The influence of the Hispanic American politics and economics on the Independence of Brazil (1808-1825).
The Portuguese Empire was not immune to the crisis of the Old European Regime. The establishment of the Crown in Portuguese America, the Opening of the Ports (1808) and the end of the commercial exclusive were the subject of intense debate in Portuguese society on both sides of the Atlantic. Is it necessary to reform the economic institutions of the Monarchy? What would be your trade policy? Was taxation still efficient? Should they maintain slavery? How to finance the war effort in the Kingdom of Portugal? What would be the legal character of the Monarchy: constitutional or absolutist? The crisis of the Portuguese Old Regime is a historic moment in which the political, legal and institutional debate leaves court halls and arrives on the streets. Impact of the liberal ideology, the dispute for public opinion will be one of the instruments of legitimation of interest groups that seek to impose their projects on society. In the period that marks the arrival of the royal family in Rio de Janeiro (1808) until the formal recognition of the independence of the Empire of Brazil by Lisbon (1825) it is possible to follow a flood of printed and periodicals and a fierce public debate around the destinations of the Portuguese-Brazilian society. The search for alternatives, models and references of new institutional arrangements then turned to Spanish American society. Articles from newspapers, economic memoirs and first-hand witness accounts will be articulated to exemplify which paths were discussed in the Luso-Brazilian process. In this article I will discuss the Luso-Brazilian´s readings about the fragmentation process of the Spanish Empire, its economic consequences and how this was fundamental for the events that led to the Independence of Brazil.
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Keywords: Luso-Brazilian Empire, Political Economy, Economic Thought, Public Sphere, Spanish American Economic Thought.
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