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No matter what you say, there’s some debts you never pay. —Arcade Fire, “Intervention” Writing this book was both an exploration of its subject and a personal reminder of the many people, institutions, and networks that support and encourage productivity. It really does take a village of advisors, archivists, librarians, colleagues, friends, family, and a dog or two to write a book. The book, its revisions, and its final form would have been impossible without the help, comments, close readings, and questions of Naomi Lamoreaux and Jean-Laurent Rosenthal. I also owe more than I will ever be able to repay to Catherine Allgor, Gustavo del Ángel-Mobarak, Alessandro Fornazzari, Adrián García-Mosqueira, Ann Goldberg, Aurora GómezGalvarriato , Anne Hanley, Randolph C. Head, Laura Lewis, Ghislaine Lydon, Aldo Musacchio, Freya Schiwy, Susan Silver, Stephanie Smith, Gail Triner, Mary Yeager, and Fariba Zarinebaf. They, together with my colleagues and the staff of the History Department at the University of California , Riverside, all provided intellectual and emotional support at crucial intersections. Similar thanks go out to Sandy Thatcher and the editorial and publishing staff of Penn State University Press. One person to whom I owe more than just thanks is no longer with us to read this acknowledgment. I will always be grateful to, and miss, Ken Sokoloff. My experience in the Yucatán archives would have been decidedly more difficult were it not for Susi Peniche and the staff of the Archivo Notarial del Estado de Yucatán and the Archivo General del Estado de Yucatán. At the Biblioteca Menéndez and the Asociación Genealógica de Yucatán, I owe special thanks to the director of the collection, Licenciado Peón Ancona, who aided in accessing the parish records of the archdiocese of Yucatán. Doña Beatriz Heredia de Pau and Faulo Sánchez Novelo at the Centro de Apoyo a la Investigación Histórica de Yucatán were both helpful guides and very kind hosts. Acknowledgments X ACK NOW LEDGM ENTS In Mexico City, I am grateful to Veronica Aguilar at the Biblioteca de la Escuela de Notarios and to the reference desk staff at the Archivo General de la Nación. Institutional support is equally important, if not crucial, and I cannot imagine writing a book without the support of the excellent staff of librarians I have met. The UCLA Young Research Library in Los Angeles was home for many a weekend, as was the Linfield College Library in McMinnville, Oregon, where Susan Barnes Whyte and her staff provided access to reference literature and a quiet respite. I was a fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame, where I started the work of transforming a dissertation into a book. The University of California, Riverside, has been very generous, and a stint at its Riverside Center for Ideas and Society helped me further. The UCPresidential Fellowship in the Humanities gave me time and resources to finish revising the manuscript. I am also grateful to the Hispanic American Historical Review and the Business History Review for letting me use previously published material. Material from chapter 5 appears here by permission of the Hispanic American Historical Review and Duke University Press, and material from chapter 6 is used by permission of the Business History Review and Harvard University Press. Ultimately, the relationships outside of the academic cordon sustained me most and rewarded me amply—my friends and family in Brussels, Mexico City, New York, Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Oregon—you all know who you are, and you know I couldn’t have done it without you. Last and absolutely not least, I owe so much to David Millman— husband, friend, partner, and never-ending font of encouragement, insight, wit, and love. This one is for you. ...

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