When is bankruptcy moral? Is there such a thing as illegitimate debate? And what are tyrants owed? Drawing on new archival sources, this book shows how Latin American nations have wrestled with the morality of indebtedness and insolvency since their foundation, and outlines how their history can shed new light on contemporary global dilemmas.

With a focus on the early modern Spanish Empire and modern Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina, and based on archival research carried out across seven countries, Odious Debt studies 400 years of history and unearths overlooked congressional debates and understudied thinkers. The book shows how discussions on the morality of debt and default played a structuring role in the construction and codification of nations and identity in Latin America.

Latin Americans developed a global critique of economics and international law that continues to generate pressing questions on bankruptcy, loss and damage, reparations, and the pursuit of a global moral economy today. This new history of the moral economy of the Hispanic World from the 1520s to the 1920s illuminates contemporary issues in international law and international relations: Odious Debt will be of interest to policymakers and academics worldwide.