Lisboa, José da Silva.  Principios de Direito Mercantil, e Leis de Marinha para uso da mocidade portugueza, destinada, ao commercio.  (Lisbon: Impressão Regia, 1801-1819). 

This work first appeared in 1798 (here expanded), proved highly influential, and was a pioneer of its kind published in Portuguese.  It covers such matters as insurance, commercial risk, averages, foreign exchange, contracts, the conduct of the ships’ company, and mercantile law.  The author was a native of Bahia and a distinguished political economist, who later became Visconde de Cairú.  He attributed many of the ills of Brazilian society to the reliance on negro slaves and later in 1818 ascribed the progress in São Paulo to the preponderance of the white race there (Maxwell, Conflicts and Conspiracies: Brazil and Portugal 1750-1808, 1973, pp. 227-8).  “In Portugal the harshest critic of the colonial system was José da Silva Lisboa . . . who guided the economic policy of Dom João VI in Brazil . . . Upholding liberal principles, he spread the ideas of Adam Smith in numerous works” (Emilia Viotti da Costa, “The Political Emancipation of Brazil,” IN From Colony to Nation: Esays on the Independence of Brazil, ed. by Russell Wood, 1975).

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