Paper Money, Inflation and Economic Performance in Early Nineteenth Century Argentina’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 32(2), 333–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irigoin, A. (2008). ‘Gresham on Horseback: The Monetary Roots of Spanish American Political Fragmentation in the Nineteenth Century’, Economic History Review, 62(3), 551–575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Irigoin, A. and Grafe, R. (2008). ‘Bargaining for Absolutism: A Spanish Path to Empire and Nation Building’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 88(2), 173–210.Google Scholar
Kalamovitz, S. (2008). ‘Las Consecuencias Economicas De La Independencia En América Latina’, Revista de Economía Institucional, 10(19), 207–233.Google Scholar
Klein, H. S. (1998). The American Finances of the Spanish Empire. Royal Income and Expenditures in Colonial Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia, 1680–1809, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Klein, H. S. and Tepaske, J. J. (1982). The Royal Treasuries of the Spanish Empire in America, Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Kuethe, A. J. and Andrien, K. J. (2014). The Spanish Atlantic World in the Eighteenth Century: War and the Bourbon Reforms, 1713–1796, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lamikiz, X. (2009). ‘Patrones De Comercio Y Flujo De Información Comercial Entre España Y América Durante El Siglo Xviii’, Revista de Historia Economica, 25(2), 233–260.Google Scholar
Leff, N. (1997). ‘Economic Development in Brazil, 1822–1913’, in Haber, S. (ed.), How Latin America Fell Behind, Stanford University Press, 34–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynch, J. (1973). The Spanish American Revolutions, 1808–1826, New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Marichal, C. (1989). A Century of Debt Crises in Latin America: From Independence to the Great Depression, 1820–1930, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mazzeo, C. (2010). ‘El Comercio Colonial a lo Largo del Siglo XVIII y su Transformación, Frente a las Coyunturas de Cambio’, in Chocano, M., Contreras, C., Quiroz, F., Mazzeo, C. A. and Flores, R. (eds.), Compendio De Historia Economica Del Peru. Tomo 3: Economia Del Periodo Colonial Tardio, Lima: Banco Central de Reserva del Peru – El Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 223–294.Google Scholar
Newson, L. A. (2006). ‘The Demographic Impact of Colonisation’, in Bulmer-Thomas, V., Coatsworth, J. H. and Cortés-Conde, R. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Latin America, Cambridge University Press, 143–184.Google Scholar
Ocampo, J. A. (2011). ‘La Historia Divergente De Las Economias Grancolombianas’, in Bértola, L. and Gerchunoff, S. (eds.), Institucionalidad Y Desarrollo Economico En América Latina, Santiago: Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), 191–223.Google Scholar
Owensby, B. P. (2008). Empire of Law and Indian Justice in Colonial Mexico, Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Palma, N. (2016). ‘Sailing Away from Malthus: Intercontinental Trade and European Economic Growth, 1500–1800’, Cliometrica, 10, 129–149.Google Scholar
Palma, N. and Silva, A. C. (2016). ‘Spending a Windfall: American Precious Metals and Euro-Asian Trade 1492–1815’, GGDC Research Memorandum.Google Scholar
Pearce, A. J. (2011). ‘Reindigenization and Native Languages in Peru’s long Nineteenth Century (1795–1940)’, in Heggarty, P. and Pearce, A. J. (eds.), History and Language in the Andes, London: Palgrave Macmillan, 135–163.Google Scholar
Pedreira, J. M. (2000). ‘From Growth to Collapse: Portugal, Brazil, and the Breakdown of the Old Colonial System (1760–1830)’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 80(4), 839–864.Google Scholar
Platt, T. (1984). ‘Liberalism and Ethnocide in the Southern Andes’, History Workshop Journal, 17, 3–28.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, L. (2009). ‘Lost Decades? Economic Performance in Post-Independence Latin America’, Journal of Latin American Studies, 41(2), 279–307.Google Scholar
Reséndez, A. (2016). The Other Slavery : The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.Google Scholar
Santamaria Garcia, A. (2011). ‘Dos Siglos De Especializacion Y Dos Decadas De Incértidumbre. La Historia Economica De Cuba 1800–2010’, in Bértola, L. and Gerchunoff, S. (eds.), Institucionalidad Y Desarrollo Economico En América Latina, Santiago: Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), 135–223.Google Scholar
Schulz, K. (2016). ‘Atlantic Transformations and Brazil’s Imperial Independence’, in Tutino, J. (ed.), New Countries. Capitalism, Revolutions, and Nations in the Americas, 1750–1870, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 201–230.Google Scholar
Seminario, B. (2016). El Desarrollo De La Economia Peruana En La Era Moderna. Precios, Demanda Y Produccion Desde 1700, Lima: Universidad del Pacifico.Google Scholar
TePaske, J. J. and Brown, K. W. (2010). ‘A New World of Gold and Silver’, E-book, Leiden: Brill, www.scribd.com/document/273627347/A-New-World-of-gold-an-silver (accessed 30 September 2020).Google Scholar
Vinson, B. (2001). Bearing Arms for His Majesty: The Free-Colored Militia in Colonial Mexico, Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
von Wobeser, G. (1990). ‘La Inquisicion Como Institucion Crediticia En El Siglo Xviii’, Historia Mexicana, 39(4), 849–879.Google Scholar
Zahedieh, N. (2010). The Capital and the Colonies : London and the Atlantic Economy, 1660–1700, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×