ave been tried at least four times since independence from Spain in the 1820s (De Soto, 2000, p. 3).
It is often said that the problem in underdeveloped countries is that they do not have enough capital. De Soto, though, suggests that the real problem is not capital. Even poor countries have a very large amount of total capital. The real problem is that most of the capital is "locked up" in a way that people cannot use it to produce wealth.
For example, says De Soto, in the United States, the most common way for people to get capital to start a small business is to take out a mortgage on their home (De Soto, 2000, p. 6). People
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