Paper for an Independent Peru: Spanish Economic Thought and the Creation of the "Banco Auxiliar de Papel Moneda"

Abstract

This article analyzes the reception, in Perú, of the dominant monetary theories of the second half of the eighteenth century, especially those of Adam Smith, through the works of peninsular Spanish authors. The paper presents the exemplary case of the first bank of the Protectorate, which was founded upon the reasoning in the works of Alonso Ortiz. The article weighs the importance of Ortiz in the economic thought of the Enlightenment and looks into how his works were known and applied, with modifications, in the first banking experiment of the independent Peruvian nation.