The role of the Spanish imperial state in the mining-led growth of Bourbon Mexico's economy1

Abstract

Colonial Mexico's economy experienced a long phase of growth during the eighteenth century. Around 1800, silver exports and fiscal surplus remittances from the colony rose to unprecedented levels. We study the contribution of the Spanish imperial state's policy to the expansion of silver production and the leading role of mining in economic growth and its fiscal implications. We find evidence to support a more favourable view of both the mining sector and the imperial state than that commonly presented in the literature. The interruption of colonial ‘mining‐led growth’ helps to explain the ‘lost decades’ for the economic development of Mexico after independence.

Neither So Low nor So Short: Wages and Heights in Bourbon Spanish America from an International Comparative Perspective

“…This paper presents a partial revision of some widespread assumptions regarding the economic history of Bourbon Spanish America. By doing so, it then shares some basic characteristics with a small, albeit increasing, literature (e.g., Prados, 2006Grafe and Irigoin , 2006;Irigoin, 2008Irigoin, , 2009Irigoin, , 2010Dobado andGarcía, 2009, 2010;Dobado and Marrero, 2011). This emergent revisionism departs from the very pessimistic judgment about the Spanish America's economic performance from conquest to independence that permeates mainstream scholarship.…”

“…See those views inEngerman and Sokoloff (1994,Acemoglu et al (2002) andBruhn and Gallego (2008). A critique inDobado and García (2010) andDobado and Marrero (2011).32 That silver wages in Bourbon America were clearly higher than in Asia is consistent withBroadberry and Gupta (2006) andAllen et al (2010). According toAllen et al (2011), silver wages in Potosí (mitayos) and Mexico were third only to North America and London and Southern England towns while those in Bogotá and rural New Spain were surpassed only by those in Amsterdam, Madrid and Antwerp and higher than in the rest of the world.33 Most likely, Chilean grain wages must have been also comparatively high, as this General Captaincy was a net exporter of wheat.…”

“…Specially telling in this respect is the case of miners in New Spain and Upper Peru, supposedly the epitome of colonial exploitation. 55 The fact is that labour was not only, or mainly, obtained through 'extractive institutions', as posited by Acemoglu et al (2002), but instead, during the Bourbon 55 More details on labour conditions of New Spain miners in Dobado and Marrero (2011). 23 period, it increasingly resulted from an institution of 'private property' that did not exit before 1492: a market for wage labour.…”

“…More generally, it is our contention that important aspects of the mainstream view on the economic history of Spanish America from conquest to independence need a revision in depth. This revision has already been partially initiated by some authors (Prados, 2007Grafe and Irigoin, 2006;Irigoin, 2008Irigoin, , 2009Irigoin, , 2010Dobado andGarcía, 2009, 2010;Dobado and Marrero, 2011). This paper is organized as follows: the next section is dedicated to nominal (silver) and real wages; the third section deals with physical statures; some final remarks appear in the last section.…”

Resolución de enigmas geológicos e históricos utilizando técnicas gemológicas avanzadas: Caso del ópalo noble de Franco Dávila (1772)

“…La foto 5d está tomada del interior de la caja de plata y muestra granulaciones e irregularidades de una plata que contiene Au, U, Hg, cloruro de plata y sulfuro de plata inferidos desde la analítica EDS (Tabla 1). Este cóctel composicional tiene (ver Tabla 1): (i) componentes residuales de la mineralización original de plata como la acantita (Ag 2 S) de Zacatecas o Guanajuato (Chutas & Sack, 2004;Canet et al, 2009;Moncada et al, 2012;Mango et al, 2014) (ii) componentes residuales del proceso de extracción metalúrgica, como el mercurio y el cloruro de plata por el proceso de amalgama mercurial según el método del patio seguido en aquel entonces en los virreinatos de Nueva España o de Perú en sus momentos de máxima producción histórica hacia 1772 que es la fecha de manufactura de la montura del ópalo (Fisher, 1977) (Ponzio de Léon, 1998;RamosArroyo, Prol-Ledesma et al, 2004;Dobado & Marrero, 2011), y (iii) componentes añadidos durante el proceso de creación de la manufactura joyera, por ejemplo, el propio oro.…”