Moeda e Estado: Políticas Monetárias e Determinantes da Procura (1688-1797)

As far as money is concerned the state action has a double purpose. The state defines the monetary policy and is also one of the agents of the demand for money, influencing the level of monetary emission. The purpose of this paper is to understand this double state function. Firstly, the monetary policies will be analysed. The main aim is to understand if king Pedro II’s law of the 4th of August 1688 represents a turning point comparing with the policies implemented in previous periods. Our analysis will be developed from the middle of the14th century to acknowledge the full meaning of the long term legal monetary stability apparent in the 18th century. The determination of the expnainig variables of the monetary emissions under public control will be in the core of the second section. On a period where the war, the justice and the Court were the principal areas of public expenditures, we will assess the relative importance of these different fields of state action during the 18th century.