A history of the Brazil

by James Henderson

Since the removal of the court to the Brazil, a bank has been established in this city, which commenced upon the plausible plan of affording great facility to commerce, by discounting bills at the rate of six per cent.; but this banking company soon curtailed these accommodations, on finding that, through private channels and agents, they could obtain ten, twelve, and fifteen per cent. by making loans, and advancing their notes upon securities not of the first character and validity. In order to provide against this sort of traffic, and acquire an unfair advantage over the public, they had the address to convince the King that they were entitled to have a prior claim over the property of an insolvent before other creditors, and, in consequence, his Majesty, (then Prince Regent,) passed laws, of the 24th September, 1814, and the 16th February, 1816, conceding to them certain preferences; and, by a decree of the 29th November, 1818, he granted them the full privilege of a first and distinct claim, before all other creditors, which is tantamount to the important public right the British government, by virtue of extents, have over the national property in the hands of any individual, and which every state can, with equal justice, practise for the security of its revenue. But that such a preference should be allowed to a body of merchants, trading for gain, over other claimants precisely in the same circumstances, is an innovation upon the laws of commerce not founded in justice. In most instances, our own countrymen will be found to be the greatest sufferers, their liberal accommodations being too often unfairly taken advantage of. The bank declared a dividend of twenty per cent. last year; and, notwithstanding the profitable operations which afforded such a result, it was very recently involved in a temporary embarrassment, arising principally from the want of a competent knowledge of those financial arrangements, foresight, and ingenuity, so important and essential in the direction of a banking concern. In this dilemma, the directors received effectual pecuniary aid from the English house of Messrs. Samuels, Phillips, and Co. established here, with the same promptitude which marks the financial transactions of its connexions in Europe.

The revenue raised in the Brazil is computed at from six to seven millions sterling, including the pecuniary aid the government receives from Portugal, but which sum is not adequate to the demands upon the treasury; many remaining in arrears, and others, with more influence, getting their claims liquidated, after much delay. The military establishment would not appear to require a very large sum, the militia not creating an item of much expense, and the navy being in a very inefficient state: it would, therefore, be difficult, on a first view of the subject, to account for an expenditure at all proportionate to the income arising from any apparent establishments for the security of the state; but as no details of the financial situation of the country, or the appropriation of the revenue, are ever published, the cause of the embarrassment under which the treasury labours can only be arrived at through the medium of piece-meal information. From the aggregate of such intelligence it is fair to conclude that the great item which disorganizes the financial wheel has its origin not only in the great accumulation of individuals about the court, but also in every department of the state. The King is a man of an easy and amiable disposition, and, from a wish to do something for every one, it is manifest, he has been led to sanction the increase of public situations to an extent beyond what is required. Few European courts, comparatively speaking, have so many persons attached to them as the Brazilian, consisting of fidalgos, ecclesiastics, and numerous attendants. Few governments have so prodigious a number employed in the discharge of public affairs, compared with those holding appointments here. In addition to the three hundred mules and horses at St. Christovao, there is an equal number in the stables at the city, not kept for the use of the royal family alone, but for the supply of fidalgos and the numerous individuals composing the retinue of the court; and, with all this expense, there is no appearance of splendour or elegance. The carriages are large unwieldly cabriolets, drawn by mules; and a fidalgo will be seen using the whip rigorously from his seat in the vehicle, although a postilion is mounted upon one of the mules, to whose management one would expect the whole matter to be left.

The extraordinary number of persons about the court and government are easily distinguished from their practice of wearing cocked hats. The ribands and orders at the button-holes of clerks, and the prodigious display of stars by fidalgos, merchants, and even shopkeepers, which their taste for public show induces them daily to exhibit, prove that these sort of decorations are procured with much facility in the capital.

