Volume one includes the colonial and independence eras up to 1850, linking Latin America's economic history to the pre-Hispanic, European, and African background. It also synthesizes knowledge on the human and environmental impact of the Spanish conquest, the evolution of colonial economic institutions, and the performance of key sectors of the colonial and immediate post-colonial economies. Finally, it analyses of the costs and benefits of independence.

"On the whole, these volumes make for absorbing reading and provide wide thematic coverage embracing most of Latin American history."
Eric Van Young, Th International History Review