Interest rates and silver productionCredit in Mexico City between market and spirituality (1770–1779 and 1819–1828)

Resumen

Using new information obtained in a thorough research in the Archive of Public Notaries in Mexico City, we explore the main financial market of New Spain/Mexico. With improved series of silver production and outflow, we try to determine whether silver production had any influence on the level of interest rates. We also try to compare the situation of the credit market before and after Mexican independence in different aspects, such as the profile of creditors and debtors and the average and median size of the loans. This is a groundbreaking essay since there are still many unknown aspects of the Mexican financial markets—for example the depth of the impact of the Consolidación de Vales Reales between 1804 and 1809 and the intensity of the effects of political and military events—and, most important, no general quantitative approaches on the matter have been made yet