Already in the nineteenth century several historians analyzed the financial and monetary experiments in Argentina, particularly in the State of Buenos Aires during the first decades after Independence; thus, there are quite a handful of classic and modern authors in this matter. One of the earliest examples is that of Agustín De Vedia, El Banco Nacional: historia financiera de la República Argentina, 1811-1854, tomo 1, Buenos Aires, 1890, a text that can be complemented by reading Nicolás Casarino, El Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires 1822-1922, Buenos Aires, 1923 and Horacio Juan Cuccorese, Historia del Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, 1972.

An excelent, now classic, monograph on British merchants in nineteenth century Buenos Aires can be found in Vera Reber “British Mercantile Houses in Buenos Aires, 1810-1880”, doctoral theses, University of Wisconsin, 1972. For an introduction to the history of Banco de Descuentos de Buenos Aires, (1822-1825), Banco Nacional (1826-1834) and Casa de Moneda (1835-1854), is obligatory to consider Samuel Amaral. “Comercio y crédito Buenos Aires, 1822-1826” América, 1977, no. 4, pp. 9-49; “El Banco Nacional y las finanzas de Buenos Aires” en VI Congreso Internacional de Historia de América. Buenos Aires: Academia Nacional de la Historia, 1982, vol. 5, pp. 415-429; and “El empréstito de Londres de 1824” Desarrollo Económico, 1984, vol. 23, no. 92, pp. 559-588. Also important is Samuel Amaral, The Rise of Capitalism on the Pampas: The Estancias of Buenos Aires, 1785-1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.

Banking History Bibliography has been growing steadily in Brazil. As we already stated, there is a very important number of masters and doctorates associated to the field during the past two decades. Brazilian Universities have studied credit and commerce interaction during the nineteenth century; their efforts suggest the presence of new trends within the younger generation of researchers in Economic and Financial History inside Brazil. These Works can be read in the website ran by the colleagues from the Associação Brasileira de Pesquisadores em História Econômica: http://www.abphe.org.br/

Not so well acknowledged, but exceptional regarding pre-banking credit circuits in Brazil during the nineteenth century, is Joseph James Ryan’s doctoral dissertation: Credit where Credit is Due: Lending and Borrowing in Rio de Janeiro, 1802—1900, doctoral theses, University of California at Los Angeles, 2007. A classic study which dedicates several of its chapters to credit among coffee plantations in Rio de Janeiro is the excellent work by Stanley Stein Vassouras: A Brazilian Coffee County, 1850-1890, Harvard University Press, 1958. On the first Bank of Brazil (1808-1829), consider the notorious and classic study of Carlos Manuel Peláez, “The Establishment of Banking Institutions in a Backward Economy: Brazil, 1800-1851”, Business History Review, (1975) vol. 49, no. 4, pp. 39-57; Théo Lobarinhas Piñeiro “Negociantes, independencia e o primeiro banco do Brasil: uma trajectoria de poder e grandes negócios en Tempo”, (Universidade Federal Fluminense) vol, 8, no.15 (2003), pp.71-9; and, from the same author, “Política e crédito agrícola ano Brasil do século XIX”, in América Latina en la Historia Económica, no.6, julio- diciembre, 1996, pp.41-53.

For an early history of Banco do Brasil consult the thoughtful essay by José Luis Cardoso, “Novos elementos para a história do Banco do Brasil (1808-1829): crónica de um fracasso anunciado: A new contribution to the history of the Bank of Brazil (1808-1829): chronicle of a foretold failure,” Revista Brasileira de História. São Paulo, v. 30, nº 59, (2010) pp. 167-192. Still useful is Carlos Manuel Pelaez, “The Establishment of Banking Institutions in a Backward Economy, Brazil, 1800-1851,” Business History review, vol. XLIX, no 4 (1975), pp.447-472. An official history of the Bank of Brazil exists; it was prepared by the lawyers  Afonso Arinos, Mello Franco and Cláudio Pacheco and published in several volumes which now can be downloaded in a digital format from the Bank itself: http://www.bb.com.br/docs/pub/inst/dwn/LivroBB1.pdf?codigoMenu=1193&codigoRet=14956&bread=3_7. Other traditional references are: Victor Viana, O Banco do Brasil: sua formação seu engrandecimento. sua missã nacional, Jornal do Comércio, Rio de Janeiro, 1926. Alfonso Arinos de Mello Franco, História do Banco do Brasil. 1808-1835, s.l., 1973. Vicente Paz Fontenla, História dos Bancos no Brasil, s.c. l, Rio de Janeiro, 1965. In 2010 the Bank of Brazil published a new synthesis of 208 pages under the name História do Banco do Brasil, Río de Janeiro, Banco do Brasil.

