198 



TRAVELS IN BRAZIL. 



slave to employ him in any mechanical profession 

 that he thinks proper, is opposed to the constraint 

 of European corporations. However, all trades 

 which have any influence on the public health and 

 welfare, are placed under the superintendence of 

 the police. Bread and meat are sold by a legal 

 assize, but the difference in the stock and the 

 supply causes a great diversity in the prices. The 

 European stranger is astonished at the number of 

 gold and silver smiths and jewellers, who, like the 

 other tradesmen, live together in one street, which 

 calls to mind the magnificent Ruas de Ouro and de 

 Prata of Lisbon. The workmanship of these arti- 

 sans is indeed inferior to the European, but is not 

 destitute of taste and solidity. Many trades, which 

 are very necessary in Europe, are at present almost 

 superfluous in the interior of this country, on ac- 

 count of the circumscribed wants of the inhabitants. 

 In the capital, however, and the other towns on the 

 coast, joiners, white-smiths, and other artisans, are 

 numerous ; but tanners, soap-boilers, and workers 

 in steel, are scarce. There is a great demand for 

 mechanics, to build sugar and other mills, to con- 

 struct machines for working the gold mines, &c., 

 and very high wages are given them. Hitherto no 

 glass, china, cloth, or hat manufactories have been 

 established in the capital ; and the erection of them 

 would hardly be advisable, in a country which can 

 obtain the productions of European industry on 

 such low terms, in exchange for the produce of its 

 rich soil. 



