Abolição, encilhamento e mercado financeiro: uma análise da primeira crise financeira republicana

Abstract

The study presented in this paper aims to understand a very troubled period on Brazilian economic history, the Encilhamento. We present the debate about monetary policies in order to clarify the nature of decisions taken by the government. After this preliminary step, we concentrated our efforts on understanding the relationships of society and its labor force, the slaves. Thus, we can see that the genesis of the whole crisis of the late nineteenth century is that relationship, how it came to an end, and in the mistakes on monetary policies. We will also evince how the government’s intentions on satisfying unhappy elites aggravated the rowdy scenario. Finally, we demonstrate how the crisis was solved thanks to the banking crisis of 1900, during the government of Campos Sales.