For the earliest public finance of Brazil consider  Maria Teresa Ribeiro, “Economic policies and bankruptcy institutions: Brazil in a period of transition from colony to an independent nation,” Economia, Selecta, Brasılia , v.7, n.4, (2010), p.99–121. Also quite helpful is Marcelo Paiva Abreu and Luis A. Correa de Lago, “Property Rights and the Fiscal and Financial Systems in Brazil: Colonial Heritage and the Imperial Period” in M. Bordo y R. Cortes Conde, (eds.), From the Old to the New World: Monetary and Fiscal Institutions in the 17th through the 19th Centuries, Cambridge University Press, 2001, pp. 327-377. An article that may guide the interested researcher into the international financial ties of Imperial Brazil is Caroline Shaw, ‘Rothschilds and Brazil: an introduction to sources in The Rothschild Archive’, Latin American Research Review, 40, no.l, ( February, 2005), 165-85.

The best introduction to the monetary system of Bolivia and its historic region and nearby countries during the first decades of independent life, can be found in the Works of Antonio Mitre: “Los patriarcas de la plata. Estructura socioeconómica de la minería boliviana en el siglo XIX” (Lima, IEP, 1981) and “El monedero de los Andes. Región económica y moneda boliviana en el siglo XIX”, México, Instituto Mora, 2004. Also consider Alejandra Irigoin, “La desintegracion de la economia colonial en el Rio de la Plata: los efectos de la fragmentacion monetaria en Potosi y Buenos Aires, 1820 –1860” in Revista de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Autónoma Gabriel Moreno, La Paz Bolivia, vol. 10, no. 1, (2004), pp. 77-148.

To approach the monetary system and credit circuits in Independent Chile consider René Millar Carvacho, “Políticas y teorìas monetarias en Chile, 1810-1925”, Santiago, Universidad Gabriela Mistral, 1994; Eduardo Cavieres, Comercio chileno y comerciantes ingleses, 1820-1880, Valparaíso, Universidad Católica, 1988; Pierre Vaysierre, Un siècle de capitalisme minier au Chili, 1830- 1930, Toulouse, CNRS, 1980; César Ross, “Origenes de la vida bancaria en chile (1811-1850), Revista Libertador O´Higgins, viii, no. 8, 1992, 19-57. It’s crucial to consult Sergio Vllalobos, Orígen y ascenso de la burguesía chilena, Santiago, Editorial Universitaria, 1987, which is a synthesis of his mayor works. From the same author, there are two classic studies on trading houses in the first half of the nineteenth century: Eduardo Cavieres, “Comercio chileno y comerciantes ingleses 1820-1880: un ciclo de Historia Económica”, Valparaíso, Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, 1988 and “Estructura y funcionamiento de las sociedades comerciales de Valparaíso durante el siglo XIX (1820-1880)” in Cuadernos de Historia, nº 4, 1984.

More recently, look into the remarkable study of  Manuel Llorca, The British Textile Trade in South America in the Nineteenth Century, Cambridge University Press, 2012; this study is rooted in the trading house Huth & Co.’s archives, in England, and in several other trading house’s archives. It intends to analyze unclear but crucial facts of the credit and insurance markets in the first half of the nineteenth century. Banking related issues became ubiquitous in the business press of Chile during the decade of 1840; this can be confirmed through the source: Pedro Félix Vicuña, Cartas sobre bancos, recopiladas de las que ha insertado el Mercurio de Valparaiso, Imprenta del Mercurio, 1845.

For commerce, merchants and merchant’s credits in Cuba during the first half of the nineteenth century consider José Antonio Piqueras, La esclavitud en las Españas: un lazo transatlántico, Madrid, Editorial Catarata, 2012; Antonio Santamaría García and Alejandro García Alvarez, Economía y colonia: la economía cubana y la relación con España, 1765-1902, Madrid, CSIS, 2004; and Roland T. Ely, Comerciantes cubanos del siglo XIX, La Habana, Ed. Librería Martí, 1961. Regarding taxation and early experiments with paper money in the Spanish Caribbean look into the many essays and case studies by Inés Roldan de Montaud, ed., Las haciendas públicas en el Caribe hispano durante el siglo XIX, Madrid, CSIC, 2008. For early sources on banking in Cuba we mention, as a classical example, the text by Jaime Badía, Cartas sobre los bancos de los Estados-Unidos, La Habana, Imprenta de Gobierno y de Marina, 1840.

