Rodríguez has written a carefully researched and generally well-documented review of public policy toward government finances in Ecuador during the first no years of that country’s national existence. Ecuadoran regionalism is, quite properly, drawn into the concerns of this study, which devotes particular attention to the events of the 1920s.
The author’s finding that evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, change has characterized the country’s development despite the frequency of so-called “revolutions” in Ecuador will not come as a new or startling proposition to students of political instability in that country. What is new and valuable is the quantitative character of the research methods employed by Rodríguez. She has worked meticulously with statistical and nonstatistical sources housed in Ecuadoran, U.S., and British archives. The wealth of information, especially the quantitative data, reported here is not only impressive but also remarkably valuable to scholars concerned with the economic and financial development of Ecuador, While the relevant statistical gathering and reporting services have improved markedly of late, this study is nevertheless replete with data still not easily attainable in English. This quality of the book will no doubt stand as the central measure of the work’s value to students interested in the emergence of the contemporary Ecuadoran state.
It should be noted that the manuscript for this volume received the Hubert Herring Memorial Award conferred by the Pacific Council on Latin-American Studies. I hope that the high price of the book will not place it beyond the reach of those who might benefit most from the opportunity to read it.
