Abstract
The second half of the eighteenth century was a period of major transformations in the colonial economies.The monetary system was not an exception. This paper contributes to the analysis of such variations, examining two aspects of the monetary policy of the Bourbons: the debasement and the recoinage. For this, the currency amounts that agents took to the Nueva Granada mints to be reminted were reconstructed and the incentives that the Crown provided for that operation were analyzed. The results show that both measures altered the composition but not the size of the money supply. Thus, although the new coinage reduced transaction costs, the debasement prevented the currency in circulation to get unified. It was also found that the circulation of silver coins was important despite of the fact that the viceroyalty was a gold-producing economy. Finally, it is argued that both measures affected in different ways the behavior of variables such as inflation, low-denomination coins and the Gresham's law.
Highlights
The second half of the eighteenth century was a period of major transformations in the colonial economies.The monetary system was not an exception
This paper contributes to the analysis of such variations, examining two aspects of the monetary policy of the Bourbons: the debasement and the recoinage
The currency amounts that agents took to the Nueva Granada mints to be reminted were reconstructed and the incentives that the Crown provided for that operation were analyzed
Summary
A partir de 1771 la corona inició una política para reacuñar la moneda emitida en años anteriores. En las economías del oro, por cierto, dicho envilecimiento relativo tuvo que crear una disyuntiva importante para los tenedores y, desde un punto de vista agregado, tuvo que influir sobre la capacidad de la economía para retener las monedas de metal amarillo. La causa del fracaso para desmonetizar la moneda antigua y modernizar aquella en circulación es la ausencia de incentivos suficientes por parte de la Corona de subvencionar la operación y ello ratifica que el envilecimiento fue una herramienta esencialmente fiscal y no monetaria. Como bien señalaba José Manuel Restrepo, la casa payanesa, durante sus cinco años en manos de particulares, pagó los oros a 134 pesos el marco, cifra bastante atractiva para los tenedores que inundaron la casa de moneda con metal amarillo. Finalmente, y como corolario de lo anterior, el hecho de que la entrega de las monedas antiguas no haya sido permanente y que solo se consolidó con la reforma monetaria de la primera administración de Tomás Cipriano de Mosquera en 1848 –cuando se subsidió totalmente la operación pagando a los tenedores por su valor extrínseco (face value)46– es un indicativo que confirma los resultados de la ecuación de los incentivos
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