A synthesis of the mechanisms of Mexican monetary system after independence can be found in  José Antonio Batiz y José Enrique Covarrubias (eds.), La moneda en México, 1750-1920, México, Instituto Mora, 1998. For deepening into the Banco de Amortización del Cobre consider the monographs by Javier Torres, “De monedas y motines: los problemas del cobre durante la primera república central de México, 1835-1842”, master degree dissertation, UNAM, 1994, and José E Covarrubias, La moneda de cobre en México, 1760-1842, México, UNAM, 2000. For the first experiments in investment banking in Latin America it is mandatory to read the classical study by Robert Potash, El Banco de Avío de México: el fomento de la industria, 1821-1846, México, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1959. Complations of various works on early banking in Mexico are those by L. Ludlow y C. Marichal, eds., Banca y poder en México, 1800-1925, México, Grijalbo, 1986; and, from the same authors: Un siglo de banca en México, Instituto Mora, 1998 (the later includes mid-century booklets rcontaining proposals for early banking experiments).

Case studies on merchant bankers in the first half of the nineteenth century in Mexico were compiled by Ciro Cardoso et al, Formación y desarrollo de la burguesía en México, Siglo XIX, México, Siglo XXI, 1978. For a detailed study on British trading houses consider Hilarie Heath,”British comercial Houses in Mexico, 1821-1867”, Ph.D., London School of Economics and Political Science, 1988. Undoubtly, the best case study of a family of merchant bankers in the nineteenth century was written by David Walker, Parentesco, negocios y política: la familia Martínez del Río en México, 1823-1867, México, Alianza Mexicana, 1991. A pioneer work on the managment of public credit by merchants is that of Barbara Tenenbaum, México en la época de los agiotistas, 1820-1854, México, Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1987. A study on credit within the pawn shop scheme was carried on by Marie Francois, A Culture of Everyday Credit: Housekeeping, Pawnbroking and Governance in Mexico City, 1750-1920, University of Nebraska Press, 2006. An undeniable reference point is the one provided in Richard Salvucci, Politics, Markets and Mexico´s “London Debt”, 1823-1887, Cambridge University Press, 2009.

An important work on ecclesiastic credit in this period was done by Francisco Cervantes, “De la impiedad y la usura: los capitales eclesiásticos y el crédito en Puebla, 1825-1863”, doctoral dissertation, El Colegio de México. 1992. For an excelent study on the Church and its credit during the first half of the nineteenth century in Michoacan consult Margaret Chowning, “The Management of Church Wealth in Michoacán, Mexico, 1810-1856: Economic motivations and political implications,” Journal of Latin American Studies, 32 (1990), pp.459-497. More recently, consider the doctoral dissertation by César Castañeda Vázquez del Mercado, Crédit et développement agricole à Valladolid de Michoacán, Mexique 1750-1860, doctoral dissertation, l’EHESS, Paris, 2006. Also mandatory is the monograph by Eugene Wiemers “Agricultural Credit in 19th Century Mexico: Orizaba and Córdoba, 1822-1871, Hispanic American Historical Review, 65, 3 (1985), pp. 519-546. An enlightened study on the transition from colonial credit system to credit circuits in independent Mexico can be found in the volumen edited by Leonor Ludlow and Jorge Silva, Los negocios y las ganancias: de la colonia al México moderno, México, Instituto Mora, 1993, here they include around twenty essays on rural credit, ecclesiastic and urban loans, merchant bankers and primitive banks.

Among the most important studies on credit and finance of independent Peru, this holds the first place: Alfonso Quiroz, La deuda defraudada: consolidación de 1850 y dominio económico en el Perú, Lima, 1987. There the author analyses the leading roles within finance and commerce between 1820 and 1850. Also of great utility are the Works by José Deustúa, La minería peruana y la iniciación de la República, Lima, 1986 and El embrujo de la plata. La economía social de la minería en el Perú del siglo XIX, Lima, Banco Central de Reserva del Perú/Instituto de Estudios Peruanos, 2009. It is also unavoidable to mention is Paul Gootenberg, Between Silver and Guano: Comercial Policy and the State in Postindependence Peru, Princeton University Press, 1989. For contemporary monetary history consider the volumen coordinated by Christine Hunefeldt, Apuntes sobre el proceso histórico de la moneda de Perú, 1820-1920, Banco Central de Reserva del Perú, 1990.

