’’’General’’’
This tumultuous and violent period marked by revolution and war begins following the downfall of the rule of ‘New Spain’ and the Spanish monarchy, and the Mexican Wars of Independence. “In April 1808, as French forces marched into Madrid, a sequel at Aranjuez seemed to succeed. By May, Napoleon held both Spanish Bourbons captive in Bayonne. The fall of the Spanish monarchy to its invasive ally set the stage for Mexico City’s summer of politics. Spain’s empire and New Spain would never be the same.”
[1]
“Then escalating conflicts exploded in insurgencies in September of 1810. Authorities set in power by armed force faced a people in arms. Unprecedented violence drove political conflicts begun by provincial elites while tens of thousands took arms to claim the necessities of survival in the core regions of silver capitalism. The regime of mediation disabled by the coup of 1808 dissolved in political and social violence beginning in 1810. Silver capitalism broke quickly. As conflicts continued, Spain’s empire fell as New Spain became Mexico in 1821.”
[2]
“Mexico was born in political and social violence, every faction proclaiming a vision of popular sovereignty backed by armed power. In that conflictive process, the silver economy and regime of mediation that for centuries had made New Spain wealthy, stable, and central to global capitalism were destroyed. The Mexican nation that emerged would be plagued by violence and instability unknown in New Spain before the crises and transformations of 1808–1810.”
[3]
“The new nation that came out of the conflicts of 1808 to 1821, briefly a Mexican monarchy, then a republic from 1824, searched simultaneously for a new polity and a new economy.”
[4]
This polity is bookend by the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920)
’’’Politics’’’
“Political instability continued for decades after independence. From 1821 to 1867, Mexico had 56 administrations (Ponzio, 2005), and in the 55 years between independence and the Porfi riato, the presidency changed hands 75 times as a result of the continuous struggle between the conservative and liberal factions (Haber, 1989). In contrast, the United States had 13 administrations in the 52 years between 1817 and 1869 (Ponzio, 2005). Between 1824 and 1867, the average term of a president in Mexico was 15 months, 7 months for both the ministers of war and justice, and less than 5 months for the ministers of finance and foreign relations (Ponzio, 2005). The generalized episodes of civil unrest and violence reduced the population, disrupted mining and agricultural production, and severely curtailed trade and communications, thus further fragmenting the linkages among different regions. In addition, the struggle for independence brought about a temporary dismantling of the monetary union. A particularly disastrous consequence of the prolonged civil strife was the loss to the United States of half of Mexico’s national territory in the mid-19th century.”
[5]
“Porfirio Díaz’s [r. 1884-1910] first re-election to the presidency in 1884 marked a significant watershed in the political evolution of the regime. As a foretaste of what was to come, Díaz was unopposed in the election. Thereafter, a dual process of consolidation and transformation took place in the regime. While many of the mechanisms and tactics of political pragmatism continued to be employed in the attempt to mediate and manage factional divisions, the personal and patriarchal authority of the president at the apex of the hierarchy of power became gradually consolidated, and increasingly uncontested… Although the regime became increasingly centralized and authoritarian, nevertheless important constraints existed on presidential authority. In other words, Díaz never enjoyed the absolute political control that his critics have argued, because the process of centralization and consolidation was always contested, challenged and resisted at a variety of levels. Political factionalism, dissidence, and rebellion remained constant during the era.”
[6]
[1]: (Tutino 2018: 150) Tutino, John. 2018. Mexico City, 1808: Power Sovereignty, and Silver in an Age of War and Revolution. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z5SZU2AP
[2]: (Tutino 2018: 230) Tutino, John. 2018. Mexico City, 1808: Power Sovereignty, and Silver in an Age of War and Revolution. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z5SZU2AP
[3]: (Tutino 2018: 248) Tutino, John. 2018. Mexico City, 1808: Power Sovereignty, and Silver in an Age of War and Revolution. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z5SZU2AP
[4]: (Tutino 2018: 252) Tutino, John. 2018. Mexico City, 1808: Power Sovereignty, and Silver in an Age of War and Revolution. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z5SZU2AP
[5]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 31-32) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
[6]: (Garner 2011: 297-298) Garner, Paul. 2011. “The Civilian and the General, 1867–1911,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 288–301. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/EMSG558V
| 12 N |
| Early United Mexican States |
| Mexico City |
| United Mexican States | |
| Mexico |
| 170,000 people | 1810 CE |
| 200,000 people | 1858 CE |
| 471,000 people | 1910 CE |
| 23,309,000 km2 | 1848 CE |
| 6,587,000 people | 1820 CE |
| 10,399,000 people | 1880 CE |
| 13,607,000 people | 1900 CE |
| 14,900,000 people | 1920 CE |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| present |
| Year Range | Early United Mexican States (mx_mexico_1) was in: |
|---|
“Mexico City was the largest city in the Western Hemisphere, with a population of some 170,000 in 1810, larger than New York, Boston, and Philadelphia combined.” [1] “On March 17 1900, finally, the Grand Canal was opened…. Engineers had planned for the canal to service the needs of an urban population of 350,000. In contrast, the city’s population in 1910 stood at approximately 471,000.” [2] “Urban populations increased rapidly; the capital swelled from 200,000 in 1858 to 330,000 in 1895, and 471,000 in 1910. Regional capitals such as Guadalajara, Puebla, and Monterrey, and even small towns like Torreón and Ciudad Juárez, grew dramatically.” [3]
[1]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 27) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
[2]: (Garza 2011: 320) Garza, James A. 2011. “Conquering the Environment and Surviving Natural Disasters,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 316–27. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TF5GMWVK
