Historical Sketch

Christopher Columbus arrived at Puerto Rico on his second voyage in 1493, Initially it was named Isla de San Juan Bautista, while the capital was referred to as "Rich Port". Throughout times the naming got interchanged. The Spanish general captaincy was established in 1508 and got placed under the jurisdiction of neighboring Santo Domingo. The Cuban uprising of the 1870s also influence Puerto Rico. When the United States intervened in Cuba in the Spanish-American War, the Spanish colonial rule came to an end also in Puerto Rico. The island was occupied and became a US territory. The 1952 constitution created the Associated Free State of Puerto Rico within the United States. In the 2010s the debate on full statehood has given rise to a series of referendums in which the population voted against the continuation of the current status.

Monetary History Overview

The Spanish colonial monetary got introduced when the administration was established, no local mint was ever erected. In the early 19th century, debased silver coins from Latin America began to flow in, displacing the full-value coins. They were demonetized in 1857, and the colonial government began to validate full-valued coins in 1884. In December 1895, the Mexican coins that made up the majority of the circulating medium were demonetized within two months. At the same time, a Spanish royal decree created the Puerto Rican Peso as a so-called "provincial variant" of the Spanish Peseta, hence legally not a distinct currency. The Spanish Bank of Puerto Rico obtained a 25 years' privilege for issuing paper money. Local subsidiary coins were issued that circulated together with Spanish and French gold coins. In the Spanish-American War, the United States occupied and annexed the island. In 1952, Puerto Rico was re-constituted as Associated State. The United States Dollar was introduced in February 1899. The Puerto Rican coinage was demonetized in May of the following year, foreign gold coins were accepted for bullion. The charter of the Bank of Puerto Rico was confirmed (the "Spanish" was however dropped from the name) in 1900 until the orderly expiration in 1913. Afterwards the bank got liquidated. A second commercial bank had obtained a privilege in 1902 but defaulted again in 1911, before the full term of the charter. The banks' paper money could be redeemed in the course of the liquidation process.

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