To approach the banking and financial history of Brazil it is mandatory to consult some of the classical authors on money and banks in that country, among which are: Liberato Castro Carreira, Historia financeira do Brasil, Río de Janeiro, 1889; J. P. Calogeras, La Politique Monétaire du Brésil, (primera edición, Río de Janeiro, 1910) reedición Sao Paulo, Cia. Editora Nacional, 1960; and A. Cavalcanti, O Meio Circulante Nacional, Rio de Janeiro, Imprensa Nacional, 1893. A lesser known work is the one by Candido Baptista de Oliveira, Systema Financial do Brasil, published in Saint Petersburg in 1842 by the Brazilian ambassador in Russia (the very rare volume we consulted is in the Banco do Brasil’s library. A very cited classic is Bernardo Souza Franco, Os bancos do Brasil: sua história, defeitos da organizaçao, e reforma do sistema bancário, Rio de Janeiro, 1848, reed., in Brasilia, Editora Universidades de Brasilia, 1984. Perhaps the most useful works of ton barnking of that period are those of Sebastião Ferreira Soares, Esboço ou primeiros traços da crise commerciale da cidade do Rio de Janeiro em 10 de setembro de 1864, Rio de Janeiro, Almanake Laemmert, 1865, and his extraordinary synthesis: Sebastião Ferreira Soares, Elementos de estatística compreendendo a teoria da ciência e a sua aplicação à estatística comercial do Brasil. Rio de Janeiro, Typographia Nacional, 1865, in which he analyzes each bank and banking sector of its time.

An extensive and updated bibliography on banking history in Brazil during the first three quarters of the nineteenth century can be found in Carlos Gabriel Guimaraes, A Presença inglesa nas finanças e no comercio no Brasil Imperial: os casos da sociedad Bancária, Maú, MacGregor & Cia (1854-1866) e da firma inglesa Samuel Phillips & Cia (1808-1840), Río de Janerio, 2012. From the same author: “O Império e os bancos comerciais do Rio de Janeiro na segunda metade do século XIX: os casos do Banco Mauá, MacGregor & Cia., do Banco Rural e Hipotecário do Rio de Janeiro e do Banco Comercial e Agrícola”, in Anais do III Congresso Brasileiro de História Econômica, which can be downloaded in http://www.abphe.org.br/congresso1999/Textos/CARL_4B.pdf. It is also highly recommended the very detailed and suggestive work by Thiago Fontelas Rosado Gambi, “A Banco da Ordem: política e finanças no imperio brasileiro, 1853-1866,” doctoral dissertation, Universidad de São Paulo, 2010. All of María Barbary Levy’s works have to be consulted, however it is of great importance her great Historia da Bolsa de Valores do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, IBMEC, 1979); and with Ana María Andrade “A Gestão Monetária na Formaçao do Estado Nacional”, en Revista Brasileira do Mercado des Capitais, no.17, pp. 138-152, (maio/agosto, 1980), Rio de Janeiro; and “Fundamentos do Sistema Bancário no Brasil: 1834-1860”, Estudos Económicos, no. 15, pp. 17-48, (1985). To acknowledge some sources for studying banking history in Brazil consider Flavio Saes, “Fontes para a história dos bancos no Brasil” en América Latina en la Historia Económica, México, Instituto Mora, no. 3, pp. 63-72: disponible en línea en http://alhe.mora.edu.mx/sistema/hmiconsulta2.php?paso=1.

The Brazilian banking and monetary systems cannot be approached without consulting Carlos Peláez and Wilson Suzigan, Historia monetaria do Brasil: Analise da politica, comportamento e instituçoes monetarias (Brasilia, Editora Universidade de Brasilia, 1976). For credit, early capital markets and regional banking consider Flavio Saes, Crédito e Bancos no Desenvolvimento de Economic Paulista, 1850-1930 (Sao Paulo, 1986). Also important are Joseph Sweigart, “Joseph Coffee factorage and the emergence of a Brazilian capital market, 1850-1888” Nueva York, 1987, and Anne G. Hanley, Capital markets in the coffee economy: financial institutions and economic change in São Paulo, Brazil, 1850-1905, Stanford Univeristy Press, 1995. Banks in Bahía were studied by Thales de Azevedo and E. Q. Vieira Lins, Historia do Banco da Bahía, 1858-1958, Livraria José Olympio, Rio de Janeiro, 1969. We also recommend this work on mortgage loans by Renato Leite Marcondes, “O Financiamento Hipotecário da Cafeicultura noVale do Paraíba Paulista (1865-87),” Revista Brasileira de Economia, vol. 56, nº1, enero marzo, 2002. The British economic historian William Summerhill has written numerous works on Brazilian financial history and has recently published what can be considered the main study on Brazilian national debt of the nineteenth century: Inglorious Revolution: Political Institutions, Sovereign Debt, and Financial Underdevelopment in Imperial Brazil, Yale Series in Economic and Financial History, October 2015.

