Black Market Capital: Urban Politics and the Shadow Economy in Mexico City

Long known as the Baratillo market, originally located in Mexico’s Plaza Mayor, but since the Revolution, synonymous with its location in Tepito, this Mexican black market—selling second-hand, stolen, artisan, contraband, and pirated goods—has been a steadfast part of Mexico City’s economic, political, and social landscape since the early colonial period. In this easy-to-read and well-researched study, Konove draws from thousands of pages of government correspondence, vendor petitions, market censuses, travelers’ accounts, newspaper articles, notarial and judicial records, and available quantitative data to trace the history of the Baratillo market from the mid-seventeenth century through its relocation to Tepito at the beginning of the twentieth century. This fascinating historical account explores how this institution of urban life survived and flourished for hundreds of years despite periodic threats and official efforts by colonial and independence-era officials to eliminate what they saw as a magnet of crime and immorality, as well as...