The 2008 financial crisis launched a renewed interest in the global history of capitalism. Since then, historians have been addressing different themes and time periods through the lens of the birth, expansion, and mutation of capitalism. New research has scrutinized labor resistance, corporation strategies, financial cycles, and the commodification of goods. As an emergent field, the history of consumption has given its first steps in establishing a more direct dialogue with this historiography on global capitalism. From material culture to retailing, historians of consumption have addressed topics connected to the history of capitalism without necessarily emphasizing their contribution to the field. This panel aims to present the various ways in which the history of consumption can provide new insights into the history of capitalism when interrogated from Latin America.

The panel focuses on four aspects connected to consumption. First, it takes into account the links between consumption practices and what macroeconomics analyses as "aggregate demand": how did changes in consumption practices affect larger macroeconomic cycles? Second, it digs into consumption determinants: how and why do consumers make their choices? Third, this panel addresses the act of consuming or employing various goods: how did the use of certain goods iterate in different regions and time periods? Fourth, it tackles down purchase or exchange strategies that granted consumers access to different commodities: did consumer-market economies interact with other forms of exchange? Did going to the market replace other forms of exchange?

Latin America provides an original approach to all these questions for four reasons. As one of the regions with the highest inequality worldwide, it showcases a diversified consumption pattern combined in the same urban spaces. Second, the colonial past of Latin America and its "peripheral" place in the global economy has made import substitution a pivotal element in defining public policies and business opportunities. Third, debates about Latin America's "dependent" and "underdeveloped" status have been strongly connected to studying consumption patterns. Finally, recurrent economic crises and persistent inflation have strengthened the role of consumer politics in the region.