Ingrid Bleynat, "Vendors' Capitalism: A Political Economy of Public Markets in Mexico City" (Stanford UP, 2021)

New Books in Economic and Business History · Nov 12, 2021 · 44m

Mexico City's public markets were integral to the country's economic development, bolstering the expansion of capitalism from the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. These publicly owned and operated markets supplied households with everyday necessities and generated revenue for local authorities. At the same time, they were embedded in a wider network of economic and social relations that gave the vendors who sold in them an influence far beyond the running of their stalls. As they fed the capital's population and fought to protect their own livelihoods, vendors' daily interactions…