Douglass North once emphasized that development takes centuries, but he did not have a theory of how and why change occurs. This groundbreaking book advances such a theory by examining in detail why England and Spain developed so slowly from 1000 to 1800. A colonial legacy must go back centuries...

Continuity and crises, 1789-1797 -- War and the colonies : Aranda and Godoy -- The late proyectistas -- Reorganizing New Spain's external trade: the effects of comercio libre, 1788-1796 -- A hegemony threatened : Mexico City and Veracruz after 1789 -- Mining and its fissures -- Export...