This book uncovers the extent to which government policy in mid nineteenth-century Brazil followed the interests of the all-powerful coffee growing class. The testing ground for this question is monetary and banking policy, an area in which exporters and the Brazilian government were often at loggerheads. The development of the monetary and banking regime during the second half of the Brazilian Empire (1850-89) is examined in a chronological and thematic way. The book establishes two major points of historical fact: the peculiar nature of the monetary standard adopted in Brazil during part of the period, as well as the role of the Bank of Brazil therein. Additionally, the analysis broadens current knowledge of three of the major contemporary events in the financial sphere – the 1860 banking and corporate law, the Souto crisis of 1864 and the 1875 financial crisis that brought down Mauá’s business empire. This book will be of interest to academics, both as secondary literature for their own research and as material that could be used in class at the advanced undergraduate or graduate levels. It will appeal to those interested not only in Brazilian economic and financial history, but also to students of political economy in general.
Author(s): André A. Villela
Series: Palgrave Studies In The History Of Finance
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 229
Tags: Financial History: Political Economy: Money And Banking: Imperial Brazil, 1850–1889
Preface......Page 7
Usage......Page 11
Acknowledgments......Page 12
Contents......Page 15
Abbreviations......Page 16
List of Figures......Page 17
List of Tables......Page 18
Chapter 1: Introduction......Page 20
References......Page 30
2.1 The Vale-Issuing Banks......Page 32
2.2 Monopoly Achieved: The “Third” Bank of Brazil......Page 38
2.3 Plurality by Executive Decree: The New Banks of Issue and the 1857 Crisis......Page 44
2.4 The Orthodox Backlash......Page 56
2.4.1 The Inquiry into the 1857 Crisis......Page 61
References......Page 76
3.1 Metalistas Win the Day: The 1860 Law......Page 79
3.2 The Souto Crisis and Its Aftermath......Page 89
References......Page 108
4.1 Revising the Agreement with the Bank of Brazil......Page 111
4.2 The Rio Branco Government and the 1875 Crisis......Page 120
4.3 Political Instability, Debt, and Banking Reform: The 1880s......Page 132
References......Page 152
5.1 The Long-Term Behavior of the Money Supply......Page 155
5.2 Issuing Rights in Imperial Brazil......Page 172
5.3 Convertibility......Page 181
References......Page 197
Chapter 6: Conclusions......Page 202
References......Page 213
Appendix......Page 216
References......Page 224
Index......Page 226