[3]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 68) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“Mexico City was the largest city in the Western Hemisphere, with a population of some 170,000 in 1810, larger than New York, Boston, and Philadelphia combined.” [1] “On March 17 1900, finally, the Grand Canal was opened…. Engineers had planned for the canal to service the needs of an urban population of 350,000. In contrast, the city’s population in 1910 stood at approximately 471,000.” [2] “Urban populations increased rapidly; the capital swelled from 200,000 in 1858 to 330,000 in 1895, and 471,000 in 1910. Regional capitals such as Guadalajara, Puebla, and Monterrey, and even small towns like Torreón and Ciudad Juárez, grew dramatically.” [3]
[1]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 27) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
[2]: (Garza 2011: 320) Garza, James A. 2011. “Conquering the Environment and Surviving Natural Disasters,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 316–27. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TF5GMWVK
[3]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 68) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“Mexico City was the largest city in the Western Hemisphere, with a population of some 170,000 in 1810, larger than New York, Boston, and Philadelphia combined.” [1] “On March 17 1900, finally, the Grand Canal was opened…. Engineers had planned for the canal to service the needs of an urban population of 350,000. In contrast, the city’s population in 1910 stood at approximately 471,000.” [2] “Urban populations increased rapidly; the capital swelled from 200,000 in 1858 to 330,000 in 1895, and 471,000 in 1910. Regional capitals such as Guadalajara, Puebla, and Monterrey, and even small towns like Torreón and Ciudad Juárez, grew dramatically.” [3]
[1]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 27) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
[2]: (Garza 2011: 320) Garza, James A. 2011. “Conquering the Environment and Surviving Natural Disasters,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 316–27. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TF5GMWVK
[3]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 68) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
squared kilometers. “Foreign interventions likewise had environmental consequences, none more stinging for Mexico than the immediate loss of land in the north, first by Texas’s declaration of independence and then through the 1848 treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo signed after defeat in the U.S. war. The vast cession of land included the present-day U.S. states of California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, and Wyoming. The loss deprived Mexico of more than 500,000 square miles or more than half of its territory (two thirds if Texas is included) and a variety of resources that might have been used to get the economic house in order.” [1]
[1]: (Wakild 2011: 519-520) Wakild, Emily. 2011. “Environment and Environmentalism,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp518–37. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BMVQRFNJ
The population of Mexico grew steadily between 1810-1920. [1]
[1]: (“Data on Mexico,”) “Data on Mexico,” Clio Infra, accessed September 8, 2022, https://clio-infra.eu/Countries/Mexico.html. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/9DPFMY2T
The population of Mexico grew steadily between 1810-1920. [1]
[1]: (“Data on Mexico,”) “Data on Mexico,” Clio Infra, accessed September 8, 2022, https://clio-infra.eu/Countries/Mexico.html. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/9DPFMY2T
The population of Mexico grew steadily between 1810-1920. [1]
[1]: (“Data on Mexico,”) “Data on Mexico,” Clio Infra, accessed September 8, 2022, https://clio-infra.eu/Countries/Mexico.html. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/9DPFMY2T
“The four main entities—the Crown, the Church, guilds, and city councils—were based in multistoried, class-heterogeneous towns and cities that mingled manufacturing, residential, retail, and civic spaces. At the centers of towns and cities stood markets and retail establishments alongside churches and royal offices, as established in Felipe II’s 1573 Royal Ordinances on town planning. Wellordered, properly-consuming urban populations functioned under the principle of policía or “good government,” in which individual desires were subordinated to guarantee order, peace, and prosperity (Nuttall 1922; Schuetz 1987; Ortíz Macedo 1997; Kinsbruner 2005; Kagan 2000, pp. 18–44). This order required a steady and cheap supply of food guaranteed by new officials and institutions, such as the fiel ejecutor, who inspected weights and measures, but also alhóndigas (granaries) that stabilized the price and the pósito, a grain reserve designed to abate scarcity and speculation at times of shortages and bad harvests (Ochoa 2000, pp. 20–23, Borah 1958). The parián or arcaded market that housed leading mercantile establishments stood at the town center, and along the adjoining streets and districts stood the workshops of guild members lending their trade’s name to the street on which they were concentrated. Here and there stood pulperías, the indispensible institution that functioned as stores, pawnshops, restaurants, gathering places, and news exchanges, providing a one-stop financial and commercial center akin to a modern convenience store offering lottery tickets, money orders, a version of the modern ATM, and a community bulletin board.” [1] : 1. Capital City (Mexico City) :: 2. State capitals ::: 3. Small cities :::: 4. Towns ::::: 5. Villages :::::: 6. Rural land/plots
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 58) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“The Secular, or Parochial Clergy, shared in all the disadvantages under which their Creole countrymen were condemned to labour, by the jealous policy of the Mother country. They were excluded from the higher degrees of Churrfi preferment, and left to fulfil the laborious duties of parish priests, while the Bishoprics, the Deaneries, and the Chapters of the different Cathedrals, were filled by old Spaniards, many of whom never saw the country, in which they were destined to hold so conspicuous a station, until they were sent out to enter at once upon its richest benefices.” [1] “The Secular Clergy was composed of about five thousand Priests {Clerigos); the Regulars, wearing the habits of different Orders, of nearly an equal number, of whom two thousand five hundred (including lay-brothers) resided in the convents of the Capital alone. There were only nine bishops, including the Primate, the See of Chiapa not being then considered as annexed to Mexico.” [2] : 1. Pope :: 2. Cardinals ::: 3. Archbishops :::: 4. Bishops ::::: 5. Priests :::::: 6. Regulars ::::::: 7. Deans
