Please copy the ISBN for submitting review copy form
Contents
List of Figures and Tables
Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
2 The Local Becomes Global: From Caste War to Henequen Boom
3 Usury, Ethnicity, and the Market: National Laws and Local Effects
4 What Do Notaries Do? The Formal and Informal Roles of Notaries
5 Credit the Wife: Marital Property Regimes and Credit Markets
6 Monopoly, Continuity, and Change: The Case of José Anacleto Patrón Zavalegui
7 Conclusion
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
“Juliette Levy's study of informal credit networks before the rise of formal financial institutions and their role in the development of Yucatán's commercial agriculture makes an important contribution not only to Mexico's economic history but also to the understanding of the role of traditional personal finance in other premodern economies, such as the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East. In addition, the book successfully integrates hard economic analysis based on rigorous research in the archives with socio-legal history, highlighting the role of women and notaries in a web of interpersonal financial transactions. As such, this book makes a unique contribution to economic and social history on a global scale.”
—Fariba Zarinebaf, University of California, Riverside, author of Crime and Punishment in Istanbul, 1700–1800
