New estimates of Spain's current-account balance with the «Indies» add new perspectives to the recent debate on the aims and results of Spanish commercial policy. At the height of «comercio libre» in 1784–92, Spain's private commercial interests appear to have drawn larger financial returns from the Indies than did their British counterparts from wider colonial engagement. On this as on other scores, by the eve of the French wars the Spanish empire appears to have become a sounder economic proposition than might be inferred from recent pessimistic views. The empire's subsequent demise may have involved a greater degree of geographical and dynastic accident than is seemingly apparent.

In this paper we examine a proposal regarding the organization of the system of primary education in Chile submitted by then Deputy Manuel Montt. This project represented a long overdue initiative in support of the diffusion of education in Chile and a radical way of viewing its organization. To the extent that this project included considerations regarding the funding of this system, it also seems relevant to the organization of Chile's fiscal framework. Although Montt's proposal was ultimately discarded, the related discussions represent an interesting setting for fundamental debates regarding the foundation of the fiscal system of 19th century Chile.

The statistical accuracy of Historical Foreign Trade Sources has been stated by Federico and Tena (1991) and Tena (1985, 19991 y 1992). This article follows his works in the most suspect field: geographical distribution. We have use Latin American Coal Trade Data among 1908–1930. Most international trade, considering weight, was coal trade; meanwhile it is an ideal product to isolate geographical effects. Statistical disagreements persistence makes us to think this is not a random phenomenon. We have specified an econometric model based on distance. Results show that including geography we can understand statistical disagreements. As a consequence Latin American Sources appear reasonably accurate, considering its geographical pattern.

The quantitative and comparative analysis of Spanish and Portuguese cork exportations during the 20th century shows that Spain lost its leading position in the world trade of transformed cork while Portugal rose to claim first place. This article takes a step towards identifying the institutional aspects behind the different paths taken by the cork business in the two countries between 1930 and 1975. Starting with a comparative analysis of the legal framework and economic policies which had an impact on the various branches of business during the two Iberian dictatorships, it is argued that Salazar and Franco attributed different degrees of importance to the cork sector. It concludes that these institutional aspects explain a part of the loss of competitiveness of Spanish exports in comparison with Portuguese exports, insofar as they influenced the extent to which the two economies participated in international trade flows as well as production costs in the industry.

This article surveys the situation of the shipping cartels (conferences) which regulated transatlantic migrant transport from the European Continent to the United States. The focus of the article is to identify the internal and external pressures underlying these agreements and the strategies employed to neutralize these pressures. The author reaches the conclusion that a pool agreement was essential for the effectiveness of the Conference, which was both a means of horizontal integration regulating the competition between shipping companies and a means of vertical integration to gain control over the transatlantic migrant agent network selling the ocean passage tickets. The author also correlates the efficiency of the agreements with steerage fares and migration costs.

In this essay I analyze the impact of the many constitutions Colombia drafted during the nineteenth century on its economic development. Some prototypical constitutions are chosen as they became building blocks of the legal structure of the country. I try to show that constitutional and legal instability played a more important role in the lack of development than the Spanish legacy. While commercial, political and religious monopolies were inherited and constituted the ideological base of the conservatives, many of them were dismantled by the liberal reforms. The loss of the political order which the Spanish had maintained for three centuries was followed by the painful search for a new political code, for which the Creole elites were responsible. The excesses of concentration or diffusion of power produced the pendulum movements between centralism and federalism which were essential causes of the political disorder during the nineteenth century, which held back the country's economic performance.

In this paper we explore the determinants of women's work using data from Barcelona in 1930. Although participation rates were much lower in Barcelona than in cities in the UK or the US at roughly the same time, our estimates of the labour supply suggest women in Barcelona did respond to wage incentives. The most distinguishable feature of the household division of labour in Barcelona is the lack of substitution effects among family members, especially among women. The sensitivity of the participation of each individual woman to the participation of other members of the household might indicate that labour markets were highly segmented and anticipates the existence of large differences in household earnings and welfare. We argue that the persistence of labour-intensive methods of production requiring on-the-job training might explain the type of household division of labour that we find in Barcelona.

