The Quest for Gold: Monetary Debates in Nineteenth-century Brazil

Vol. 21 No. 4 (2001)

Oct-Dec / 2001
Published October 1, 2001
PDF-English
PDF-English

How to Cite

Villela, André. 2001. “The Quest for Gold: Monetary Debates in Nineteenth-Century Brazil”. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy 21 (4):690-704. https://doi.org/10.1590/0101-31572001-1222.

The Quest for Gold: Monetary Debates in Nineteenth-century Brazil

André Villela
Lecturer, Mestrado em Economia Empresarial na Universidade Candido Mendes, Rio de Janeiro/RJ, Brasil.
Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 21 No. 4 (2001), Oct-Dec / 2001, Pages 690-704

Abstract

The paper examines some aspects of the monetary controversies which took place in several countries during the nineteenth century. In Brazil advocates of the gold standard and monetary restraint, known as metalistas, prevailed over papelistas, whose major desire was monetary expansion and credit creation. It will be argued that previous treatments of monetary debates in nineteenth-century Brazil have overlooked a crucial point, namely, the defence (or otherwise) of convertibility of the mil-re?is. This has led to erroneous interpretations of the ideology underlying monetary management in the period.

JEL Classification: N16; E51.


Keywords: Economic history of Brazil gold standard money supply monetary regime