[1]: (Ward 1827: 238) Ward, Henry George. 1900. Mexico in 1827. London : H. Colburn. http://archive.org/details/mexicoin04wardgoog. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IY7FJEM7
[2]: (Ward 1827: 245) Ward, Henry George. 1900. Mexico in 1827. London : H. Colburn. http://archive.org/details/mexicoin04wardgoog. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IY7FJEM7
This is more than two levels but at present the information required has not been found in the sources consulted. “The organisation of the Porfirian army remained basically unchanged throughout the era. Diaz began a reorganisation of the military in 1877 and in December of 1878 received from congress special powers to reform the army.” [1] “Federal forces within a state were distinct and apart from stae forces and other elements of order and security. The regular army, rurales, and reserves which found themselves at the service of the Republic made up the federal forces.” [2] “The Republic of Mexico is divided into eighteen Conumdancias Centrales or districts, each under the orders of a Military Commandant, who receives his instructions, not from the government of the State in which he resides, but from the Minister of War.” [3] : 1. Minister of War :: 2. District Commander
[1]: (Alexius 1976: 3)
[2]: (Alexius 1976: 6)
[3]: (Ward 1827: 228) Ward, Henry George. 1900. Mexico in 1827. London : H. Colburn. http://archive.org/details/mexicoin04wardgoog. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IY7FJEM7
There were several iterations of administrative and governmental structures during this period owing to the fact that “The new nation that came out of the conflicts of 1808 to 1821, briefly a Mexican monarchy, then a republic from 1824, searched simultaneously for a new polity and a new economy.” [1] “From 1821 to 1857 no less than fifty different governments proclaimed control over the nation. All sorts of governments—from dictatorships, to constitutional republican governments, to monarchies—experimented with different methods to placate the divisions among the elites, and nearly all the governments struggled to ensure elite dominance over the masses.” [2] “Porfirio Díaz’s first re-election to the presidency in 1884 marked a significant watershed in the political evolution of the regime. As a foretaste of what was to come, Díaz was unopposed in the election… He became the patriarch of the nation, and the custodian and arbiter of the rules of conduct of political life. This meant not only the assertion of personal authority over the institutions which governed the conduct of politics (the cabinet, both houses of Congress, the state governors, the state legislatures, the regional jefes políticos), but also over the institutions which had played a decisive role in nineteenth century politics (above all, the army, the Church, and the press).” [3] : 1. President :: 2. Vice President ::: 3. Executive Cabinet :::: 4. Council of Government :::: “The Council of Government or State, exists only during the intervals between the sessions of the Congress, and is composed of one half of the Senate, or one Senator from each State, with the Vice-President of the Republic at its head.” [4] ::::: 5. State Governors :::::: 6. City councillors
[1]: (Tutino 2018: 252) Tutino, John. 2018. Mexico City, 1808: Power Sovereignty, and Silver in an Age of War and Revolution. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/Z5SZU2AP
[2]: (Kirkwood 2000: 89) Kirkwood, Burton. 2000. History of Mexico. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uvic/detail.action?docID=3000600. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/kirkwood/titleCreatorYear/items/6ICDTQLE
[3]: (Garner 2011: 297) Garner, Paul. 2011. “The Civilian and the General, 1867–1911,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 288–301. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/EMSG558V
[4]: (Ward 1827: 219) Ward, Henry George. 1900. Mexico in 1827. London : H. Colburn. http://archive.org/details/mexicoin04wardgoog. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/IY7FJEM7
“Maximilian’s greatest material legacy was his plan to redesign Mexico City (Chapman 1975, pp. 105–10). Developed in 1866, the 4-phase, 22-item plan traced new avenues, squares, utilities, and many improvements around the city. Of these, Maximilian only laid out the new Paseo de la Emperatriz (today Paseo de la Reforma) evoking Vienna’s Ringstraße. Subsequent regimes have implemented much of this plan, opening avenues west and south of the main plaza (5 de Mayo, Juárez, and 20 de Noviembre avenues), re-paving streets, adding gas lights, meatpacking plants, a ring-road (today’s circuito interior), fire stations, hospitals, cemeteries, and government ministries.” [1]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 56) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“Mexico’s transition from colony to republic was prolonged and fitful especially regarding the development of an independent body of criminal law and procedure. The protracted Wars of Independence (1810–21), the era of Santa Anna (1833–55), the War of Reform (1858–61), and the French Intervention (1862–27) delayed the nation’s juridical break from its colonial past. Even though leaders initiated early attempts to make new laws, a half century of political pandemonium thwarted the codification of a national civil code until 1870 and a national penal code until 1871. Both codes oozed with liberalism, that drew on the heritage of José María Morelos and other early heroes, who deserve credit for enshrining liberal principles into the minds of all Mexicans. Equality of individuals before the law, fair taxation, and popular sovereignty composed the mantra of early statesmen.” [1] “Political chaos and violence characterized the nation’s early history, yet leaders set out right away to enshrine liberal values in the first Constitution (1824). At the same time, several states took up the task of developing civil and penal codes. The state of Oaxaca devised the first civil code in all of Latin America in 1828 and the state of Veracruz developed the first penal code in the nation in 1835. Both drew on models from France and Spain. National penal and civil codes would take longer, both coming to fruition during the Restored Republic after 1867. Until the promulgation and enactment of the Penal Code of 1871, magistrates relied on colonial law or hastily enacted decrees to prosecute crime through the tumultuous first half-century of independence. When Benito Juárez and his fellow liberals recaptured power, the long stalled cadre of jurists set out to bring their vision of criminal jurisprudence and reform to fruition.” [2]
