Roberto Cortes Conde is Professor Emeritus of Economics at Universidad de Sand Andres in Buenos Aires, Argentina and a corresponding member of the Royal Academy of History of Spain. A former Guggenheim Fellow, he has published numerous books and scholarly articles. His most recent books include La Economia Argentina en el Largo Plazo (Siglos xix yxx)(1997), Transferring Wealth and Power from the Old to the New Wold: Monetary and Fiscal Instututions in the 17th Through the 19th Century (2002), edited with Michael D. Bordo, and Historia Economica Mundial (2003).