The economic history of Uruguay throughout the 20th century, and more especially its second half, is characterized by a long-term economic decline. From the end of the Second World War, economic institutions and the policies adopted were unable to create a favorable climate for growth and development. This article presents evidence to support the idea that institutional factors played a part in the weak GDP growth and the high level of cyclical volatility between 1920 and 2001. Some factors stand out as particularly relevant: the weakening of governments' political power, increasing fragmentation of the political system, an excessively discretional monetary policy and the existence of opportunistic political cycles in macroeconomic policies.

During the first half of the 20th century, most electric utilities were owned by foreign companies in Latin America as well as in Argentina, where the electric system was managed by firms of different nationalities and types. After comparing the trajectories of the firms, the article explores the causes of the unsuccessful performance of the electric utilities managed by British and American companies in Argentina. The results show that the life-cycles of electric utility companies greatly diverged according to their style of management and financing, the entry into the market, and the level of capitalization and technology applied to electrical networks.

This paper studies the links between the evolution of Spain's balance of payments and Spanish-American economic diplomacy along 1917 and 1918. The development of these relations may be useful to explain a great deal about the downturn in Spanish foreign commerce during the last year of WWI. After their entrance into the conflict, the United States toughened their commercial policies and made the Spaniards work hard to keep both their international trade and the freedom of their merchant marine. Contacts between the two countries dealt also with the repatriation of Spain's foreign debt and the use of its extraordinary profits to make loans to the Allied nations. The negotiations ended up in March and August, 1918 with the signing of two bilateral agreements, whose consequences can be followed using the monthly figures of trade between America and the Iberian Peninsula.

This paper adopts an unbiased approach to the evolution of Spanish foreign trade (1869–1999). It aims to characterize the long-run performance of the Spanish external sector by applying a statistical analysis to the new series presented by Prados (2003). We identify two well-defined, clearly distinguished stages separated by a period of transition. The first stage, until 1935, was one of unpredictable trade and little connection with national income. The transition, a volatile period, lasted until 1960. This year marks the beginning of a second stage, characterized by a mature, predictable trade strongly linked with income.

The possible existence of Internal Labour Markets (ILMs) in the Spanish railway company MZA at the beginning of the Second Industrial Revolution is explored by means of non-linear Optimal Scaling techniques. The results show the presence of two characteristics of ILMs predicted by the theory: the existence of «ports of entry» for the employees of the company at low levels of qualification, and the presence of long-term labour relations. Thus, in common with recent studies on UK railway companies, we conclude that the company MZA operated some kind of ILM before the start of the 20th Century.

This article documents and interprets the Spanish trade in American cotton which developed between the 1740s and 1790s. Following an analysis of the historiography concerning the trade, it provides data on the quantities imported, the state, ginned or unginned, in which it was imported, its origins in the American empire, the shipping arrangements made for its transport, the charges for its freight and the prices which were paid for it in Spain. It shows the growth of the trade to be related to growing demand for raw cotton during the early stages of Catalan industrialization, the meeting of which was facilitated by the reforms introduced in the Hispanic colonial system.

The impact of Francoist autarkic economic policy on Spain's economy is assessed using Domestic Resource Cost (DRC) as an indicator. This indicator compares the real opportunity cost of the primary factors used in the production of a certain good with its added value at international prices. Our results indicate that the inefficient allocation of productive factors induced by the interventionist economic policy resulted in a significant loss of efficiency for the economy. Only 50 out of 125 industries or, in other words, 39 per cent of Spanish industrial production, could be considered efficient. However, the paper also shows that the Spanish economy was in a good position to take advantage of the opportunities created by the 1959 reform, as most industrial production was on the verge of relative efficiency.