Debating money in Brazil, 1850s to 1930

Between the mid-19th century and the Great Depression of the 20th century, Brazil experimented with several monetary and exchange rate regimes. The latter ranged from a system consisting of a fiduciary currency issued by the Treasury with a floating exchange rate to periods where plurality of gold-backed notes issued by private banks prevailed. In the early 20^th century, formal adherence to the Gold Standard was finally achieved, binding together not only monetary and exchange rate policy (with a fixed value of the milréis to sterling) but, crucially, the all-important coffee “valorization” (price-support) schemes. This chapter seeks to chart the evolving nature of the monetary debates in Brazil from the 1850s until 1930, drawing attention to their intellectual origins, theoretical strengths (and weaknesses), and material underpinnings, that is, with their concrete manifestation perceived as expressions of particular political-economic preferences.