As Contas da República (1919-29) e os Anos Loucos de Wall Street

The various reformist governments before May 28 kicked the issue down the road, trying to recover the aforementioned financial cushion and postpone Angola's autonomy, scheduled by the League of Nations, for as long as possible, while maintaining a Portuguese presence. However, the climate of factional strife among political parties and the lack of a Portuguese banking system capable of handling the situation... led to profound instability at all levels of Portuguese society, which Raúl Brandão and Teixeira de Pascoaes captured in their play "Jesus Christ in Lisbon." The Republic, under the influence of England, would certainly have to veer to the right, following the model of Miguel Primo de Rivera's military dictatorship. It was in England's interest to have a peaceful Iberian Peninsula, considering its geostrategic interests in Gibraltar, Malta, and Cyprus, on the route to the Suez Canal and India.

When, in 1919, America bought Belgium's public debt, Belgium provided guarantees by granting Americans privileges in the Belgian Congo, which facilitated capital flow in that African region through the dollar, which, after the First World War, replaced the British pound as the standard currency. The strong economic relief in the Congo had a domino effect in Angola, triggering a race for credit concessions from the Banco Nacional Ultramarino (BNU), which in 1919 opened a branch in Leopoldville (Kinshasa). This occurred just as the newly-founded League of Nations had recommended to the Portuguese Republic that Angola be granted autonomy. It was easier to obtain dollars in Luanda (than in Lisbon) via the Belgian Congo.

In light of the BNU’s leniency, fictitious companies were formed in Portuguese territory to access indiscriminate credit without the need for guarantees, as Armindo de Sttau Monteiro noted. The countdown began for the advent of May 28, a movement that sought to immediately address the problem of financial transfers from Angola to the Metropolis and prepare for autonomy that would ensure a Portuguese presence. However, in October 1929, the Wall Street crash put an end to all Angolan autonomy illusions, leading to harsher measures by the Military Dictatorship through the legislation of the Colonial Act.

Index

1. Introduction
2. Italy’s ambitions for mandates in southern Angola and Namibia
   2.1. The Italian crisis and political upheavals
   2.2. May 28, 1926, and its self-purging
3. The preliminaries of an announced crisis
   3.1. Budget balance according to Armindo Monteiro
   3.2. Geniuses in Public Finance
4. The dismantling of Angola’s financial transfers
   4.1. Dollar credit from the Belgian Congo
   4.2. Mussolini's envoy to Angola and the Schacht Plan
5. The Alves dos Reis case and BNU’s liberalism
   5.1. An adventure intertwined with Angola’s long-sought autonomy
   5.2. Counterfeit and real banknotes to provide liquidity to Angola
6. The Keynesian epicenter of the 1920s versus liberalism
   6.1. Still Keynes and the 700 tons of gold in the Bank of Spain in 1930
   6.2. Keynes and Portugal
7. Prohibition-era America (1919-31) and the 1920s
   7.1. The 1929 Crash and its many global consequences
   7.2. May 28 and the Luanda revolts in 1930
8. Purging Public Accounts in 1928-32
   8.1. Normalizing overseas revenues and balancing the finances
   8.2. The Colonial Act, a consequence of the 1929 Crash
   8.2.1. Salazar’s perspective in an interview with António Ferro
   8.3. Mozambique and Niassa companies under concession regimes
   8.3.1. The Beira Bank case, the municipality, and other misunderstandings
   8.4. The Trans-Zambezi railway, a project of the Colonial Act
   8.5. The collapse of colonial finances from 1930, except in Portuguese territories
9. The first third of the 20th century in Portugal and the overseas context
   9.1. Portugal’s entry into the 1914-18 conflict and the loss of the overseas financial cushion
   9.2. The last revolt before the Estado Novo: August 1931
10. Conclusions
    Bibliography