El “mundus subterraneus” de Juan Ignacio Molina o el geólogo como economista

In general, the work of the Chilean ex Jesuit Juan Ignacio Molina (1740-1829) has not been studied under the light of history of geology. This article attempts to reconstruct the origin and morphology of the ideas in which the Chilean naturalist developed about the internal structure of the Earth. We will see how the geological ideas elaborated by Molina went beyond the scientific reflection. The development of a particular discipline as political economy during the eighteenth century also influenced Juan Ignacio Molina´s thoughts about the internal organization of the Earth, geological processes and the descriptions of the nature of Chilean kingdom in the late eighteenth century.