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The Growth of Bureaucracy in Brazil, 1808–1821

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Extract

In late November of 1807 the Portuguese government was loaded on to a fleet of naval and merchant vessels, transported across the South Atlantic and deposited in Rio de Janeiro. On board were fourteen members of the Royal Family; the Counsellors of State; ministers; Justices of the Court of Appeals and the High Court; the upper echelons of the army and navy; the hierarchy of the church; a full quota of high society; a respectable contingent of the professional, scientific, literary, artistic and business elements; a horde of bureaucrats; and as many rank and file citizens as could secure passage. Also on board were the contents of the royal treasury; the store of diamonds derived from the crown monopoly; silver plate, jewels, books, cash and other portable assets; furnishings for a royal chapel; the royal library; a printing press; and a mass of government records.

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

1 Alan, K. Manchester, ‘The Transfer of the Portuguese Court to Rio de Janeiro’, in Henry, H. Keith and Edwards, S. F. (eds.), Conflict and Continuity in Brazilian Society (Columbia, South Carolina, University of South Carolina Press, 1969), pp. 148–63. The fleet left Lisbon on the morning of 29 Nov. 1807. It was divided by a storm into two segments. One with the Prince Regent put in at Bahia on 22 Jan. 1808. The other pushed on to Rio de Janeiro. The Prince Regent arrived in Rio on 7 March.Google Scholar

2 The files were supplemented by records brought over subsequent to the exodus of 1807. As one example, the Conde das Galveas, immediately following his appointment as Minister of The Navy and Overseas Dominions (Ministro da Secretaria de Estado dos Negócios da Marinha e Dominios Ultramarinos), sent for the Registry Books (Livros de Registro), correspondence of the Overseas Dominions with governors and captains general, Reports (Consultas), and the complete collections of the OrdenaçНes Estravagantes and of the OrdenaçНes Affonsinas (Archivo Historico Ultramarino, Caixas do Rio de Janeiro, Não Catalogadas, Caixa 1809–10, 11 de Janeiro and 26 de Maio de 1810).

3 Estimates of the number of persons on board vary from 8,000 (Thiers, M. A., Histoire du Consulat et de l'Empire (21 vols, Paris, 1849), VIII, 340)Google Scholar to 15,000 (Tobias, Monteiro, Historia do Imperio, A Elaboraçāo do Independencia (1927), p. 59).Google ScholarAngelo, Pereira in Os Filhos de El-Rei D. Joāo VI (Lisbon, 1946), p. III, places the number at 10,000. His figure does not include a marine brigade of 1,600.Google Scholar

4 Between 1808 and 1822 some 24,000 Portuguese of all categories sought refuge in Brazil. José, Honório Rodrigues, Nota Limiar of Registro de Estrangeiros, 1808–1822, Ministério Justiça c Negócios Interiores, Arquivo Nacional, 1960, pp. 67.Google Scholar

5 Well over 1,000 pieces are filed in the thirteen boxes covering the period. Unfortunately the material is not catalogued.

6 Follow-up documents dated 28 Sept. and a Nov. 1810 are filed in the 1810–11 box and documents dated 14 March and 10 April 1812 in the 1811−12 box.

7 The sampling is typical of the entire collection. All thirteen boxes are heavily weighted with petitions for royal favor–passports, jobs, promotions, honors, pensions, pardons and whatnot.

8 José Thomaz de Menezes, Governor and Captain General of Goiés and later of Maranhão, complained on 31 Oct. 1808 that the Prince Regent was favoring those who had accompanied him to Rio de Janeiro to the neglect of those who had served him well in the colony prior to his arrival (‘Brazil, Noticias de 1808 a 1815, Cartas, Petições, etc.’, entry no. 2, Biblioteca Nacional de Lisboa, Secção Reservada).

9 The figures in this discussion of the growth of the bureaucracy of the central government are derived primarily from the following almanacs: (1) Antônio, Duarte Nunes, ‘Almanaque Historico da Cidade de S. Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro pars o Ano de 1799’, Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brasileiro, XXI (2nd ed., Rio de Janeiro, 1930), 5161;Google Scholar (2) Almanaque de Lisboa para o Anno de 1800 (Lisbon, s.d. [1799]); (3) Almanack da Corte do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, published in 1810 for 1811); (4) ‘Almanack do Rio de Janeiro pars o Anno de 1816’, Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, CCLXVIII (Julho–Setembro, 1965) (Rio de Janeiro, 1966), 179–330. The Almanack of 1807 will be published as an appendix to volume ccxc of the Revista. The almanacs contain a wealth of information on the central government. The primary item is a list of the major offices (officios de maior consideração) of the central government with the names and addresses of the incumbents. They follow the same general pattern but differ in detail, so much so that comparisons are illustrative rather than precise.

10 Alan, K. Manchester, ‘The Transfer of the Portuguese Court’, loc. cit., pp. 164–73.Google Scholar

11 The total number of appointments listed in the almanacs for the final years of the colony was approximately 1,300. By the end of 1810 the number listed was 2,700 and by 1816 it was over 3,000. The growth of the bureaucracy in Rio de Janeiro, however, was more pronounced than these tallies indicate due to variations in the selection of offices to be listed. For example, the almanacs for 1799 and 1811 list, respectively, 52 and 55 officers of the Home Guard (Ordenanças) whereas they are omitted in the almanac for 1816; the 1799 almanac includes 21 appointments in monasteries, convents and retreats, and 34 posts in churches with endowed benefices whereas neither appears in the 1811 and 1816 lists; and the 1816 volume omits three groups of minor appointments in the Royal Household which in 1811 numbered 170 (50 reposteiros, 63 moços de prata and 57 varredores). Variation in the almanacs was due in part to the changing situation in Rio de Janeiro but it was also due to the judgement of the editor relative to what constituted a ‘major office’. As the number of offices increased, lesser posts were omitted.