The most important work on banking related debates and financial policy deliberations in mid-nineteenth century Brazil is, without question: André Arruda Villela “The Political Economy of Money and Banking in Brazil, 1850-1870” Ph.D thesis, London School of Economics (LSE), 1999 (available on-line). For an excellent complement: Ana María Ribeiro de Andrade, “1864: Conflito entre metalistas e pluralistas”, master dissertation, Instituto de Filosofía y Ciencias Sociales de la Universidade Federal do Río de Janeiro, octubre, 1987. Finally, special attention has to be drawn to the data bases that allow us to glimpse into economic policy legislation, official reports on banking, ministerial memoires and contemporary parliamentary debates, all of which fortunately can be consulted on-line (for example: Coleção das Leis do Império do Brasil, en versión electrónica en: http://bd.camara.gov.br/bd). Another on-line source for official documents on commerce and banking in nineteenth century Brazil, unparalleled database in Latin America, is http://www.crl.edu/brazil.

The best introduction to the monetary system of Bolivia and its historic region and nearby countries during the first decades of independent life, can be found in the Works of Antonio Mitre: “Los patriarcas de la plata. Estructura socioeconómica de la minería boliviana en el siglo XIX” (Lima, IEP, 1981) and “El monedero de los Andes. Región económica y moneda boliviana en el siglo XIX”, México, Instituto Mora, 2004. Also consider Alejandra Irigoin, “La desintegracion de la economia colonial en el Rio de la Plata: los efectos de la fragmentacion monetaria en Potosi y Buenos Aires, 1820 –1860” in Revista de Humanidades y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Autónoma Gabriel Moreno, La Paz Bolivia, vol. 10, no. 1, (2004), pp. 77-148.

Two useful sources for studying the history of credit in mid-nineteenth century Colombia are: Richard Hyland, “The Secularization of Credit in the Canca Valley, Colombia 1851-1880,” Ph. D. thesis (University of California Berkeley, 1979), and Frank Safford, “Commerce and enterprise in Central Colombia, 1821-1870,” Ph. D. thesis (Columbia University, 1965). Also important is the relationship between credit, commerce and public financed studied by Marco Palacios, El café en Colombia: una historia económica, social y política, Bogotá, Planeta, El Colegio de México, 2002, 3ª edición. Regional banking has been studied the most, always rooted in archive material, is María Mercedes Botero Restrepo. Particularly her essay “La banca regional en Colombia (1872-1923): El caso de Antioquia,” in Carlos Marichal (coord.) número especial de la Revista de la Historia de la Economía y de la Empresa, “Los bancos en América Latina en los siglos XIX y XXI”, (Bilbao, 2012), Archivo BBVA, no. 6, pp.77-98.

When getting into the history of free banking in Colombia and the rest of Latin America it is convenient to research into the international debates resumed efficiently by Hugo Rockoff, The Free Banking Era: A Reexamination, Nueva York 1975; and Lawrence White, Free Banking in Britain: Theory, Experience and Debate, 1800-1845, London, 2008. Speciffic studies on free banking in Colombia can be consulted in L.M. Echeverri, “Banca libre: La experiencia colombiana en el siglo XIX”, en F. Sánchez (ed.), Ensayos de historia monetaria y bancaria de Colombia, Bogotá 1994, pp. 305–33; A. Hernández, La moneda en Colombia, Bogotá, 2001; Adolfo Meisel, “Free banking in Colombia”, en K. Dowd (ed.), The experience of free banking Nueva York, 1992, pp. 93–102; and J. Timoté, “Desempeño económico y régimen monetario colombiano en el siglo XIX: de la banca libre a la centralización”, master degree disertation, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Bogotá, 2010.

The main source for monetary history and banking history in Colombia is Adolfo Meisel, et al, El Banco de la República: Antecedentes, Evolución y Estructura (Bogotá, Banco de la República, 1990), 2 vols., which should be complemented with  Juan Santiago Correa R., Moneda y nación: del federalismo al centralismo económico en Colombia, 1850-1922, Bogotá, 2010 and the excellent compilation of reputed essays in Fabio Sánchez, ed., Ensayos de historia monetaria y bancaria de Colombia, Bogotá, 1994, which includes, among other formidable studies, the notable essay by Carmen Astrid Romero, “La banca privada en Bogotá (1870-1922)”. Also indispensable for the financial history of nineteenth century Colombia is Adolfo Meisel Roca and María Teresa Ramírez, eds., Economía Colombiana del Siglo XIX, Bogotá 2010, particularly the essays on finance and economy by Roberto Junguito, Mauricio Avella and José Antonio Ocampo, respectively, all of which come with important historical statistics.

