Entre el liberalismo radical y la necesidad: los debates en torno al monopolio estatal del tabaco en México, 1821-1824

Abstract

The tobacco monopoly was one of the most important financial resources of the New Spain’s viceregal government during the last twenty-five years of the eighteenth-century. Once Mexico achieved independence, politicians and representatives of various economic interests became absorbed in a dispute over its future. Some thought that its existence went against modern liberal principals, as well as exemplifying the Colonial regime’s alleged despotism from which the new nation was trying to escape. Others believed that the fragility of the Public Treasury justified its survival. They thought that the tobacco monopoly was necessary for the construction of the State and the constitution of a viable tax system. Without the State no liberty could be guaranteed. This essay describes the intense debate on this subject which occurred during the foundational moments of the new country. It also analyses the political and economic ideas that were discussed and the interests that were involved in them.