Political Economy for Hispanic America: José Joaquín de Mora as a Bridge between Continents (1825–43)

Abstract In the early nineteenth century, the gradual transformation of Spain's former American territories into new independent republics required redefining their political and economic frameworks. This process demanded economic reforms, policies, and institutional changes based on the ideas of the Enlightenment and liberalism that fueled a transatlantic flow of political and economic ideas from Europe to the new republics. This article examines the crucial contribution of the Spanish economist José Joaquín de Mora to this migration of ideas. His main achievement was an institutional and economic agenda for the Republic of Chile based on classical political economy and adapted to the new republic's economic, political, and social environment. The primary economic growth process, which Mora also considered appropriate for the rest of the newly created American republics, was the result of a long and successive building process, which the research also tackles.