The most renown classic history of the monetary and banking systems of nineteenth century Chile is Guillermo Subercaseaux, El Papel Moneda (Santiago de Chile, 1912); and, by the same author: History of Monetary Policy in Chile, Oxford, 1922. Another classical study on banking is Luis Barros Borgoño, La Caja de Crédito Hipotecario. Su organización i réjimen económico, con un estudio sobre la constitución de la propiedad i el réjimen hipotecario. Santiago: Cervantes, 1912, 2 vols. An excellent synthesis is R. Millar Políticas y teorías monetarias en Chile, 1810-1925, Santiago, 1994. A comprehensive review on the same subject can be found in the studies by Agustín Llona Rodrìguez, for eample: “Chilean Monetary History, 1860-1925. An Overview”, in Revista de Historia Económica (Madrid) xv,1 (1997), 125-160; and his doctoral dissertation “Chilean Monetary Policy, 1860-1925”, Ph.D., Boston University, 1990. Another important study is the master degree thesis by Cesar Ross Orellana, “Concentración y especulación bancaria en Chile, 1860-1895”, Universidad de Chile, 1996, and his book: Poder, Mercado y Estado: Los Bancos de Chile en el Siglo XIX, Santiago de Chile, 2003.

A penetrating and detailed study on credits taken by the Chilean mining industry during the nineteenth century is that of Pierre Vaysierre, Un siècle de capitalisme minière an Chile, 1830-1930 (Paris, CNRS, 1980). For a history on the first mortgage bank see Raúl Cordero Rebolledo. Historia de la Caja de Crédito Hipotecario, Imprenta Salesianos S.A. Santiago, 1999. A detailed monographic study of a specific merchant banker is in Juan Eduardo Vargas Carriola, José Tomás Ramos Font, una fortuna chilena del siglo XIX, Santiago, 1988. For a study on banks and companies of the mid nineteenth century that complements the works by Eduardo Cavieres, already mentioned, consider Robert B. Oppenheimer, “National Capital and National Development: financing Chile’s Central Valley Railroads,” Business History Review, vol. LVI, no.1, 1982, pp. 54-75. In order to understand the impact of the 1873 crisis on banking and other companies consult the essay by William Slater, “Chile and the World Depression of the 1870’s, Journal of Latin American Studies, II, no. 1, (mayo de 1979), pp. 67-99.

The study by F. Fetter, Monetary Inflation in Chile, Princeton University Press, 1931, has traditionally been considered a seminal work in the monetary history of Chile; it proposed a critic of the free banking experience in the country and considered it inherently unstable. However, in the last few decades many revisionist studies have tried to deepen into the free banking experience in Chile between 1860 and 1878. Among them we found studies by Ignacio Muñoz Delaunoy, Una economía monetaria descentralizada: la “banca libre” chilena del siglo XIX, (bachelor dissertation, Universidad Católica de Chile, 1998), accessible on line, and the work by Briones Rojas, Banque libre : de l’idée à la réalité : le cas du Chili, 1860-1898, doctoral dissertation in París, defended in 2004, and the monograph by professor P. Jeftanovic y R. Lüders, La Banca Libre en Chile, Santiago, la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile , 2006.

Historiography on the development of banks in Central America is still scarce, however important texts do exist. Among them: Rufino Pacheco, Ciento Cinco Años de Vida Bancaria en Costa Rica (San José de Costa Rica, 1958); Bernardo Villalobos Vega, Bancos emisores y bancos hipotecarios en Costa Rica, 1850-1910, San José de Costa Rica, 1981; and José R. Corrales, El Banco Anglo Costarricense y el desarrollo económico de Costa Rica, 1863-1914, San José, Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2000. Also fundamental are the studies by Rodrigo Quesada Monge, especially his essay “Costa Rica, 1860-1890: Café, Bancos y Crecimiento Económico, en Revista de la Historia de la Economía y de la Empresa, no. 6, 2012, (Archivo Histórico BBVA, Bilbao), pp.99-128.

For a history of banking in Cuba it is mandatory, in the first place, Inés Roldán, La banca de emisión en Cuba, 1856–1898, Madrid, Banco de España, 2004. Also useful is the work by Susan J. Fernánez, Encumbered Cuba: Capital markets and revolt, 1878-1895, Gainesville, University of florida Press, 2002. Consider for the same purpose the great synthesis work by Carlos Tablada and Galia Castelló, La historia de la banca en Cuba: del siglo XIX al XXI, La Habana, Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 2007, vol. 1 “La Colonia”; and the remarkable volume by Francisco Comin Comín, Angles Pascual Martínez Soto and Inés Roldán, Las cajas de ahorro de las provincias de Ultramar, 1840-1898, Madrid, 2010. Coplementary, it is suggested to read Inés Roldán “El Banco Español de La Habana, 1856-1898: historia de un emisor colonial,” in Revista de la Historia de la Economía y de la Empresa, Archivo BBVA, no. 6, 2012, pp.183-219. For Puerto Rico consult Angel Pascual Martínez Soto, “Los orígenes del crédito y las instituciones bancarias en Puerto Rico, 1814-1878 in Revista de la Historia de la Economía y de la Empresa, Archivo BBVA, no. 6, 2012, pp.219-256.

