Municipal finance: the handwritten account records: São Paulo, 1834-1850

• Grant number: 10/16866-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: March 01, 2011
• End date: February 29, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Economics - Fiscal and Monetary Policies
• Principal Investigator: Luciana Suarez Galvão
• Grantee: Luciana Suarez Galvão
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project proposes the study of municipal finances in São Paulo during the first half of the nineteenth century. Since the dawn of the Brazilian Empire, the lack of a clear definition concerning municipal autonomy compromised the ability of municipalities to deal with the problems of the local public administration, particularly in the establishment and collection of taxes and contributions. As a consequence, the historiography points to a chronic lack of resources. The municipalities, unable to generate the resources needed to meet their needs, often borrowed money from banks or the central government. Without power to establish taxes or decide how to use the resources available, towns and villages had little or no administrative autonomy. However, preliminary analysis of the revenue laws of São Paulo shows a reasonable amount of resources classified as surplus. This result challenges the historiography by showing that every year the Chambers accumulated resources, indicating a certain abundance rather than scarcity. Budgets would be so distant from reality? Any leftover funds also appear on the handwritten account records? The documentation explains why these resources were not spent? These are some of the issues expected to be answered by the proposed research, which plans to use as documents such handwritten accounts records submitted by municipalities to the Assembléia Provincial, laws referent to the creation of municipal taxes, the annual budget laws, and official correspondence exchanged between the chosen cities and the provincial government. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

HANLEY, ANNE G.; LOPES, LUCIANA SUAREZ. Municipal Plenty, Municipal Poverty, and Brazilian Economic Development, 1836-1850. LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH REVIEW, v. 52, n. 3, p. 361-376, 2017. (10/16866-9)