Cosechando antes de la siembra: Fisonomía del pensamiento económico en los primeros años del chile independiente[A physiognomy of the Chilean economic thought during the first years of independence]

In this study we describe the different trends of economic thought during the first half-century of Chilean independence. We have extensively analyzed original and secondary sources to this end. We review a series of particularly passionate, though sometimes not theory-based, discussions about economic policy published in the first newspapers available after Chilean independence, as well as manuscripts and books published by relevant authors. We describe the main channels through which the international schools of economic though were diffused during the first half of the nineteenth century and how they influenced the economic policy of the first national governments. We also provide in-depth analyses of the main local authors, including biographical notes and the description of their economic ideas and sources of influence. Some of these authors are outstanding actors of the Chilean history, like Manuel de Salas, Camilo Henriquez or Diego Jose Benavente, other are intellectuals outside the mainstream which proposed some radical and innovative policies proposals, as Pedro Felix Vicuña, Santiago Arcos or Cristoval Valdez. We divided the work into three periods: national independence (1810-1830), initial Portalian regime (1830-1850), and economic liberalism (1850-1863).