Banking history in Ecuador has today an excellent synthesis by Wilson Miño Grijalva, Breve historia bancaria del Ecuador, Quito, Corporación Editorial Nacional, 2008. General approaches on credit and banking in nineteenth century are those by Luis Alberto Corbo, Historia monetaria y cambiaria del Ecuador desde la época colonial. Quito, Banco Central del Ecuador, 1953; Julio Estrada Ycaza, Los Bancos del siglo XIX. Guayaquil, Archivo Histórico de Guayas, 1976; and Linda Alexander Rodríguez, The Search for Public Policy: Regional Politics and Government Finances in Ecuador, 1830-1940, Berkeley, University of California Press, 1985.

Numerous studies by Leonor Ludlow offer a broad approach to the Mexican banks of the nineteenth century; this includes her doctoral dissertation, “Las dinastías financieras en la Ciudad de México: de la libertad comercial a la reforma liberal”, doctoral theses, El Colegio de Michoacán, 1995. From the same prolific author consider the essay “La disputa financiera por el imperio de Maximiliano y los proyectos de fundación de instituciones de crédito (1863-1867)”, en Historia Mexicana, XLVII:4 (188) (abr.-jun. 2001), pp. 765-805; and “Nacimiento y desarrollo del Banco Nacional de México, 1884-1915”, in C. Marichal y P . Tedde, coords., La formación de los bancos centrales en España y América Latina, siglos XIX y XX, Banco de España, Madrid, pp.159-178.

For the slow formation of capital markets in nineteenth century Mexico consult Carlos Marichal, “Obstacles to the Development of Capital Markets in Mexico in the Nineteenth Century”, en Stephen Haber, ed., How Latin America Fell Behind, Stanford University Press, 1997 pp. 118-145, which has been traduced as “Obstáculos para el desarrollo del mercado de capitales en el México del siglo XIX”, in Jorge Silva Riquer, Juan Carlos Grosso y Carmen Yuste (comps.), Circuitos mercantiles y mercados en Latinoamérica, siglos XVIII-XIX, México, IIH-UNAM, Instituto Mora, 1995, pp. 500-561. For the last quarter of the century consider Noel Maurer, The Power and the Money: Credible Commitments and the Financial System in Mexico, 1876-1932, Stanford University Press, 2006 and Mónica Gómez, “Un sistema bancario con emisión de billetes por empresarios privados: el comportamiento del Banco Nacional de México en el proceso de creación de dinero, 1884-1910,” doctoral dissertation, El Colegio de México, 2001. Merchant bankers and the first regional banks were studied on numerous studies by Mario Cerruti, among which we only cite here Burguesía, capitales e industria en el norte de México, 1850-1910, México, Alianza/UANL, 1992. Notoriously useful are the eight case studies by reputed economic historians compiled in the volume edited by Mario Cerutti and Carlos Marichal, comps., La Banca regional en México, 1870-1930, México, Fondo de Cultura Económica/El Colegio de México, 2003. A study on non-banking credit during this period is the one by Juliette Levy, The Making of a Market: Credit, Henequen and Notaries in Yucatán, 1850-1900, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2012.

A comprehensive historiographical review on banking history in Mexico can be found in Gustavo del Angel and Carlos Marichal, “Poder y crisis: Historiografía reciente del crédito y la banca en México, siglos XIX y XX”, in Historia Mexicana, LII, No. 3, (2003), pp. 677-724. A compilation of ten essays on early banking in the country can be consulted in the volume by Leonor Ludlow and Carlos Marichal eds., La banca en México, 1820-1920, México, Instituto Mora, 1998. For an important overview on credit in the nineteenth century consider Paolo Riguzzi, “Los pobres por pobres, los ricos por ignorancia: el mercado financiero en México, 1860-1925, las razones de una ausencia,” en M.Carmagnani, A.Hernández Chávez y R. Romano (coords.), Para una historia de América Latina. Volumen II, Los nudos, Fondo de Cultura Económica/El Colegio de México, 1999, pp. pp. 344-373. The first experiments with private banking as limited companies in Mexico date back to the Second Mexican Empire: it is mandatory to read the institutionally commissioned Historia del Banco de Londres y México, 1864-1964, Mexico, 1964. For a panoramic overview consult Leonor Ludlow “La primera etapa de formación bancaria, 1864-1897”, in Leonor Ludlow and Jorge Silva, (comps.): Los negocios y las ganancias: de la colonia al México moderno, Instituto Mora, México, 1993. Also important is the work by Carlos Marichal and Paolo Riguzzi, “Bancos y banqueros europeos en México, 1864-1933”, en Sandra Kuntz Ficker y Horst Pietschmann (eds.), México y la Economía Atlántica (siglos XVIII-XX), México, El Colegio de México, 2006, pp. 207-237.

