Early Brazilian Printing – Portuguese Trade and Import Duties – Printed in Rio in 1811

Early Brazilian Printing – Portuguese Trade and Import Duties – Printed in Rio in 1811

Príncipe Regente (D. João VI).

“Alvará com força de Lei, pelo qual Vossa Alteza Real em Declaração, e Ampliação do paragrafo segundo do Alvará de vinte e oito de Abril de mil oitocentos e nove, Há por bem Determinar o modo mais facil de se legalizarem as mercadorias de manufactura Portugueza…” 

[Royal Decree with the force of law, whereby His Royal Highness determines the manner in which goods of Portuguese manufacture are to be certified, in order to qualify for exemption from import duties in the ports of Brazil and the Portuguese Overseas Dominions.]

-Rio de Janeiro: Na Impressão Régia, 1811.

-Folio. [2] pp.

-Large woodcut royal initial. Wide margins. Some light marking and wear, but a very good copy.

An early Brazilian imprint, printed only three years after the establishment of the Impressão Régia, the first permanent printing press in Brazil. Following Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal, the Portuguese royal court fled across the Atlantic and established itself at Rio de Janeiro in 1808.

Issued in 1811, this decree reflects changes to the old colonial trading system. It established how manufactured goods with a proven Portuguese origin could enter Brazil and other Portuguese territories without import duties.

No copies on OCLC