This academic work serves as a comprehensive doctoral dissertation that reconstructs the history of the Banco de Zacatecas between 1891 and 1916. The text investigates the transition from informal credit systems, dominated by the Church and merchant-lenders, to the establishment of a modern institutional banking framework under the Porfiriato regime. By utilizing a neoinstitutionalist approach, the author explores how legal reforms, specifically the 1897 Law of Institutions of Credit, shaped the bank’s organizational structure, its issuance of currency, and its administrative strategies.

The study provides a meticulous analysis of the local elite and business networks that controlled the bank, highlighting their strategic d ...