While Latin America accounts for approximately 7 percent of the world economy, easily accessible information on the economies of the region is not always easy to find. The existing literature on Latin American economics usually assumes some previous familiarity with the region and is focused on...

Chapter 1: Introduction -- Chapter 2: The making of British India -- Chapter 3: The business of the cities -- Chapter 4: Unyielding land -- Chapter 5: A poor state -- Chapter 6: End of famine -- Chapter 7: A different story? The princely states -- Chapter 8: Conclusion

Colonialism, social compacts, and the taxonomy of poverty -- The city of Quito -- Living on the edge : survival strategies of the urban poor -- Defining the "solemn poor" : wordplay and petitions of poverty in colonial Quito, 1678-1782 -- Prostrate before the feet of the king : widows, wdowhood,...