GILBERTO CRESPO Y MARTINEZ AND HIS PARTICIPATION IN THE POLICY OF FOMENT DURING THE PORFIRIO DIAZ REGIME. REFLECTIONS ABOUT HIS WORK DEDICATED TO BELGIUM

Abstract

In January 1892, Gilberto Crespo y Martínez published a book entitled Belgium:
commercial museums, consular service, education and industrial and commercial
propaganda. Why prepare a publication on a small European kingdom, where the
widespread practice was to study English empires and Austro-Hungarian or the
French and American fast-growing states? The aim of this paper is to locate the
reason for the approach to the Belgian model as an option within the economic and
trade policy during the Porfirio Díaz regime. A further aspect was to evaluate what
was the impact of his experience on himself and in his long career as a diplomat.