Municipal finances in urban reforms (Rio de Janeiro, 1902-1910)

Abstract

This article deals with the period of urban reforms in Rio de Janeiro, focusing on the finances of the Federal District - an unusual object at the center of this theme, so widely debated by historiography. The central problem proposed seeks to measure and indicate the limits and challenges imposed by municipal finances on the reforming drive of district governments at the dawn of the 20th century. The study's methodology is based on confronting sources that systematically express quantitative information with others that describe and discuss the constitutive processes that outlined municipal finances in the period. In a critical-descriptive appraisal, we analyze the financial resources in their flow into the municipal coffers; we scrutinize the collection, spending and investments; we point out the sources, forms and costs of financing obtained by the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. The text looks for indications of the existence and degree of dependence, not only political, but especially financial, of the capital's government on the federal government. The analytical exercise of statistical tables and yearbooks, legislation and official reports - both municipal and federal - was complexified in the critical perspectives offered by texts and cartoons in periodicals, studies, memoirs and non-governmental reports, thus offering a contribution from Economic History to this subject of such long-standing interest to historians.