[1]: (Sloan 2011: 302) Sloan, Kathryn A. 2011. “The Penal Code of 1871: From to Civil Control of Everyday Life,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 302–15. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/N74WVZX2
[2]: (Sloan 2011: 304) Sloan, Kathryn A. 2011. “The Penal Code of 1871: From to Civil Control of Everyday Life,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 302–15. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/N74WVZX2
“The Constitution of 1857 guaranteed all individuals certain rights if accused of a crime. Importantly court fees were abolished, thus opening up the legal process to the poor… Courts no longer recorded race in legal documents and individuals were tried on the basis of their deeds or misdeeds and not on their membership of a particular ethnic or social group” [1]
[1]: (Sloan 2011: 303-304) Sloan, Kathryn A. 2011. “The Penal Code of 1871: From to Civil Control of Everyday Life,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 302–15. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/N74WVZX2
“Markets patterned on pre-conquest retail traditions resulted in crowds of vendors selling goods and foodstuffs from whatever patch of ground they could claim. Spanish goods and retailers also jockeyed for this open space, occasionally setting up so-called cajones de ropa or market stalls. As part of a larger effort to impose order (and raise revenues) upon public space, the Crown sought to regulate retailing; Viceroy Bucareli (1771–9) often remembered for using royal troops to clear vendors from the main square of Mexico City, fits within a longer process of moving markets into permanent structures and under government regulation of hygiene, propriety and, of course, taxation (Agostoni 2003). The most famous of these new permanent commercial structures was the parián, catering to a Europeanized clientele by the early 1700s. Mexico City’s bazaar-like arcade, aptly labeled the world’s first mall, featured purpose-built shops with stalls that displayed and stored merchants’ wares, all under the supervision of municipal authorities and the merchants’ guilds (the consulado or the gremio de los chinos). Merchants would not only sell goods, but also function as investment bankers, frequently receiving deposits of significant sums. By the first decade of national independence in the 1820s, the merchants of the Mexico City parián, the Parián, represented the epicenter of the country’s commercial transactions, holding deposits for investors, warehousing and distributing goods, and extending credit to wholesalers in other locales.” [1] “Authorities clearly understood the revolutionary potential of frustrated consumers, and not only worked hard to monitor, repair, and construct markets that delivered plenty of food to the population, but also, when a rise in grain and beef prices between 20 and 40% between 1907 and 1910 sowed discontent, the regime stepped in to boost food imports.” [2] “Few historians have looked at the dramatic changes wrought upon the urban landscape by commercial architecture and spaces for consumption, whether of goods, services, or leisure. Over time, open and enclosed markets, bazaars, street vendors, tailors, seamstresses, milliners, ready-made (often used) clothing retailers known as cajones, pawnshops, specialty shops, and other retailers had carved out spaces of consumption for differing social strata. In Mexico City, a fashionable shopping district demarcated by Plateros (today Madero), Tlapaleros (presently 16 de Septiembre), and Capuchinas (today’s Venustiano Carranza) emerged by the early twentieth century, in which 25% of all the country’s commercial transactions took place (Johns 1997).” [3]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 58) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[2]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 73) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[3]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 71) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“By 1910, Mexico possessed 20,000 km [of railroad] (Garner (1995) 341). Foreign funds played a major role, but the passage of the 1883 land law was crucial, since it allowed for the expropriation of private property for public works, including railroads, roads, canals, rechanneling of rivers, dikes and related facilities (Van Hoy (2008) 15). The completion of other major lines followed, especially to the northern border with the United States and in the south along the difficult Isthmus of Tehuantepec.”
For individuals living in the countryside, local dry goods stores presented an assortment of national and foreign manufactures—and lines of credit that gave shop owners great influence in their community.” [1]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 72-3) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“Examples proliferate, particularly during the late seventeenth- and late eighteenth-century silver bonanzas that produced the wealth of communities such as Santiago de Querétaro, Zacatecas and Guanajuato, or individuals such as Juan Antonio de Urrutia y Arana, marqués de la Villa del Villar del Águila; Pedro Romero de Terreros, conde de Santa María de Regla; Antonio de Obregón y Alcocer, conde de la Valenciana; and José de Borda (Couturier 2003; Torales Pacheco 1985; Yuste López 1987). Their munificence built aqueducts, churches, palaces, industrial establishments, charitable institutions, and even ships for the Spanish navy.” [1] “Nevertheless small triumphs occurred, such as the formation of the Superior Sanitation Council in 1841. It was not until 1891 that a comprehensive sanitary code was enacted and a sewage system in Mexico City soon followed. By the end of the century, not only had sanitation become an integral part of the government’s conception of the state, but it had also contributed to how elites viewed the poor and their environment.” [2]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 60) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[2]: (Garza 2011: 3180 Garza, James A. 2011. “Conquering the Environment and Surviving Natural Disasters,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 316–27. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TF5GMWVK
