A form of international trade

Import invoice, Rio de Janeiro, 1912

The pictures and description have been contributed by our correspondents in Brazil, José Marconi Bezerra de Souza and Lia Monica Rossi.

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(Below we use italic to denote handwriting on the form.)

This busily inscribed form is an import invoice issued in Rio de Janeiro on 5 October 1912. On its front, shown in our main picture, the form – Import invoice 3rd copy – refers to the Consulate inLiverpool and an invoice number 16948. It then declares:

‘Dispatch Santa Heloisa Factory as stated below, coming fromLiverpool in the English ship Saint George, departed from Liverpooldocked on 7 October 1912’.

The middle column of the table, under the red horizontal ruling, is headed ‘Numero e conteudo dos volumes’ (volume: quantity and content), under which is written:

FSH 872/901 Thirty bales containing simple white linen yarns for weaving weighing fourteen thousands eight hundred and twenty kilograms net.

Our second picture shows the back of the form, inscribed and signed by Paulino Baptista as follows:

Transferred from previous page R$ 10:434,480

Pay ten contos, four hundred and thirty-four thousands, four hundred and eighty réis.

Signed on 11/9/1912
Paulino Baptista

Some background:

During the course of the 19th century Britain edged out Portugal as one of Brazil’s principal trading partners. The Brazilian textile industry employed 78,000 people in 200 factories at the time of the invoice, and imported linen yarns from Britain to produce blended fabrics, used especially for military uniforms, upholstery, &c.

According to a British directory of 1913, the Santa Heloisa factory – owned by the Santa Heloisa Corporation of Rio de Janeiro – was considered ‘modern’ and ‘improved’, with 300 looms and 8000 spindles. Its head office was a short walk from Rio de Janeiro’s harbour.

The ‘milréis’ (one ‘thousand royals’) was Brazilian currency 1834–1942; ‘réis’ is the plural of ‘real’. One ‘conto de réis’ was equivalent to a million réis or a thousand ‘milréis’.