ABSTRACT
While globalisation is argued to be a recent phenomenon (see Willis and Mcllwaine, this volume), it is clear that Middle America has been embedded in the world economy for many centuries. However, for much of this period such integration has been related to agricultural and mining products, rather than manufactured goods or service provision. This chapter examines the rise of industrial production in the region, how this was linked to national development strategies, and how external factors have influenced the nature of industrialisation from a broadly importsubstitution model to an export-led manufacturing sector, involving large amounts of international capital. This move towards a more open economy is also found within the service sector, two important elements of which are tourism and financial services. These will be examined later in the chapter. A key aim of this chapter is to demonstrate the heterogeneity of industrial and service development due to local factors, and also local responses to globalisation within the broad trends of economic diversification.
