ABSTRACT
The chapter studies the ideological disputes over monetary policies and their imprints in the adoption of concrete mintage practices during the late colonial period and the Wars of Independence in New Granada (present-day Colombia and Ecuador). By focusing on debates about the recoinages and debasements enacted between 1780 and 1821, the chapter explores the arguments of a wide array of treasury officials, merchants, and mint masters whose intellectual toolbox and policy proposals reflect the sophistication of economic reasoning in the region. The chapter argues that New Granadan monetary debates were embedded into the broader global discussions regarding the financial transformations that followed the escalation of the Atlantic Wars after the 1790s. This was an era of monetary experimentation, the formation of currency committees, and the cementation of global bimetallism that stimulated the emergence of new methods and theories to make sense of macroeconomic changes. The stalemate and alternative dominance of reformist, conservative, and revolutionary views of monetary policy help to explain why New Granada’s coinage disorganization during this period was unlike those experienced in other regions of the former Spanish Empire.
