In searching for the roots of Chile's persistent economic frustrations, numerous investigators have turned their attention to the period between the War of the Pacific and the Great Depression. During that half century Chile's elites enjoyed the bounty of the nitrate age but, perhaps lulled by the glowing trade statistics, generous fiscal revenues and general aura of prosperity which nitrates provided, neglected to develop alternative sources of national income for the future.

Perhaps the most fateful occurrence in Columbus' unlucky career as Governor of Española was the collapse of the governmental arrangements established by him in April 1494. The actual events which led to, and immediately followed, this episode have been shrouded in doubt and confusion from that time to this. The accepted version, repeated by one historian after another since the early 16th century, is however, plain enough: it is to the effect that Columbus, prior to sailing from Española in April to search out the Mainland, appointed a Council of Regency to govern the infant colony until his return. After a wearisome and almost fatal voyage, he returned to Isabela in the following September to find that two of the leading members of the settlement, Pedro Margarit, his military commander, and Fray Boyl, one of the Council and the ecclesiastical head of the settlement, had treacherously deserted and returned to Spain.

The foundation of cities and the articulation of urban networks are a persistent theme in the history of colonial Spanish America. As administrative-social service centers and as foci of trade and, sometimes, manufacturing, cities were the meeting ground of the policies of the metropolis and the concerns of its subjects, the local creoles, castas, and Indians. This mediating position has influenced the kinds of questions asked about cities by Latin American urban historians. Those who, with this author, believe that the city's administrative function was paramount, consider the following questions most useful in determining the role of urban centers within the Spanish empire: was city government merely the agent of the Crown, was it the spokesman of a local oligarchy, or did it permit some degree of popular participation? Was the operation of municipal government characterized by co-operation or by conflict? What was the relative importance of formal institutions created by the Crown, such as the cabildo and the real acuerdo, and informal institutions, such as the family and the client system, in the conduct of city business?

The economic policies that have been implemented in Peru since 1968 by the military government have been the object of considerable attention. By contrast, evaluation of Peruvian economic policy in the preceding two decades has received rather limited attention. It is our objective in this article to put into perspective the export bias of important elements of Peruvian economic policy in the period following World War II and to outline some of the consequences of that bias.