Faculty Bio

Jeremy Baskes

Professor of History, Acting Chair; Director of OWU Global Studies Institute; Director of the Latin American Studies Major

Education

• B.A., Grinnell College
• M.A., University of Wisconsin
• Ph.D., University of Chicago

About

Jeremy Baskes is a specialist in the colonial economic history of Mexico and offers the department’s courses on the history of Latin America from ancient times to the present.

He is author of the book Indians, Merchants and Markets: A Reinterpretation of the Repartimiento and Spanish Indian Economic Relations in Late Colonial Oaxaca, Mexico, 1750–1821 (Stanford University Press, 2000), which examines the economic and social relations of Spaniards and indigenous Mexicans in the late eighteenth century.

Stanford University Press also published his second book, Staying Afloat: Trade and Uncertainty in Spanish Atlantic World Trade, 1760–1820. Released in summer 2013, this monograph is an examination of Spanish imperial trade and the ways in which merchants addressed endemic risk and uncertainty in transatlantic commerce.

Baskes’s articles have appeared in Journal of Latin American Studies, Journal of Economic History, and Colonial Latin American Review. Baskes has been the recipient of numerous research fellowships, including three Fulbright awards and a National Endowment for the Humanities. Read his complete CV.

Publications

• “Cadiz 1780-1808: A Corporate Experiment,” in Adrian Leonard, editor Marine Insurance Origins and Institutions, 1300–1850 (London: Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance, 2016, 228-47.
• Staying Afloat: Trade and Uncertainty in the Spanish Atlantic World Trade, 1760–1820, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013).
• “Seeking Red: The Production and Trade of Cochineal Dye in Oaxaca, Mexico, 1750–1821,” in Andrea Feeser, Maureen Daly Goggin and Beth Fowkes Tobin, editors, The Materiality of Color: The Production, Circulation, and Application of Dyes and Pigments, 1400–1800, (Ashgate: 2012), 101-17.
• “Communication Breakdown: Information and Risk in Spanish Atlantic World Trade during an Era of ‘Free Trade’ and War,” Colonial Latin American Review, Vol. 21, No. 1, (June 2011), 35–60.
• “Introduction: Trade and War in the Spanish and Portuguese Atlantic World.” Special issue of Colonial Latin American Review, Vol. 21, No. 1, (June 2011), 3–8.
• “Risky Ventures: Reconsidering Mexico’s Colonial Trade System,” Colonial Latin American Review, Vol 14, No. 1, (June 2005), 27–54.
• “Colonial Institutions and Cross-Cultural Trade: Repartimiento Credit and Indigenous Production of Cochineal in Eighteenth Century Oaxaca, Mexico,” Journal of Economic History. Vol. 65, No. 1 (March 2005), 186–210.
• Indians, Merchants, and Markets: A Reinterpretation of the Repartimiento and Spanish-Indian Economic Relations in Colonial Oaxaca, 1750–1821, (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2000).
• “Coerced or Voluntary? The Repartimiento and Market Participation of Peasants in Late Colonial Oaxaca,” Journal of Latin American Studies, Volume 28, Part 1, February, 1996, 1–28.

Other Professional Activities

• External Personnel Reviewer, Davidson College, Denison University, University of North Florida, and Bowling Green State University.
• External Program Evaluator, Allegheny College, International Studies Program, March 2009.
• Conference on Latin American History: Mexican History Book Prize, 2014.
• Conference on Latin American History: Tibesar Outstanding Article in The Americas Committee, 2008.
• Book manuscript reviewer: University of Arizona, Oxford University, Routeledge, University of Oklahoma, Westview Press, and Harvard University.
• Article manuscript reviewer for Ethnohistory, Estudios Interdisciplinarios de America Latina y el Caribe, Hispanic American Historical Review, Journal of Latin American Studies, Colonial Latin American Review, Mexican Studies, The Americas, and Colonial Latin American Historical Review.
• Business History Review: Latin American Book Review Sub-Editor, 1999 to 2007.
• Conference on Latin American History: James Robertson Outstanding Article in HAHR, 2005.
• Conference on Latin American History: CLAH-Best English Language Article Prize Committee, 2002.
• Conference on Latin American History: Organizer, Program Committee, 2002.
• Conference on Latin American History: Scobie Prize Award Committee, 1999.
• Conference on Latin American History: Organizer, Program Committee, 1998.
• The Historian: Latin American Book Review Sub-Editor, 1993-95.
• Ohio Academy of History: Referee, Dissertation Award Committee, 1994.