In Hoc Signo Vinces: moeda e poder da monarquia na época moderna

Abstract

Why create a mint in Portuguese America in the late seventeenth century?
To comprehend this discussion, we analyzed the situation of the currency and the economic difficulties that were consequences of the lack of cash in the main business centers of Portuguese America in the seventeenth century. Then, we examined two phases of this institution: 1- the Itinerant Mint, which moved among three captancies: Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco between 1694 and 1702. The mint’s goal was to produce the provincial currency: a specific currency for Portuguese America, with different values from that of continental Portugal Kingdom’s one), and 2- the Permanent Mint, which opened in 1703 in Rio de Janeiro, the result of a new political landscape, with more importance to the development of the Portuguese Monarchy.