Azeredo Coutinho, Jose Joaquim de Cunha de:

$3,750 · Offered by William Reese Company

ENSAIO ECONOMICO SOBRE O COMERCIO DE PORTUGAL E SUAS COLONIAS. The scarce first edition of the "best known work by Azeredo Coutinho, the controversial figure of the Brazilian Enlightenment" (Borba de Moraes). Azeredo Coutinho (1742-1821) was a "member of the new rich sugar aristocracy of the Campos dos Goitacazes in Rio de Janeiro, [who] held many important ecclesiastical posts in Brazil and in Portugal and repeatedly prodded the government to undertake reforms that would benefit the economies of both the kingdom and her most vital colony. Thus, in 1791 he strongly opposed new price restrictions on sugar, arguing that higher prices would allow Brazilians to buy more goods from Portugal. Three years later he published a series of reform proposals in 'AN ECONOMIC ESSAY ON THE COMMERCE OF PORTUGAL AND HER COLONIES,' in which he revived the century-old argument that the 'true mines' of Brazil were her agricultural resources, not the gold placers which had produced illusory gains" (CAMBRIDGE HISTORY).Like many works of this time period, this piece was probably written in Brazil and then printed in Lisbon, as there was no printing press in Brazil itself until 1808. An interesting look at the economics of the sugar trade in Brazil.

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