194 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



at present be greater than it could be, if those 

 accounts were true which represent Brazil as a 

 country yet wholly uncultivated, without any traces 

 of the beneficial influence of European industry. It 

 is true, the colonial produce exported from the 

 port of Rio de Janeiro is indeed not entirely 

 grown in the province, but is partly brought fi-om 

 the remote districts of the interior. But a com- 

 parison of the exportation of some articles from this 

 port, with the same from England, gives us a very 

 favourable idea of the productiveness of this coun- 

 try. England is said to have shipped in the year 

 1817, 401,700 cwt. coffee, and used about 600,000 

 cwt. for home consumption. If the latter account be 

 correct, Rio de Janeiro alone would have exported 

 nearly double the quantity of coffee consumed in 

 England* 



Even before the arrival of the king it had be- 

 come necessary to establish a bank, on account of 

 the great capital in circulation, to represent which 

 the gold and silver coin was not half sufficient, even 

 if all the rich men of the province had contributed 

 all their ready money. Several of the first mer- 

 chants and capitalists had united, who contributed 

 a fund in proportion to the notes issued by them 

 under their joint guarantee. Under the manage- 

 ment of a committee, chosen by the founders, the 

 establishment, which was only a private undertak- 

 ing, prospered, and extended among the mercantile 

 public in general the credit which it at first only 

 enjoyed among its authors. It is probable that the 



