Os impactos do terramoto de 1755 no mercado de crédito de Lisboa

• Main Authors: Leonor Freire Costa, Maria Manuela Rocha, Paulo Brasil de Brito
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Associação de Actividades Científicas 2018-06-01
• Series: Ler História
• Subjects: Financial history; Interest rates; Credit market; Marquis of Pombal; Portugal; Lisbon earthquake (1755)
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/lerhistoria/3388

This article looks at the consequences of the earthquake of 1755 in the financial market grounded on literature on contemporary impacts of geophysical catastrophes and on notarized credit in Lisbon. It assumes that the destruction of physical capital increases the costs of this production factor, but the legislation of Pombal from 1757 set the interest rate at 5 percent. The article points to signs of short-term credit rationing and finds 1756 and 1769 as benchmarks of a period of transition in the economy. The social transformations of the credit market is clear after 1770, when the rise of commerce as the dominant group on the supply side went together with signs of demand contraction.