COINAGE AND CURRENCY. 303 



current to any amount at three times its intrinsic value, and was 

 freely circulated in all the various provinces of the empire. The 

 inhabitants looked only to the amount stamped on the coin, with- 

 out reflecting that if melted down it would not be worth a third of 

 the sum for which they received it. Of course, it was impossible 

 that the deception could be carried on for ever, yet it was an 

 expedient for helping tde Government out of their existing diffi- 

 culties. . . . During the years 1828 and 1829, nearly six thousand 

 contos (i.e. six millions of milreis) of this base copper were coined 

 and thrown into circulation." 



The Government was then in difficulties, and it has never been 

 otherwise. It is in vain for interested persons to contend against 

 facts, and state that Brazil is increasing in prosperity. The 

 expenditure fifty-five years ago exceeded the revenue it does so 

 to-day ; and new loans are continually floated, externally and 

 internally, to pay the interest on former liabilities, and on 

 guaranteed undertakings, such as railways, sugar factories, etc. 



The value of the milreis is steadily decreasing. When I 

 arrived at Rio de Janeiro in June, 1883, I exchanged at 2if</. to 

 the milreis; about January, 1884, it reached 22^. for a short time; 

 but in June and July, it was down to zod. ; on April 26, 1885, it 

 was 17!^. "Travellers assure us that in 1801 this (milreis), 

 the practical unit of value, was worth 55. i\d. In 1815 it 

 represented six francs twenty-five centimes. In 1835-36 it was 

 from $od. to 32^." Gardner states that in 1838 it was 30^. 

 Captain Burton says, " When I landed at Pernambuco (June, 1865) 

 it was at par 27^. It has in 1867 fallen to 13!^. [that was 

 owing to the Paraguayan War] ; and under actual circumstances 

 there is apparently nothing to prevent it sinking, like the dollar of 

 the South American republics, to twopence." * Mr. H. W. Bates 

 statesf that the current money on the Amazons varied much 

 during the eleven years of his stay. " At first, nothing but copper 

 coins and Brazilian treasury notes, the smallest representing one 

 thousand reis (2^. 3^.), were seen. Afterwards (1852-56), with 

 the increase of the india-rubber trade, a large amount of specie 

 was imported American gold coins, Spanish and Mexican dollars, 



* Captain Burton's " Highlands of Brazil," vol. i. p. 91. 

 t " The Naturalist on the River Amazons," vol. ii. p. 75. 



