Abstract
Detailed examination of Brazil’s monetary and banking history between 1850 and 1889 has allowed for a number of points of historical fact to be clarified. Additionally, it has shed light on the nature of State-society relations during the Second Reign.
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- 1.
Furtado (1970, chapter 27).
- 2.
Bordo and Rockoff (1996).
- 3.
Thus, suggestions in the literature that adherence to the gold standard tended to advance British interests, however plausible, tend to miss these crucial points. See, for example, Granziera (1979) and Levy and Andrade (1993). These contributions appear to overlook the undisputed fact that exchange-rate stability is a public good and, as such, it can be enjoyed by both domestic and foreign agents.
- 4.
See, for example, Soares (1984).
- 5.
Sweigart (1987).
- 6.
- 7.
Peláez (1976). The book has also shown that suspension of convertibility occurred on 27 November, not 11 November, as usually claimed.
- 8.
A further clarification brought out by the research involves the nature of the remarkable recovery of the exchange rate in the aftermath of the war against Paraguay. It was noted that the milréis already appreciated markedly prior to Rio Branco’s appointment as President of the Council of Ministers (and Minister of Finance) in March 1871. In addition, the book argued that subsequent appreciation of the exchange rate—leading up, eventually, to the attainment of the 27d/1$000 parity in 1875—took place independently of the monetary and fiscal policies carried out by the Rio Branco administration.
- 9.
Barman (1981).
- 10.
Schulz (2013, p. 102), on the contrary, maintains that both the 1875 and the Souto crises originated in Europe and the United States. The author offers scant evidence to support either claim, however.
- 11.
See Section 5.3.
- 12.
For a detailed analysis of the debates and decisions on monetary and banking matters in the Seção de Fazenda of the Council of State, Villela (2000).
- 13.
- 14.
- 15.
Its president, Dias de Carvalho, openly manifested the Bank’s independence from the government in 1858. Speaking in the Senate on the operation to defend the exchange rate, Carvalho was emphatic: ‘never had the Minister of Finance sent orders to the bank to draw, or not to draw (bills of exchange). The Minister agreed with the bank on this point (…), each part proceeded according to its sphere of action, and I can guarantee the Senate that if the bank’s board of directors were convinced that it was not convenient to undertake the operation with drafts, it would not submit to orders from the Minister’. Session of 14 May, in ASI 1858, Tome I, p. 146.
- 16.
‘The law of 22 August of last year (…) could not have been applied to our establishment without gravely offending our rights, without violating a bilateral contract that cannot be altered without the necessary mutual consent’. Cf. Banco do Brasil, Parecer Apresentado á Assembléa (1861, p. 5).
- 17.
See, for example, Guimarães (1998, pp. 58–9).
- 18.
As discussed along the text, the 1860 Law of Impediments would make things worse, as it mandated prior authorization for incorporation. It would not be until 1882 that legislation would be passed relaxing the rules for incorporation, which became a right.
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Villela, A.A. (2020). Conclusions. In: The Political Economy of Money and Banking in Imperial Brazil, 1850–1889. Palgrave Studies in the History of Finance. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32774-3_6
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