Adelman does foundational work with his book. He places great emphasis on the political struggle for supremacy in the Atlantic world as the trigger for republican transformations on both sides of the ocean, that helped the collapse of European empires. It recasts the split narrative of market and state formation. He shows that After years of conflict and strife - Argentina created a legitimate legal order, upholding property rights. It connected the public interests of rulership with the private interest of capital. Now Republic of Capital is a political history of economics, which is not my niche at all. The first chapter is very very dense, but the narrative in every chapter after that one is very readable. Adelman is telling a story. "This is the lesson of Buenos Aires, Republic of capital -- a republic to triumphant and to successful for its own good that it could not make room for others."