e.g. stores; arcades; bazaars; restaurants; churches; schools; railway and tram stations. “The parián or arcaded market that housed leading mercantile establishments stood at the town center, and along the adjoining streets and districts stood the workshops of guild members lending their trade’s name to the street on which they were concentrated. Here and there stood pulperías, the indispensible institution that functioned as stores, pawnshops, restaurants, gathering places, and news exchanges, providing a one-stop financial and commercial center akin to a modern convenience store offering lottery tickets, money orders, a version of the modern ATM, and a community bulletin board.” [1] “The “modernity” of the capital, while exemplary in its scale and expense, paled with the cost of public works in the regions; railroads crisscrossed the country by the 1880s, electrical and telephone utilities by the 1890s, and vast bonds were issued to finance new state and municipal buildings, schools, and trams.” [2]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 58) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[2]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 68) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“Examples proliferate, particularly during the late seventeenth- and late eighteenth-century silver bonanzas that produced the wealth of communities such as Santiago de Querétaro, Zacatecas and Guanajuato, or individuals such as Juan Antonio de Urrutia y Arana, marqués de la Villa del Villar del Águila; Pedro Romero de Terreros, conde de Santa María de Regla; Antonio de Obregón y Alcocer, conde de la Valenciana; and José de Borda (Couturier 2003; Torales Pacheco 1985; Yuste López 1987). Their munificence built aqueducts, churches, palaces, industrial establishments, charitable institutions, and even ships for the Spanish navy.” [1] “Maximilian’s greatest material legacy was his plan to redesign Mexico City (Chapman 1975, pp. 105–10). Developed in 1866, the 4-phase, 22-item plan traced new avenues, squares, utilities, and many improvements around the city. Of these, Maximilian only laid out the new Paseo de la Emperatriz (today Paseo de la Reforma) evoking Vienna’s Ringstraße. Subsequent regimes have implemented much of this plan, opening avenues west and south of the main plaza (5 de Mayo, Juárez, and 20 de Noviembre avenues), re-paving streets, adding gas lights, meatpacking plants, a ring-road (today’s circuito interior), fire stations, hospitals, cemeteries, and government ministries.” [2] “The “modernity” of the capital, while exemplary in its scale and expense, paled with the cost of public works in the regions; railroads crisscrossed the country by the 1880s, electrical and telephone utilities by the 1890s, and vast bonds were issued to finance new state and municipal buildings, schools, and trams.” [3]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 60) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[2]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 56) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[3]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 68) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
i.e. schools; technical schools; universities; academies. “The “modernity” of the capital, while exemplary in its scale and expense, paled with the cost of public works in the regions; railroads crisscrossed the country by the 1880s, electrical and telephone utilities by the 1890s, and vast bonds were issued to finance new state and municipal buildings, schools, and trams.” [1] ”The gradual secularization of the Third French Republic’s educational system between the 1880s and early 1900s expelled many religious orders and these arrived in significant numbers in Mexico so that, by 1905, every major Mexican town—and even small locales—had French nuns, brothers, and priests conducting France’s mission civilisatrice. This especially affected middle, upper-middle, and elite girls, who became the primary market of the colegios franceses, which instilled, via these “Angels of the Home” not only the lessons necessary to participate in the social and cultural life of their milieu, but a familiarity with the objects required for the proper running of a household on the French model (Bellaigne 2007, pp. 166–198; Cabanel et al 2005; Torres Septién 1997). Poor students who attended these schools on scholarships received free uniforms, machine-made shoes, and adopted the grooming habits of their betters, so as to calm the concerns of wealthy families disquieted by the social experiment. University and technical school texts were written in French, and only secondarily did English receive attention.” [2] “It was precisely because the arts and sciences created places in which political animosity could be put aside that Maximilian founded the Imperial Academy Science and Literature in 1866, in the hope of fostering reconciliation within a deeply divided society.” [3]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 68) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[2]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 70-71) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[3]: (Pani 2011: 279) Pani, Erika. 2009. “Republicans and Monarchists, 1848–1867,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 273–87. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/3I4GPWQG
i.e. restaurant; cafés; clubs; bathhouses; spas; theatres; casinos; gardens, amusement parks; department stores. “In Mexico City, a fashionable shopping district demarcated by Plateros (today Madero), Tlapaleros (presently 16 de Septiembre), and Capuchinas (today’s Venustiano Carranza) emerged by the early twentieth century, in which 25% of all the country’s commercial transactions took place (Johns 1997)… there developed in major cities a plethora of private or semi-private spaces of commercialized leisure. Restaurants, cafés, expatriate clubs (le Cercle Français, el Casino Español, l’Orfeó Català, the Casino Alemán), bathhouses, spas, theatres, and the beer gardens and amusement parks known as tívolis (that served as grounds for events ranging from French independence celebrations to charity bazaars known as Kermesses) provided the illusion of liberal equality of access yet restricted access through financial and social barriers or physical distance. To keep up with the growing numbers of foreign tourists and investors, new hospitality services developed, such as catering, bars, and hotels, which also served government clientele, making available new spaces, new experiences, and new practices.” [1] “Although the Parisian “Palaces of Consumption” such as Aristide Boucicault’s Bon Marché had only appeared in the late1860s, by 1891, Mexico City’s first purpose-built department store, Las Fábricas de Francia provided the capital with an icon of nineteenth-century bourgeois culture’s “identification with appearances and material possessions” (Miller 1981). Legend holds that onlookers dubbed it El Palacio de Hierro for its iron framework and great height. Its 25,000 