The editors of this volume characterize it as a “university manual” that examines the serpentine development of monetary systems in Mexico from the late colonial period through the revolution. In the introduction, José Bátiz Vázquez and José Enrique Covarrubias, both renowned experts in economic history, present a conceptual discussion of the characteristics of money and review approaches to studying money in Mexico since the nineteenth century. The essays by Horst Pietschman, Barbara Tenenbaum, Rina Ortiz Peralta, Bátiz Vázquez, and Francisco Borja Martínez are reproduced from ealier published works, and those by Covarrubias, Javier Torres Medina, Alma Parra, and Juan Fernando Matamala appear for the first time. The essays generally either examine the circulation (for payment and as credit) or the production (that is, mining, minting, printing, counterfeiting) of money.
Pietschmann reviews recent research on credit and regional commerce for the period 1750 to 1810, arguing that the sharp contrast between...
