In 1824 and 1825, the government of the new Mexican republic sold interest-bearing bonds for the London market with a face value totaling 32 million pesos. Mexico defaulted on a dividend payment due in 1827. This London debt was renegotiated several times, until it was liquidated by the Porfirian government in 1888. Starting in 1830, a series of committees was formed to represent the interests of the bondholders. These committees tried to influence the British government to support the claims of the bondholders, as well as pressure successive Mexican governments. Michael P. Costeloe adds this study to his list of works on nineteenth-century Mexico, filling a gap in the historiography of this foreign debt. Previous studies of the debt did not study the bonds themselves or the British investors who bought them. The first half of the book deals with the description and history of the documents and, as Costeloe...
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