In 1921 Mexico produced a quarter of world’s petroleum, making the country the second largest producer in the world, but by 1930 it only accounted for 3 per cent of world’s production. To date the discussion has mostly relied on events taking place in Mexico for explaining the decline of the...

This brief essay reviews the macro framework of oil and economy in Mexico in the early days of the oil industry, from 1900 to 1938. The first section displays the figures of production at the world level and shows how Mexico become a major oil producer in the 1920s. The second section look at...