Book "Ideas Monetarias del Siglo XIX en Colombia"
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The book Ideas Monetarias del Siglo XIX en Colombia (Monetary Ideas of the 19th century in Colombia), published in 2014, can be downloaded Banco de la República’s Repository and the Virtual Library.
This compilation contains a sample of the types of proposals and reflections on monetary issues that occurred in the country during the first republican century. It includes projects to establish public and private banks, diagnoses of the country's monetary problems, considerations about the history and institutions of other countries and their relationship with Colombia, and theoretical analyses of the banking and monetary system. All of these were produced and disclosed in Colombia.
Despite the diversity of approaches and depth of analysis, these documents show a permanent concern throughout the century for developing a financial system that would contribute to the country's material progress. Likewise, the discussions on banks, national credit, currency, and interest rates exhibit that there were people in the country with advanced knowledge of monetary theory and who knew the monetary history of the major trading powers of the time.
These documents show that, contrary to the prevailing idea in secondary literature, the 19th century was a fertile ground for reflecting on monetary issues. The study is valuable and necessary for constructing the history of Colombian economic thought.
