Brazilian domestic borrowing after independence: the origins of Brazil's capital markets (1824-1860)

• Grant number: 20/12977-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2021
• End date: January 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - History of Brazil
• Principal Investigator: Alexandre Macchione Saes
• Grantee: David Diniz Kalichman
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade (FEA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research proposal aims to examine how the measures undertaken in order to establish and service the public debt shaped the Brazilian financial system, during the four decades after the first Brazilian government bonds were issued abroad, in 1824. In this interval there were defaults in all other independent nations in Latin America, while the Brazilian Empire attracted internal sources of funds by consolidating a native capital market, which contributed to an important portion of the public debt before the Paraguay war. The project will focus on understanding the role of the domestic debt in the larger nation building process following independence, in particular how the agents of high finance and the powerful economic groups in the former colonial period had their interests tied to the Empire's financial credibility.