262 Discovery of the Province of Minas Geraes\ [March, 



findjng they were so near another Povoa9ao, having judged the nearest 

 to be that of Bahia, a hundred and eighty leagues distant ; Villa do 

 Principe being only forty, and Villa Rica eighty. 



The people of the province petitioned the court of Lisbon, that it 

 might be annexed to Minas Geraes and not to Bahia ; this the viceroy 

 opposed, but the king decided in favour of the petitioners, and thus the 

 existing province was formed by the union of Geraes and Novas. A 

 law ordered that all the extracted gold should be melted down, the 

 crown's profit being the right of coining and of alloy : another law im- 

 posed on each miner a contribution, in tlie shape of a poll-tax or capita- 

 tion of six hundred rees* per month for themselves and slaves. This 

 decree continued for some time, though its execution was difficult, 

 owing to the delays in collecting the money. The king, Don Joseph I., 

 at length abolished it, and substituted another after the following 

 manner : — 



He ordered four founderies of gold to be established in the capitals 

 of each Comarca, each directed by an intendant and a fiscal (attornej') ; 

 their duty was to receive all the gold of those who would melt it, to 

 weigh it in the owner's presence, to take the fifth part for the crown, 

 and to form the remainder into bars, which were stamped and delivered 

 to the proprietor of the precious metal. Now, as the gold in dust 

 was current, like money, at twelve hundred rees for two drachms, 

 and that in bars, at fifteen hundred rees, there was not a sensible loss, 

 particularly when the gold was very pure and amounted to sixteen 

 hundred rees ; but, generally, the rate of gold in bars increased or di- 

 minished according to its quality, that in dust being always at twelve 

 hundred rees. The gold was not allowed to be sent out of the province 

 in dust ; to this end, four gates, or barriers, were erected on the four 

 highways that led to Rio, St. Paulo, and Bahia (that to St. Paulo had 

 two), at which guards were placed ; now, as the province supplied 

 scarcely any of its own wants, since the cultivation was trifling and 

 majiufactories forbidden, every thing was purchased at the seaports 

 with gold bars. But the proprietors were obliged to reduce these bars 

 into coined money in the said seaports where there were mints, as the 

 law in question prevented the coining of money in Minas Geraes, and 

 even its circulation in commerce. Thus there was only gold in dust, 

 gold bars, and some provincial silver. The mint at Minas Novas was 

 suppressed. 



This system lasted till the year 1808, when the King, Don John the 

 VI,, arrived with his court at Brazil, where his ministry entirely ruined 

 the mining, as will be shewn. 



It is well known that, in countries where the disgraceful and de- 

 testable practice of slavery exists, the free men never work except 

 to become masters of slaves, and from that moment they mostly abandon 

 themselves to the completest idleness. The ministry, instead of pro- 

 moting an emigration to those countries which had increased the na- 

 tional industry, particularly on that favourable occasion when Europe 

 was in a complete conflagration from the general war which then pre- 

 vailed, surcharged, by an additional tax of more than 20,000 rees, the 

 importation of slaves from the coast of Africa into Minas Geraes and 

 Goyaz. 



A hundred rees are equivalent to seven-pence English money. — Translator. 



