The Martinez del Rio family was a vigorous contestant in the highly politicized economy of early national Mexico. David Walker's case study of its successes and failures provides a unique insider's view of the trials and tribulations of doing business in a hostile environment. The family's ordeal in Mexico--a series of personal dislocations and traumas--mirrored the painful contractions of an old society reluctantly giving birth to a new nation.

Using previously undiscovered primary source materials (including the private correspondence and business records of the family, public...