I think that when discussing the wars of independence, and what enabled the rulers to wage war without developing strong fiscal capabilities both during and after the fact, you have to mention the ethos of the war itself. All of this document goes over how Latin American governments were able to go to other places to get money, but doesn't really mention the fact that some people were so invested in these war efforts that they were willing to sacrifice financially for their country. The work mentions a little bit about Paraguay and mobilization, but I think that's it. People who supported the war effort in different ways saved the state, or the attacking army, money. I understand that those people may not be an enormous majority, but I think they're worth mentioning.

This reminds me of modern day Latin America as well. Printing money makes it practically impossible to invest in anything because the currency is constantly crashing. People, especially in Argentina, won't buy houses and instead will only rent apartments because both the currency as well as the housing markets are too unstable to invest in. The currency, like the currency in the 1800s, can fall too fast, making the investors automatically lose money. For example, if you bought a house for 300,000 pesos when the currency was 1 to 1 with US dollars and then the currency all of the sudden was 5 to 1 with US dollars, the 300,000 peso house you just bought is suddenly worth a lot less money. The price will eventually readjust itself to a certain degree, but that will take time. You also have to consider that if someone wanted to buy your house and had 300,000 pesos, they now need to have 1.5 million to keep up with the conversion rate. This makes it very difficult to sell houses because each time the currency crashes, a smaller and smaller percentage of the population can actually afford the house. Peoples' salaries will adjust eventually, but again that takes a lot of time and doesn't always happen. Additionally the housing market itself is unpredictable unless you buy a house / apartment near an enormous urban center. I wonder how much of using printing money as a crutch to solve financial problems has influenced modern day fiscal policy in Latin America. Has it also been a way for the government to ignore the debt and financial crisis created by mass expenditures the government cannot pay for? Reading more about the state of Latin America in the 19th and 20th centuries I think is really solidifying for me how much Latin America has changed but more importantly how it has stayed the same.

I find it very interesting that Argentina was already taxing imports and exports even in the 1800s. In Argentina today, imports are heavily taxed, which is supposed to incentivize Argentine companies to make their own products in Argentina. Argentine factories, however, are not able to create products that are as high quality as those that are imported. This gap between the quality of Argentine made products and imported products heavily inflates the price of imported products. I wonder whether or not something similar happened with regards to taxing imports during the 1800s. I'm also curious as to whether these policies during war time in Latin America are the direct cause of the policies still in place in Argentina today, or if something else impacted the implementation of these modern day tariffs on imports.