The challenge that we propose to undertake in this project is to research about the comparative history of the state building process in Latin America by taking its fiscal history as the starting point. Even if the construction of the state in Latin America is initially founded on the sectors of the bureaucracy and the army that were inherited from the colonial period, it undergoes great transformations starting from the Revolution of 1810 and especially during the wars of Independence (1810-1825). In most of the new nations that are being forged, the wars of Independence and the ensuing long years of civil war demand that stable military and police forces be formed in order to construct the indispensable monopoly of legitimate violence that characterizes state domination. This process required the localization of the enough resources to cover the enormous expenses that these military forces incurred. At the same time, a body of bureaucrats had to be created and paid, so that it would take on the task of creating a system to generate resources. This project thus aims to create a comparative study of the forms and rhythms of state construction in the diverse national and/or provincial cases that we have selected. Guided by the Principal Investigator, a team of young researchers will be responsible for collecting detailed data from the budgets of this group of nations or provincial entities. We will thereby work on the Memorias of the different departments, especially those from the departments of War, Treasury and Government; we will also, however, consult the original sources of the Memorias in the national and provincial archives of the selected cases.