Economia Politica en Mexico. Apuntes para la Historia de la Industria Mexicana. Aviso impotante y respetuoso que se dirige al Superior Gobierno, a la Ezma, Junta Departmamental de Puebla

Bookseller Notes

First edition, scarce, of a fascinating and typographically attractive pamphlet by the Mexican industrialist and propagandist Estevan de Antuano (17921847) outlining his strategies for economic protectionism regarding Mexican textiles. Antuano was educated in Spain and in England, where he became familiar with industrial production. In the 1830s he led the modernization of the textile industry in Puebla, setting up Mexico's first mechanized spinning factory, La Constancia Mexicana, which produced cotton yarn on Arkwright spindles powered by the waters of the Ro Atoyac. By the early 1840s, he owned four such factories in Puebla.A vigorous propagandist, who wrote over sixty pamphlets, Antuano had a vision of national development that was tied closely to industrial and particularly textile production. Here he outlines one of the plans by which he wanted to ensure that the traditional manufacturing centre of Puebla wrest control of northern Mexican markets, which were then dependent on contraband, mainly from the US. This with extensive contemporary annotation commenting in detail on the plan.Ultimately Antuano's vision floundered on the realities of the scarcity of raw cotton and currency, the persistence of contraband, and national disintegration. It is difficult to assess institutions holdings of pamphlets such as these, but it is doubtless scarce. WordlCat lists copies at UC Berkeley, Harvard and Senate House.See: Miguel A. Quintana, Estevan de Antuano, (1957).