We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2009
In the middle of the nineteenth century, ecclesiastical wealth in Mexico consisted basically of real estate and mortgages. The Church avoided investments in mining, industry and commerce. There were regional differences, the Church being richer in some parts of the country than in others: in the two most important cities, Mexico and Puebla, the different ecclesiastical corporations owned about half of the total real estate, whereas in some of the smaller cities, such as Veracruz, Jalapa, Orizaba, Córdoba and San Luis Potosí, the Church was proportionately much poorer. The urban real estate consisted of houses rented on fairly favourable terms to both rich and poor, monastic buildings and churches. In the countryside, the Church was considerably poorer than in the cities: its haciendas were few compared to the number of those privately owned, and their value amounted to about 5 per cent of that of all rural estate. Real estate formed about one-half of Church possessions; the other half consisted of mortgages.
1 On the function of the Church as a banker, see Costeloe, Michael P., Church Wealth in Mexico. A Study of the ‘Juzgado de Capellanias’ in the Archbishopric of Mexico, 1800–1856 (Cambridge University Press, 1967)Google Scholar.
2 One Mexican peso = one U.S. dollar.
3 These opening paragraphs are, in effect, a brief summary of my book, Alienation of Church Wealth in Mexico. Social and Economic Aspects of the Liberal Revolution, 1856–1875 (Cambridge University Press, 1971)Google Scholar.
4 Memoria de Hacienda y Crédita Público (Mexico City, 1870), p. 995Google Scholar.
5 See my article, ‘La desamortización de los bienes corporativos de 1856’, Historia Mexicana, XVI, No. 2 (Oct.–Dec. 1966)Google Scholar.
6 Called Libres de Protocole de Cabildo and deposited in the Archive Histórico de Guana juato of the University of Guanajuato.
7 In August 1860, Serrano was to be Jefé Político under the Liberal governor Manuel Doblado. See Frausto, Jesus Rodríguez, Guía de Gobernantes de Guanajuato (Mexico City, 1965), p. 199Google Scholar.
8 Maillefert, E., Gran Almanaque Mexicana y Directorio del Comercio de la República Mexicana (Mexico City, 1868), p. 296Google Scholar.
9 Protocolo de Cabildo, 1857, f. 105.
10 Protocolo de Cabildo, 1858, f. 124, and 1861, f. 511.
11 Memoria de Hacienda (1857), p. 66.
12 Ibid., pp. 133 and 139.
13 Protocolo de Cabildo, 1858, f. 134; 1861, fs. 14 and 21; Archive General de la Nación, Bienes Nacionales, Leg. 734, unnumbered.
14 Decree September 1869. Decretos expedidos por el Congreso Constituyente del Estado libre y Guanajuato en los años de 1869 a 1871.
15 Ipiña, Octaviano Cabrera, San Luis Potosí (San Luis Potosí, 1970), p. 288Google Scholar.
16 Castillo, Rafael del, Cuadro Sinóptico del Estado de San Luis Potosí (San Luis Potosí, 1878)Google Scholar.
17 Meade, Joaquín, Semblanza de Don José Encarnación Ipiña (San Luis Potosí, 1956), p. 25Google Scholar.
18 See detailed description in González, Luis, Pueblo en Vilo (Mexico City, 1968), pp. 85–98Google Scholar.
19 See governor's report of 1874, Memoria presentada por el C. Gabriel García, Gobernador Constitucional del Estado de Zacatecas (Zacatecas, 1874), pp. 67–74Google Scholar.
20 Ibid., pp. 58–67.
21 Pimentel, Francisco, La economía política aplicada a la propriedad territorial de México (1865), included in his Obras Completas (5 vols., Mexico City, 1903–4), III, 228Google Scholar.
22 Diccionario Universal de Historia y Geografía (7 vols, and 3 appendixes, Mexico City, 1853–6)Google Scholar, appendix 3.
23 Observaciones sobre la administratión pública del Estado de Zactecas (Baltimore, 1851), pp. 5–10Google Scholar.
24 Bonilla, José A. y, Memoria sobre la agricultura y sus productos en el Estado de Zacatecas (Zacatecas, 1889), pp. 134 and 144Google Scholar.
25 Dublán, M. y Lozano, J. M. (eds.), Legislación mexicana o colección completa de las disposiciones legislatives expedidas desde la independencia de la república (58 vols., Mexico City, 1876–1912), VIII, 185Google Scholar.
26 Decretos expedidos por el Congreso Constituyente del Estado libre y soberano de Guanajuato en los años de 1857 a 1861 (Guanajuato, 1861), p. 25Google Scholar.
27 Dublán y Lozano, Legislación mexicana, V, 214.
28 Exposición que elevan al soberano Congreso de la Unión varios proprietarios, pidiendo la insubsistencia de la llamada ley agraria que se publicó en el Estado de Aguascalientes el 17 de agosto último (Mexico City, 1861)Google Scholar.
29 Costeloe, Church Wealth in Mexico, pp. 92 and 100.
30 Labastida, L. G., Colección de leyes, decretas, reglamentos, circulares, órdenes y acuerdos relativos a la desamortización de los bienes de corporaciones civiles y religiosas y a la nacionalización de los que administraron las últimas (Mexico City, 1893), p. 68Google Scholar.
