Victor Bulmer-Thomas is the Director of Chatham House, the London home of the Royal Institute of International Affairs and Professor Emeritus at the University of London. He is a Director of the new India Investment Trust. He is the editor of The Economic History of Latin America Since Independence, Second Edition (2003) and Regional Integration in Latin America and the Caribbean: The Political Economy of Open Regionalism (2001). John H. Coatsworth is Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs in the Department of History at Harvard University. In addition to serving as the Director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies since its founding in 1994, he chairs the University Committee on Human Rights Studies. His recent books include Latin America and the World Economy since 1800, edited with Alan M. Taylor (1998) and Culturas Econtradas: Cuba y los Estados Unidos, Edited with Rafael Hernandez (2001). Roberto Cortés Conde is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Universidad de Sand Andrés in Buenos Aires, Roberto Cortés Conde is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Universidad de Sand Andrés in Buenos Aires, Argentina and a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of History of Spain. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he has published numerous books and scholarly articles. His most recent books include La Economía Argentina en el Largo Plazo (Siglos xix yxx)(1997), Transferring Wealth and Power from the Old to the New Wold: Monetary and Fiscal Instututions in the 17th Through the 19th Century (2002), edited with Michael D. Bordo, and Historia Económica Mundial (2003).

• Part I. The Economic Background: 1. The global economic history of European expansion overseas Patrick O'Brien; 2. African connections with American colonization Patrick Manning; 3. The pre-Columbian economy Rebecca Storey; Part II. Natural Resources and Factor Endowments: 4. Land use and the transformation of the environment Eleanor Melville; 5. The demographic impact of colonization Linda Newson; 6. Labor systems John Monteiro; Part III. Economic Organization and the Sectoral Performance: 7. Political economy and economic organization John Coatsworth; 8. Agriculture and land tenure Carlos Sempat Assadourian; 9. The mining industry Enrique Tandeter; 10. Pre-modern manufacturing Aurura Gómez; 11. Commercial monopolies and external trade Graciela Márquez; 12. Money, taxes, and finance Carlos Marichal; Part IV. The Economic Impact of Independence: 13. The economic consequences of independence Leandro Prados de las Escosura.

"On the whole, these volumes make for absorbing reading and provide wide thematic coverage embracing most of Latin American history." Eric Van Young, Th International History Review