12 Hipólito, José da Costa in the Correio Braziliense (London, 18081822)Google Scholar frequently expressed his concern over the failure of the Court to modernize the administration of the captaincies (I, 65; V, 566–7; x, 203; XII, 917; XVI, 184–7; and XXXI, 167–76). The continuance of the pattern of colonial administration was emphasized by Silvestre Pinheiro Ferreira in a report dated 15 March 1822 to a special committee of the Côrtes, (‘Carta sôbre a Revolução do Brazil pelo Conselheiro Silvestre Pinheiro Ferreira’, Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brasileiro, LI (1888), 371–2).Google Scholar

13 At least six new comarcas were created between 15 January 1810 and 17 August 1816, and over two dozen posts of municipal magistrates (juizes de fóra) between 27 June 1808 and 10 December 1815 (José, da Silva Lisbon, Synopse da Legislação Principal do Senhor D. Joāo VI, pela ordem dos Ramos da Economia do Estado (Rio de Janeiro, Na Impressāo Regia, 1818), pp. 122–3 and 124–8). Even when the elevation to the rank of town did not lead to the appointment of a municipal judge, it did result in an increase in the number and dignity, and possibly the income, of local office-holders.Google Scholar

14 A ‘Mappa Geral do Rendimento Annual de todos os empregos e officios de justiça e fazenda d'esta cidade do Rio deJaneiro’, Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brasrileiro, LI, Pt. 11 (1888), 159–81, lists the positions, with annual income, of the departments of justice and treasury in Rio de Janeiro for the year 1781. In that year there were fourteen employees in the office of the ouvidor of the comarca of Rio de Janeiro and thirteen in the office of the juiz de fára. In 1799 the numbers were seven and ten. The offices were not included in the almanacs for 1811 and 1816.

15 The most lucrative of the more than 200 jobs in the Mappa were those of the superintendent of the Royal Treasury (provedor da Fazenda Real), the intendent of gold and of the Board of Inspection (Intendente de Ouro c da Meza da Inspecçāao), and the chancellor of the Court of Appeals (Tribunal da Rclaçãao). Less lucrative but still quite desirable were the posts of secretary (secretario d'estado), circuit judge (ouvidor), treasurer of the Royal Commission of the Treasury (thesoureiro da Junta Real do Fazenda), municipal magistrate (juiz de fóra) and justice of customs (juiz ouvidor da alfandega).

15 Archivo Historico Ultramarino, Caixas do Rio de Janeiro, Não Catalogadas, Caixa 1807−8, decree dated 15 June 1808, relative to the jobs of Escrivāo da Intendencia da Marinha and the Escrivāo da Mesa Grande.

16 José, da Silva Lisboa, Synopse da Legislaçāo Principal do Senhor D. Joāo VI, pp. 114–59.Google Scholar A short article by Enéas, Galvão, ‘Juizes e Tribunaes’, in Revista do Instituto Historico e Geographico Brasileiro, Primeiro Congresso de Historia Nacional, VI, pt. III, 319–39,Google Scholar describes the judicial organization of the late colonial period. The most authoritative discussion of the administrative system of the period immediately preceding the transfer of the Court is presented by Dauril, Alden in chapters XV and XVI of his Royal Government in Colonial Brazil (University of California Press, 1968).Google Scholar

17 Antonio de Araujo de Azevedo to Marquez de Monteiro-Mor, Caixas do Rio de Janeiro, Não Catalogadas, Archivo Historico Ultramarino, Lisboa, Caixa 1815, 29 March 1815.

18 Marquez, de Aguiar to Marquez, de Monteiro-MorGoogle Scholar, ibid., 19 July 1815.

19 Mactim, Francisco Ribeiro de Andrada and Manoel, José de Souza França in Annaes do Parlamento Brazileiro: Assembléa Constituinte, 1823 (Rio de Janeiro, 1874, 6 vols. in 1), III, 84 and 139–40, sessions of 17 and 30 July. The discussion in the Constituent Assembly was precipitated by a petition from the secretary of the Treasury Commission (escrivão da Junta da Fazenda) of the province of Espirito Santo, who sought redress from the loss of two special allowances (ajudas de custo) which he had incurred as the result of the provision of 12 Dec. 1822. The provision disallowed all payments not properly authorized. He had been duly appointed by a royal decree (carta regia) of 22 May 1809 with a salary of 400 milreis. He also had received a special allowance of 200 milreis which had been paid to his predecessor and on 16 June 1815 he had been granted a second special allowance of 200 milreis in recognition of good service. The cancellation of the two special allowances reduced his salary from 800 milreis to 400 milreis. Martim Francisco, who had served as Minister of the Treasury from 4 July 1822 to 17 July 1823, stated that a ‘multitude of employees’ who came to Brazil while the Court was in Rio de Janeiro were in a similar situation.Google Scholar