square feet of floor space (doubled by 1900) distributed over 5 stories that towered over neighboring structures, accommodated a large clientele, and created a vast, light, and airy expanse that exhibited large quantities of goods using enormous plate glass windows, display cases, and electric lighting. Other features, such as indoor plumbing, pneumatic tube systems, ladies’ rest areas, and elevators, heightened its appeal and representation of modernity.” [2]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 71) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[2]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 72) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“Maximilian’s greatest material legacy was his plan to redesign Mexico City (Chapman 1975, pp. 105–10). Developed in 1866, the 4-phase, 22-item plan traced new avenues, squares, utilities, and many improvements around the city. Of these, Maximilian only laid out the new Paseo de la Emperatriz (today Paseo de la Reforma) evoking Vienna’s Ringstraße. Subsequent regimes have implemented much of this plan, opening avenues west and south of the main plaza (5 de Mayo, Juárez, and 20 de Noviembre avenues), re-paving streets, adding gas lights, meatpacking plants, a ring-road (today’s circuito interior), fire stations, hospitals, cemeteries, and government ministries.” [1]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 56) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“Although the pomp and circumstance of Santa Anna was and is easy to caricature and malign, his rule was not all tinsel, smoke, and mirrors; it was good for business. During the 1850s, his policies renewed educational and cultural institutions while improving transportation, subsidizing telegraphs, and repairing roads and bridges .” [1] “Maximilian’s greatest material legacy was his plan to redesign Mexico City (Chapman 1975, pp. 105–10). Developed in 1866, the 4-phase, 22-item plan traced new avenues, squares, utilities, and many improvements around the city. Of these, Maximilian only laid out the new Paseo de la Emperatriz (today Paseo de la Reforma) evoking Vienna’s Ringstraße. Subsequent regimes have implemented much of this plan, opening avenues west and south of the main plaza (5 de Mayo, Juárez, and 20 de Noviembre avenues), re-paving streets, adding gas lights, meatpacking plants, a ring-road (today’s circuito interior), fire stations, hospitals, cemeteries, and government ministries.” [2] “During the 1870s and 1880s American railroad financiers supported the Mexican National Railroad and provided the investment necessary to crisscross the nation in iron. In its totality, Díaz oversaw the construction of a network of roads and railroad concessions that exceeded 8,200,000 acres of right-of-way lands.” [3] “Mexico’s development after independence was defined by the railroad. As a visible symbol of capitalist development, railroad projects received high priority, although frequent changes in administrations and difficulties with financing, not to mention several invasions, slowed down any significant advances until the last quarter of the nineteenth century. Previous to that, roads served as the primary means of travel and transportation, although their conditions were primitive. In fact, in 1877, half of the federal roads were suitable for animal traffic only.” [4]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 54) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[2]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 56) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[3]: (Wakild 2011: 520) Wakild, Emily. 2011. “Environment and Environmentalism,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp518–37. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BMVQRFNJ
[4]: (Garza 2011: 316) Garza, James A. 2011. “Conquering the Environment and Surviving Natural Disasters,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 316–27. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/TF5GMWVK
“The “modernity” of the capital, while exemplary in its scale and expense, paled with the cost of public works in the regions; railroads crisscrossed the country by the 1880s, electrical and telephone utilities by the 1890s, and vast bonds were issued to finance new state and municipal buildings, schools, and trams… Increased urbanization and mobility along the 18,000 kilometers of railway (as well as a vast telegraph system, new roads, seaports, telephone networks, and reliable postal delivery) complemented existing transportation networks like mule trains (Connolly 1997).” [1]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 68) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“The Porfirian focus on Mexico City’s built environment spilled over into other landscape features. Water itself was not necessarily detrimental to a city nor was water inherently insalubrious; flooding or “disorderly” water became the problem. Attempts to control and manage the waters around the capital persisted through time—from the early Aztec dikes that divided Lake Texcoco to the Spaniard Enrico Martinez’s open canal through the mountains in 1697. But no comparable project shared the ambitions and aspirations of the Grand Drainage Project that started in 1886… The momentous undertaking included a thirty-mile canal with four aqueducts and bridges, a six-mile tunnel coated with brick and Portland cement, and a mile and a half cut through the mountainous terrain.23 Rerouting infectious streams and conserving precious clean water required a firm state commitment and a significant financial investment. By completion, in 1901, the project’s footprint extended well beyond its symbolic importance: the canal used 22 million bricks, 25,000 cubic meters of mortar, 1.5 million meters of lumber, and untold numbers of laborers lives.” [1]
[1]: (Wakild 2011: 521-522) Wakild, Emily. 2011. “Environment and Environmentalism,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp518–37. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BMVQRFNJ
“Although the pomp and circumstance of Santa Anna was and is easy to caricature and malign, his rule was not all tinsel, smoke, and mirrors; it was good for business. During the 1850s, his policies renewed educational and cultural institutions while improving transportation, subsidizing telegraphs, and repairing roads and bridges .” [1] “In southern Mexico, along the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, railroads facilitated the conquest of the harsh terrain by providing a safe path for poor Mexicans to travel, either in economy cars or on foot. In some areas, for instance, railroad bridges were the only safe routes across gorges and rivers.”