Many of the claims upon the treasury are satisfied by bills upon the other captaincies, and few military or other persons, receiving appointments to distant places, do not take an order upon the treasury of that province for the liquidation of their arrears; and the provincial erarios are frequently in the same difficulties, in consequence of those demands. The treasury of Rio draws largely upon Bahia and Pernambuco. The latter has generally of late liquidated such demands to the amount of thirty contas of reas (about £9000) per month; but it is not unusual for English merchants receiving those securities to hold them for a long period before payment can be obtained.

The Brazilian government unquestionably might boast of being one of the richest in the world, if the immense capabilities of the country were administered with energy and spirit, and a due regard paid to the measures requisite to derive only a fair portion from them of the advantages they present. The revenue of the Brazil arises principally from the following imposts, viz. one-fifth upon all gold; a decimo upon all productions of the land, upon the annual value of all houses and shacaras, upon slaves, upon the exchange of proprietorship of slaves and property. A duty upon all articles passing the river Parahiba into the mining and interior districts, is collected at a register established for the purpose; and imposts are paid on passing various rivers with mules and horses. New negroes also pay an additional duty on entering the interior districts. All cattle entering the province of Rio de Janeiro pay a tax of nearly ten per cent.; the beef, besides, pays a duty of five reas per pound.

The customs are a very important branch of revenue, and may be estimated to produce at Rio from five to six hundred thousand pounds sterling per annum, of which the English merchants pay upwards of three hundred thousand pounds, and that body collectively do not contribute upon the whole much less than six hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling annually to the Brazilian customs: fifteen per cent. is paid by them upon all imports, (which by-the-bye is at present very unfairly levied, but more of that hereafter,) and certain duties upon produce exported, which does not appear to be at all equal at the different maritime towns. At Pernambuco fox instance, cotton pays six hundred reas per arobe. White sugar sixty reas per arobe, and brown sugar thirty reas, which, upon the average price of those articles when I left that city, was from six to ten per cent. And at Rio a duty of two per cent. at the market price was, in 1819, laid, generally, upon all produce exported. Coffee previously paid eighty reas per arobe, at a fixed price of two milreas and a half per arobe; and the price in 1819 being about four milreas and two hundred reas, the government collected the two per cent. upon the difference betwixt the two milreas and a half and the current value, which created some perplexity in levying the tax upon that article; and as eighty reas upon the fixed price is about two per cent. it would obviate this difficulty by repealing that law, and allowing the two per cent. to apply to the market price of coffee as well as other articles. The only advantage to be obtained by the government, by continuing this mode, would be in the event of coffee falling in value below two milreas and a half.

The government retain the diamond district of Serro Frio under their own management, and it is extraordinary that, during the last fifty years, it has been so conducted, that this important branch of revenue has been unproductive, and the establishment is considered to be embarrassed. The company, who had it by contract some years previous to its reverting to the government, acquired considerable wealth, partly, however, by intrigue, as their engagement bound them to a fixed number of negroes, and by bribery they introduced a great many more to work the grounds, consisting of twelve or fourteen hundred square miles.

Tijuco is the residence of the governor of the diamond works, which are, and have been some years, under the jurisdiction of Senhor Camara. The mode pursued of hiring all negroes, and making all purchases for the establishment upon the spot, will tend to preclude its ever becoming lucrative in the hands of the government. All persons who hold situations under the governor are allowed the privilege of supplying a certain number of negroes, and the eagerness, intrigue, and influence, exercised by all classes, to get their negroes employed, is a strong testimony of some ulterior object, beyond the mere wages which can be thus acquired, and no doubt exists that an illicit traffic in diamonds, through this medium, is carried on to an immense extent. The royal family have the selection of the finest diamonds; and it is said that the King possesses the best collection of gems in the world, worth upwards of two millions sterling. The diamonds are conveyed to Rio from Tijuco, a distance of six hundred miles, under a strong military guard, and deposited in the treasury, till despatched for London, which is now their great mart. The gold mines are a much less profitable source of revenue than they were formerly.

On Stone by C. Shoosmith from a Sketch by Jas. Henderson.