A study on Peruvian economic history that bears rich information on taxes and finance is the one by  Carlos Contreras, ed., Historia ecónomica de Perú, Banco Central de Reserva del Perú, 2010, text that can be accessed on-line. Equally important is, by the same author, La economía pública en el Perú después del guano y del salitre, Lima, Banco Central de Reserva de Perú/IEP, 2012; it also embraces a penetrating analysis and almost exhaustive account on taxation in nineteenth century Peru. The classical book of reference for the first Peruvian banks is Carlos Camprubi Alcazar, Historia de los bancos en el Perú, 1860-1879, Lima, s.p.i, 1957, which compiles abundant information extracted from contemporary newspapers, legislative records and reports and books of the period.

Without any doubt, the most complete works on banking history in Peru are those by Alfonso W. Quiroz, Banqueros en conflicto: Estructura financiera y economía peruana, 1884-1930, Lima, Centro de Investigación de la Universidad del Pacifico, 1989; and, from the same author, Domestic and Foreign Finance in Peru, 1850-1950: Financing Visions of Development, Pittsburg University Press, 1993. For a wide bibliography on Peruvian finance of the nineteenth century read the thirty pages long references at the end of another of Quiroz’ great books: Corrupt Circles: A History of Unbound Graft in Peru, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008. For a study based on French and Peruvian sources regarding banking and debt during the guano era consider the classical study by Heraclio Bonilla, Guano y burguesía en el Perú, Lima, IEP, 1974, among the many works of this prolific author. In order to comprehend the economic thought behind these financial projects read Paul Gootenberg, Imagining Development: Economic Ideas in Peru´s fictitious “Prosperity” of Guano, 1840-1880, Berkeley, University California Press, 1993.

The study of Uruguayan finance during the nineteenth century demands to consider the classical works by politician and thinker Eduardo Acevedo, among them: Notas y apuntes: Contribución al estudio de la historia económica y financiera de la República Oriental del Uruguay, Montevideo, El Siglo Ilustrado, 1903, 2 vols. For the history of the Bank Mauá in Uruguay it is greately useful the correspondence between Andrés Lamas and Mauá, published by Lidia Besouchet, Mauá y su época, Buenos Aires, 1940, translated and edited in Sao Paulo in 1942. Information about credit circuits during the first eight decades of the nineteenth century can be found in the classical work by Benjamín Nahum and Pedro Barran, Historia rural del Uruguay, Montevideo, Ediciones de la Banda Oriental, 1970-1972, vol. 1 y 2. Also mandatory are the extremely detailed monographs, of more than a thousand pages, on the origins of banking in mid-nineteenth century Uruguay by Juan E. Pivel Devoto, “Contribución a la historia económica y financiera del Uruguay. Los Bancos, 1824-1868” in Revista Histórica, XLVIII, vol. 48, no. 142, (Montevideo, 1976), pp.1-428; and “Contribución a la historia económica y financiera del Uruguay. Los Bancos, 1868-1876” in Revista Histórica, LXXII, vol.51, no. 151, (Montevideo, 1979), pp.1-1047.

The most complete historiographical review on Uruguayan banking is Raúl Jacob “La historia de los bancos en Uruguay: balance y perspectivas”, en América Latina en la Historia Económica, México, Instituto Mora, no. 3, pp.15-28 (1995) available on-line in http://alhe.mora.edu.mx/index3.html. In the cited work Jacob mentions there are two main ways to deepen into banking history; the first one has been embraced by Devoto, who roots his study in official memoires, parliamentary debates, articles and newspapers to recreate the institutional frames of banking through time. On the contrary, for a detailed macroeconomic history, both quantitative and qualitative, long term access to a specific bank’s archive is required. It would be desirable to have stable access to the historical documents held by the Banco Comercial in Montevideo from 1858 to our date, but the bank’s officials still have not opened their archives to consult such a great historic and cultural patrimony. Another unexplored yet fundamental source is the rich archive of the ephimerous but powerful Banco Nacional (1887-1891), whose documents are available in the Archivo Nacional in Montevideo.

Literature on Venezuelan banking history is scarce, however consider the essay by Nikita Harwich Ballenilla, Formación y crisis de un sistema financiero nacional: Banca y Estado en Venezuela, 1830-1940, Caracas, Ed. Buriá, 1986. Also consult David Belloso Rossell, Historia del Banco de Maracaibo and Tomás Carillo Batalla, Moneda y crédito en Venezuela, Caracas, Banco Central de Venezuela, 1964, 2 vols.