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elmonoenano t1_j10e3v6 wrote

I think it has a big impact. Institutions are more important for good governance than they usually get credit for. These colonies set up extractive institutions, not institutions for widespread improvement. If you read about the Spanish bank when it was developed, it was basically entirely set up to hold money and then transfer it back to the crown, or to lend it to the crown. It wasn't set up to distribute capital and create liquidity to help the economy improve, especially in the colonies. There's been some good comparisons between Dutch, English, and Spanish banking and the impact on colonial development. You can find lots of papers like this: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/231550/1/49-2020-1-111-140.pdf

There was also the Banco de Isabel in the 1850s. But development economics has studied the issue quite a bit and it's worth spending a little time reading.

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