Note 48 — Chapter IX · RIO JANEIRO, CAPITAL OF BRAZIL.

We have said that of all public securities those of Brazil rank the highest, next to those of Great Britain itself. It may not be amiss to give the following ‘monetary’ evidence of the same fact from a well-known dispassionate Stock Exchange authority, the last edition of Fortune’s Epitome of the Funds, under the head of Brazilian Five per Cents, 1843. Capital £732,000. This was a transference of a portion of the claim of Portugal to Brazil, ‘that land of wonders, whose rivers roll over beds of gold, where the rocks glow with topazes, and the sands sparkle with diamonds, where nature assumes her richest dress beneath the blaze of tropical suns, and birds of the gaudiest plumage vie with the splendid efflorescence of the forests they inhabit; this gorgeous picture, drawn in dazzling, but not false colours, leaves unnoticed the greatest riches of Brazil, which consist in her almost unlimited power of producing the staple commodities of life and commerce. Possessed of the finest climate, and of a virgin soil of the richest fertility, cotton, coffee, sugar, in fact every production of the tropics, as well as of the temperate zone, may be cultivated to any extent, and at small expense. Numerous sea ports, with safe harbours, and noble rivers, which, at a comparatively small cost, might be rendered navigable, afford the means of turning these natural facilities to the best advantage; and, judging from the rapid increase of the commerce of late years, the Brazilians are not altogether negligent in availing themselves of these sources of boundless and lasting wealth. The progress of Brazil has been remarkable during the last ten years, the revenue having been nearly doubled. The punctuality of the payment of the dividends, the disposition evinced to preserve the credit of the country, and the presumption that it will be well maintained, gives Brazilian stock a good position in the market, as an investment; and prices have not latterly experienced much fluctuation.