This is the first of a projected three volumes on the economic history of Uruguay, its coverage extending from 1700 to 1860. Subsequent volumes will treat the periods 1860-1956 and 1956-1985. The aim, of this first part at least, is modest: “to give a concise overall view of the evolution of the national economy based on the abundant available information that has resulted from researches carried out in the last 35 years, resorting to primary source materials only where the existing historiography has left significant gaps” (p. 13).

The treatment of the colonial and early independence periods is broadly similar in organization, with chapters on population, land and property, livestock production, the monetary system, and the relationships of production. Except in the last of these, the text is frequently overburdened with factual material whose significance is not always clear. There are chapters also on the intervening revolutionary period and on trade, transport, and public finance in the final part. The authors acknowledge their dependence on the work of Juan Pivel Devoto, Lucía Sala de Tourón, Nelson de la Torre, Julio Rodríguez, Aníbal Barrios Pintos, José Pedro Barrán, Benjamín Nahum, and others. Clearly the book has no pretension to be much more than a work of synthesis. As a convenient introduction to a period that has attracted relatively little attention, it will undoubtedly prove useful, though a more thorough appreciation of the need in a work like this for full and precise attributions to secondary sources would have enhanced its value.