|
page 195
It is probable that the amount of the banknotes was
increased, without any addition to the fund. In the sequel, when the institution
continued to thrive, they united with the bank an insurance company, farming
of the regalia of the crown, etc.; and it enjoyed in uninterrupted activity,
without foreign interference, such great confidence, that many public
officers placed a part of their salary in the bank, and the rich
land owners in the interior of the country sent their profits to Rio, to deposit them
in the bank for their children, as the safest part of their property.
When the  king came to Brazil,
the change of the political relations led to a new epoch for the bank.
On the 12 of October, 1808, its statutes were sanctioned by the king,
and the institution, under the title of Bank of Brazil, extended
the sphere of its activity. The bank provided for the frequent and considerable
wants both of the court and state, sometimes on the security of valuable
effects deposited in it, and sometimes on that of mortgages of the future
revenue. It is reported that several foreign merchants endeavoured about
this time to shake the solidity of the bank, by suddenly presenting bank
notes to a large amount; however, payment being immediately made, to which
the intimate union between the royal mint and the bank, might perhaps
contribute, it still maintained itself in very good credit, particularly
in the mother country itself, though without any known solid guarantee,
and without any close connection with any similar establishments.
page 196 ---economy---royal embezzlement---mint---
The late events in the year 1821, when the king, before his departure,
took, considerable sums out of the bank, for which he deposited a part
of the crown diamonds, which in the sequel were taken back to Europe,
and, as it is affirmed, extensive embezzlements, appear greatly to have
shaken the foundations of the establishment.
Don Pedro 1 abdicates his throne and returns to Portugal, 1822
The amount of the current coin at Rio cannot be precisely determined; the less so, because immense sums are
sometimes exported, the withdrawing of which from circulation, is often
long and generally felt. The ships bound to India and China,
as we have already observed, take, for the most part, ready money, either
Spanish piasters, or Portuguese gold, which suddenly causes so great a
scarcity of money, that not only the value of gold rises extremely in
exchange, but the interest on bills runs up to twenty or twenty two per
cent. In such conjunctures, several months frequently pass before the
want of currency ceases to be felt. The operations of the mint too, which
purchases Spanish dollars, and recoining them as pieces of three patacas,
issues them again 160 rees higher, appears sometimes to produce a temporary
scarcity in Rio. The
rate of interest usual among the merchants for open accounts, but not for bill transactions, is twelve percent. This is in proportion
to the price of daily labour, which for a hired negro is 160 to 240 rees,
and for a European labourer from one to two Spanish dollars.
 
|
