Abstract

MARTINEZ, Ángel P.; GARCIA, José J.  and  PEREZ, Miguel A.. Puerto Rico’s foreign trade between two empires, 1879-1923. Am. Lat. Hist. Econ [online]. 2021, vol.28, n.1, e1118.  Epub June 18, 2021. ISSN 2007-3496.  https://doi.org/10.18232/alhe.1118.

This article reconstructs, using the direct and indirect sources available, the flows of Puerto Rico’s foreign trade in the last decades of 19th century, under the control exercised by Spain as a colonial metropolis, and the first decades of the 20th century, under colonial control of the United States. These magnitudes have been analysed to understand its evolution and to know its geographical structure, both in general and for each of the colonial periods (1875-1897 and 1898-1923). Finally, the structure of foreign trade is analysed to shed light on the different product flows. The conclusions suggest that, while there had been a geographical restructuring of foreign trade since 1882, the US annexation allowed integration into a higher-growth market, and increasing the volume of foreign trade, the investment flows and the national income of the island.

Keywords : foreign trade; Spanish Empire; customs duties; commercial laws.

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