582 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



places, unless under the sanction of some direct connection with 

 either the Bank, the Treasury, or with British Merchants. In every 

 channel, but the last, there prevailed a monopolizing and usurious 

 spirit, for commercial knowledge is not yet far enough advanced in 

 Brazil, to establish the conviction that small and highly probable profits 

 are generally those which accumulate most rapidly, and that a secure and 

 steady trade is really most advantageous, both to the State and to the 

 Merchant. In this view it is a circumstance not unworthy of remark, 

 that, in the first commercial City of the Southern Hemisphere, there 

 is no Course of Exchange except with England and Buenos Ayres ; and 

 that the latter is rather a Treasury transaction than a commercial one. 



Since the Treasury at Rio is the agent in purchasing all public 

 supplies, and the payment of all public debts ; since it includes within 

 itself the Mint, and creates the Bullion market for silver, it may properly 

 be noticed among commercial estabhshments. In the first of these 

 characters there are two sorts of demands upon it, — the one consists of 

 Bonds of an old date, which were given for capital advanced in the 

 Vice-Regal times, and which, if the Government had been anxious to 

 maintain public faith with its creditors, would long since have been 

 paid. In the eai'ly part of my residence in Brazil, when a number of 

 these bonds were discharged, several of them came into my hands, and 

 were presented in due form. They were acknowledged as the just 

 debts of the Crown, were in every shape undisputed, had been due 

 several years, and might have been paid, at length, but for the following 

 circumstance : — The Officer who was to discharge them demanded, besides 

 the renunciation of all interest, a deduction of thsrty-three per cent, from 

 the principal amount. I was authorised to offer only twenty-five, and this 

 Premium or Perquisite being deemed too little, I hesitated respecting the 

 higher one, took time to consult my friend, and lost the opportunity of 

 receiving his money. The bonds were in existence several years after- 

 wards, and I have never yet heard that thej'^ have been paid. 



When the Bills which are recently drawn upon the Treasury become 

 due, and are presented for payment, it is usual to detain them, not only 



