Urban development and the housing market in Guadalajara and Puebla

Puebla was founded in 1531, in a densely-populated Indian area. The early colonial economy thrived on the basis of wheat and maize production (Liehr, 1976: 15). The Church played an important role in this agricultural development, and by the eighteenth century had accumulated so much wealth that it became the main institutional source of credit (Liehr, 1976).