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If finance is crucial to growth, as a large literature has demonstrated, then why is there wide variance in financial development across countries? Why have governments not put the appropriate policies into place to encourage the development of banks and securities markets? This paper addresses this question by exploring the development of the Mexican banking system from the 1880s to the present. It argues that the institutions that encourage financial development cannot be created at the stroke of a pen. Rather, the creation of institutions that encourage financial development are dependent upon other institutions that limit the authority and discretion of the government. In short, political institutions that constrain government are a necessary condition for economic growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]