Constituciones y crecimiento económico en la Colombia del siglo XIX

En este ensayo analizo el impacto de las numerosas constituciones que se redactaron en la Colombia del siglo XIX sobre su desarrollo económico. Se escogen algunas constituciones prototípicas como piezas importantes de la estructura legal que se va conformando en el país. Se trata de demostrar que la inestabilidad constitucional y legal fue más importante que el propio legado hispánico en explicar el retraso económico de Colombia. Mientras que los monopolios comerciales, políticos y religiosos fueron heredados y estuvieron a la base de la ideología conservadora, muchos de ellos lograron ser desmantelados por los reformistas liberales. La pérdida del orden político que España supo mantener por tres siglos fue seguida por la búsqueda tortuosa de un nuevo ordenamiento político, de lo cual fueron responsables las elites criollas. Los excesos de concentración o difusión de poderes marcaron los movimientos pendulares entre centralismo y federalismo, que fueron de la esencia del desorden político del siglo XIX, freno importante a su vez del desarrollo económico del país.In this essay I analyze the impact of the many constitutions Colombia drafted during the nineteenth century on its economic development. Some prototypical constitutions are chosen as they became building blocks of the legal structure of the country. I try to show that constitutional and legal instability played a more important role in the lack of development than the Spanish legacy. While commercial, political and religious monopolies were inherited and constituted the ideological base of the conservatives, many of them were dismantled by the liberal reforms. The loss of the political order which the Spanish had maintained for three centuries was followed by the painful search for a new political code, for which the Creole elites were responsible. The excesses of concentration or diffusion of power produced the pendulum movements between centralism and federalism which were essential causes of the political disorder during the nineteenth century, which held back the country’s economic performance.Publicad

Colombia en las dos fases de globalización

The historians of the globalization process divide it in two great periods: 1860 to 1914, followed by the disintegration of trade, capital and labor flows, and from 1950 to the present. This essay attempts to understand the performance of the Colombian economy during the two globalizations. In spite of entering into the first phase late, it did very well, maybe because its point of departure on the scale of development was extremely low. The participation of the flows of trade and capital in its gross product increased systematically until 1930. In the second phase, however, Colombia’s performance was mediocre, with high barriers imposed against trade and foreign investment, while at the same time its financial sector was repressed to benefit some agents with political power.Colombia, globalization, economic development, international trade

Consecuencias económicas de la independencia en Colombia

Independence from Spain was a complex movement of civil confrontation and long and cruel wars of liberation. Human lives were lost, assets destroyed, capital fled, slavery abolished and public issues left to inexpert administrations, but at the same time there was an important reduction in the tax burden as well as a modernization of both the state and its financial regulations. The GDP per capita was reduced until 1830, and then recovered. The economies of Popayan and Cartagena contracted, the latter having been subsidized by the taxes of the “virreinato”, and Antioquia, with its mining, and Cundinamarca benefited.independence, economic growth, mining, public finance