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 54) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“Moreover, the end of Spanish rule also brought some unexpected costs for the mining sector. Not only were the direct effects of the independence wars on mining production highly disruptive, they also involved the loss of low-cost and guaranteed supplies of mercury (essential for processing low-grade ores) that Spain had provided from its large state-owned mine at Almaden. As a result of this disruption, and the other mentioned factors, silver production fell to less than one-fifth of previous levels from 1812 to 1822. According to some estimates, it did not recover its preindependence level until the 1870s, despite a plethora of tax incentives, the opening of the sector to foreign participation, and the availability of new technological developments.” [1] “In the 1820s, the government managed to temporarily attract some major new foreign investors to Mexico’s mining sector. However, after a few decades of operation, they left the country, having failed to meet their expectations of a highly profitable business… In any case, by 1850 no foreign capital remained in the industry, having been replaced by a new wave of local investors. These investors were pivotal to the mining industry’s slow but persistent recovery that took place in the second half of the 19th century, helped by the discovery of new deposits, improvements in infrastructure—the railway system in particular—and the political and social stability of the Porfiriato.” [2]
[1]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 31) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
[2]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 37) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
Writing was widespread. “Reports and stories about soldiers and the battles between Mexicans and Americans during the 1846–1848 war abound in newspapers, official military reports, and books and articles.” [1] “Writers of novels in nineteenth-century Mexico, beginning, not coincidentally, with the formation of the nation itself, took as some of their main subject matter the description of local customs, seeing in them both the epitome of what was original and particularly Mexican as well as the raw material out of which suitable national beings might be molded.” [2]
[1]: (Arnold 2011: 262) Arnold, Linda. 2011. “The U.S. Intervention in Mexico, 1846–1848,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 262–72. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/MUEUFMU8
[2]: (French 2011: 14) French, William E. 2011. “Living the Vida Local: Contours of Everyday Life,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 13–33. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NZBCRB8Z
“Men of science and letters took it upon themselves to construct a permanent image of the nation, to draw and set its boundaries, and to name and place its principal geographic and hydrographic features, by setting the nation down on paper. They also sought to articulate, in their writing, a genuine Mexican voice that would characterize a national— and nationalist— literature. It was a grandiose task in which, despite its profoundly political nature, men of all ideological inclinations participated, by presenting their research and lectures before learned societies such as the Ateneo, the literary society of San Juan de Letrán Academy, or the Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística. In 1857, the geographer Antonio García Cubas drew on this Society’s previous work to draw up and publish the first general map of the Republic (Craib). These men also collaborated in extensive editorial projects that they felt would contribute to on the one hand consolidating Mexico as a natural entity, and on the other to validating its rightful place among civilized nations. Thus, geographers, historians and philologists who often stood in opposite political trenches, wrote erudite articles on the nation’s demography, its mountainous ranges and its indigenous dialects for the Diccionario Universal de Historia y Geografía, published in Mexico City between 1853 and 1856.” [1]
[1]: (Pani 2011: 279) Pani, Erika. 2009. “Republicans and Monarchists, 1848–1867,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 273–87. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/3I4GPWQG
“Men of science and letters took it upon themselves to construct a permanent image of the nation, to draw and set its boundaries, and to name and place its principal geographic and hydrographic features, by setting the nation down on paper. They also sought to articulate, in their writing, a genuine Mexican voice that would characterize a national— and nationalist— literature. It was a grandiose task in which, despite its profoundly political nature, men of all ideological inclinations participated, by presenting their research and lectures before learned societies such as the Ateneo, the literary society of San Juan de Letrán Academy, or the Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística. In 1857, the geographer Antonio García Cubas drew on this Society’s previous work to draw up and publish the first general map of the Republic (Craib). These men also collaborated in extensive editorial projects that they felt would contribute to on the one hand consolidating Mexico as a natural entity, and on the other to validating its rightful place among civilized nations. Thus, geographers, historians and philologists who often stood in opposite political trenches, wrote erudite articles on the nation’s demography, its mountainous ranges and its indigenous dialects for the Diccionario Universal de Historia y Geografía, published in Mexico City between 1853 and 1856.” [1]
[1]: (Pani 2011: 279) Pani, Erika. 2009. “Republicans and Monarchists, 1848–1867,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 273–87. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/3I4GPWQG
“Writers of novels in nineteenth-century Mexico, beginning, not coincidentally, with the formation of the nation itself, took as some of their main subject matter the description of local customs, seeing in them both the epitome of what was original and particularly Mexican as well as the raw material out of which suitable national beings might be molded.” [1]
[1]: (French 2011: 14) French, William E. 2011. “Living the Vida Local: Contours of Everyday Life,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley (Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. 13–33. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NZBCRB8Z
Gold; silver; copper. “The economy was closely organized around the extraction and exportation of precious metals, particularly silver, coming mostly from a few mining centers (reales mineros) in Pachuca (Real del Monte), Zacatecas, Guanajuato, and San Luis Potosí (Catorce). Production of gold and other minerals (excluding quarries) was much less relevant.” [1] “Indeed, after its drastic collapse during the years of the struggle for independence and its aftermath, many decades went by before mining activity gradually began to attract new investments. By the 1860s these investments, by local entrepreneurs, led to the discovery of new, rich deposits of precious metals and thus helped to boost mining activity once again. The recovery of silver mining, in particular, helped to put an end to the liquidity crisis and the credit crunch that had so adversely affected Mexican businesses for many years since independence.” [2] “From 1877 to 1911, exports multiplied more than sixfold (and imports grew by nearly 3.5 times) (Rosenzweig, 1965). During this time the export basket became more diversified, as shown by the decline in the share of minerals and metals in total exports and the corresponding rise of agricultural goods (see table 3.3). Moreover, though not shown in the table, the export of the minerals and metals now included, besides silver, metals such as copper, lead, and zinc, whose demand from the industrial centers of the world economy was expanding rapidly.” [3]
[1]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 20) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
[2]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 38) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
[3]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 58) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
