Inflation and Economic Growth in Imperial Brazil (1824–1889)

Abstract Drawing on 20,000 monthly quotations, this study revises Imperial Brazil’s inflation and living standards estimates. The new price index eliminates the nineteenth-century “low-growth puzzle”: Brazil’s GDP per capita rose with the Latin American average. Earlier series, relying on baskets disproportionately weighted toward agricultural goods or whose composition varied over time, display continuous growth and overstate inflation by 57%–270%. The revised index reveals a sharp rise in the 1850s and stability thereafter. New evidence on exchange and freight rates, terms of trade, regional commerce, and real wages shows that regional specialization in food production helped stabilize prices after the mid-century.