Black Market Capital
Black Market Capital
URBAN POLITICS AND THE SHADOW ECONOMY IN MEXICO CITY
Andrew Konove
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
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University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2018 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Konove, Andrew, 1982- author.
Title: Black market capital : urban politics and the shadow economy in Mexico City / Andrew Konove.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2018] |Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2017049906 (print) | LCCN 2017054559 (ebook) | ISBN 9780520966901 () | ISBN 9780520293670 (cloth : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780520293687 (pbk : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Black market—Mexico—Mexico City—20th century. | Mexico City (Mexico)—Economic conditions—20th century. | Mexico City (Mexico)—Politics and government—20th century. | Urban economics.
Classification: LCC HF5482.65.M3 (ebook) | LCC HF5482.65.M3 K66 2018 (print) | DDC 330—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017049906
ClassifNumber PubDate
DeweyNumber′—dc23 CatalogNumber
Manufactured in the United States of America
25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of my father, Ron, and my brother, Jon
Contents
List of Illustrations and Tables
2 • The Baratillo and the Enlightened City
3 • Shadow Economics
4 • The Dictator, the Ayuntamiento, and the Baratillo
5 • Free Trading in the Restored Republic
6 • Order, Progress, and the Black Market
Epilogue: The Baratillo and Tepito
Appendix
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Illustrations and Tables
FIGURES
1. Vista de la Plaza Mayor de México, ca. 1695
2. Plano de la Ymperial México con la nueva distribución de territorios parroquiales, 1769
5. Plano ichnographico de la Ciudad de Mexico …, 1794
6. Vista de la Plaza Mayor de México …, 1793
7. Signatures on a petition from Baratillo vendors, 1794
8. Plano icnográfico de la Ciudad de México …, 1842
9. Vista de la Gran Plaza de México, 1843
10. Broadside criticizing the Mexico City Ayuntamiento for evicting vendors from the Plaza del Jardín, 1872
11. “Rumbos y Concurrentes,” 1897
12. “El Baratillo de México,” 1897
13. View of the Baratillo in Plaza Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, Tepito, 1927
14. Shoppers in the Baratillo, 1928
15. Shoppers in Tepito, 2017
MAPS
1. Plaza Mayor of Mexico City, 1596
3. Mexico City, 1842
4. Mexico City, 1867
5. Mexico City, 1901
TABLES
1. Census Data for Signatories to May 27, 1842, Letter to Mexico City Ayuntamiento
2. Census Data for Baratillo Vendors Residing within a One-Block Radius of the Plaza del Jardín in 1882
Acknowledgments
This book began in 2006, when I worked at a small microfinance institution in Oaxaca, Mexico. In my role there, I met women and