“As soon as the most turbulent stages of the revolution were over, the economy began to recover. The recovery was preceded by the end of hyperinflation. A return to the gold standard in 1916 provided the basis for rapid stabilization of prices. Two factors were behind the monetary stabilization. Cárdenas and Manns (1987), following Kemmerer (1940), argue that, as notes in circulation progressively lost the functions of money, a reversion of Gresham’s law took place with notes (“bad money”) being replaced by gold and silver (“good money”)… In any case, the government’s decision meant that notes would not function as a means of payment, thus acting as a monetary reform that stabilized prices in terms of the newly circulating coins. Paper money would not circulate again in large amounts until the end of 1931.” [1]
[1]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 74-75) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
“In 1810, at the beginning of his armed struggle, Miguel Hidalgo proceeded to mint coins in Guanajuato. Although the colonial government soon confiscated his minting equipment, before the end of the decade similar coinage practices—legal or illegal—were evident in various regional entities in response to the scarcity of silver money.” [1] “As soon as the most turbulent stages of the revolution were over, the economy began to recover. The recovery was preceded by the end of hyperinflation. A return to the gold standard in 1916 provided the basis for rapid stabilization of prices. Two factors were behind the monetary stabilization. Cárdenas and Manns (1987), following Kemmerer (1940), argue that, as notes in circulation progressively lost the functions of money, a reversion of Gresham’s law took place with notes (“bad money”) being replaced by gold and silver (“good money”)… In any case, the government’s decision meant that notes would not function as a means of payment, thus acting as a monetary reform that stabilized prices in terms of the newly circulating coins. Paper money would not circulate again in large amounts until the end of 1931.” [2]
[1]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 31) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
[2]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 74-75) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
“As soon as the most turbulent stages of the revolution were over, the economy began to recover. The recovery was preceded by the end of hyperinflation. A return to the gold standard in 1916 provided the basis for rapid stabilization of prices. Two factors were behind the monetary stabilization. Cárdenas and Manns (1987), following Kemmerer (1940), argue that, as notes in circulation progressively lost the functions of money, a reversion of Gresham’s law took place with notes (“bad money”) being replaced by gold and silver (“good money”). The substitution of currencies occurred in a matter of a few days. As Kemmerer (1940, pp. 114–115) puts it: At this juncture there occurred a remarkable monetary phenomenon, one of the outstanding facts of recent monetary history. It was the sudden and unexpected return from hoards into active circulation of an enormous volume of gold and silver coin, driving out of circulation practically all the paper money and placing the country squarely back upon the gold standard—and all within the surprisingly short period of a few days…In such an atmosphere the paper money quickly disappeared from circulation about the last week in November, and gold and silver money came back into general circulation almost as if by magic. The paper money died in its tracks and coins came out of hoards to perform the task of carrying out the country’s monetary work.” [1]
[1]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 52-53) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
“Urban consumers (particularly women who made up a majority of householders in late colonial Mexico City) relied upon the pulperías for making ends meet. Although the conde de Regla established the Monte de Piedad in 1775 to provide cheaper credit to the middling and more affluent society short on cash, the pulpería and private pawning remained an essential part of urban household survival strategies into the nineteenth century.” [1] “Mexico City’s bazaar-like arcade, aptly labeled the world’s first mall, featured purpose-built shops with stalls that displayed and stored merchants’ wares, all under the supervision of municipal authorities and the merchants’ guilds (the consulado or the gremio de los chinos). Merchants would not only sell goods, but also function as investment bankers, frequently receiving deposits of significant sums. By the first decade of national independence in the 1820s, the merchants of the Mexico City parián, the Parián, represented the epicenter of the country’s commercial transactions, holding deposits for investors, warehousing and distributing goods, and extending credit to wholesalers in other locales” [1] “During the Porfiriato the Mexican economy finally began to escape from the financial underdevelopment trap in which it had been stuck for most of the century. A crucial element for this process was the state-orchestrated merger in 1884 of the two largest banks to create the Banco Nacional de México (Banamex)… By modifying the commercial codes (1884, 1889), as well as the national banking law (1897), the government allowed a regulated increase in the number of banks, but maintained the highly concentrated nature of the banking sector. Indeed, 35 banks were created between 1864 and 1908, but by 1911 Banamex and Banco de Londres y México held more than 60% of the total assets of the domestic banking system (Haber, 2006). The concentration of the banking system, and the lack of effective regulations to oversee its practices, allowed for vast expansion of related lending (auto-préstamos), that is, long-term loans and credits to bank directors, their relatives, and their business groups… ” [2]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 58) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
[2]: (Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 52-53) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV
“The “modernity” of the capital, while exemplary in its scale and expense, paled with the cost of public works in the regions; railroads crisscrossed the country by the 1880s, electrical and telephone utilities by the 1890s, and vast bonds were issued to finance new state and municipal buildings, schools, and trams… Increased urbanization and mobility along the 18,000 kilometers of railway (as well as a vast telegraph system, new roads, seaports, telephone networks, and reliable postal delivery) complemented existing transportation networks like mule trains (Connolly 1997).” [1]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 68) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
“The “modernity” of the capital, while exemplary in its scale and expense, paled with the cost of public works in the regions; railroads crisscrossed the country by the 1880s, electrical and telephone utilities by the 1890s, and vast bonds were issued to finance new state and municipal buildings, schools, and trams… Increased urbanization and mobility along the 18,000 kilometers of railway (as well as a vast telegraph system, new roads, seaports, telephone networks, and reliable postal delivery) complemented existing transportation networks like mule trains (Connolly 1997).” [1]
[1]: (Bunker and Macias-Gonzalez 2011: 68) Bunker, Steven B. and Macías-González, Víctor M. 2011. “Consumption and Material Culture from Pre-Contact through the Porfiriato,” in A Companion to Mexican History and Culture, ed. William H. Beezley. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. pp54–82. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/SDIQ5VE7
Old Mexican units of length included Tercia, Libbra, Onza etc. the metric system was adopted in 1857. [1]
[1]: (Cardarelli 2003: 165) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/UWS9ZN34
Old Mexican units of length included Jara, Carga, Fanega etc. the metric system was adopted in 1857. [1]
[1]: (Cardarelli 2003: 164) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/UWS9ZN34
Old Mexican units of length included Legua, Milla, Vara etc. the metric system was adopted in 1857. [1]
[1]: (Cardarelli 2003: 164) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/UWS9ZN34
Old Mexican units of length included Sitio, Labor, Fanega etc. the metric system was adopted in 1857. [1]
[1]: (Cardarelli 2003: 164) Cardarelli, François. 2003. Encyclopaedia of Scientific Units, Weights, and Measures: Their SI Equivalences and Origins. London; New York: Springer. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/UWS9ZN34