TKAVELS IN BRAZIL. 195 



amount of the bank-notes 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, &c. ; 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 rich land-owners 

 in the interior of the country sent their capitals 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 12th of October, 1808, its statutes were sanc- 

 tioned 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 the state, 

 sometimes on the security of valuable effects de- 

 posited 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 present- 

 ing bank-notes to a large amount ; however, pay- 

 ment 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 

 establishinei^jts. The late events in the year 1821, 



o 9i 



