Public finances in Mexico in the first Empire and federal republic (1821-1835).: A historiographical review

This article evaluates the most recent historiography about Mexican public finances during the period 1821-1835, a time during which the basic characteristics of Mexico's fiscal system were established and lasted until the decade of the 1860's. The work notes the growing volume of that historiography and its thematic, spatial, and temporal diversification. In addition to the well known basic aspects of Mexican finances - its confederal nature since 1824, which resulted in a fiscally weak state, its dependence on taxes on foreign trade, its reliance on internal and external loans to finance federal deficits, and the federal Treasury's relation of dependence on agiotistas - the article considers the new research on the public finances of the states of the Mexican confederation as well as the liberal efforts to reform public finances, such as the introduction of direct taxes.