Brazilian lawyer and politician born in Salvador, BA, with a nationalist vision and encourager of the country's industrialization. Graduated in law from the University of Coimbra (1822), where he also studied mathematics and natural sciences, he returned to Bahia as a judge and was then transferred to Rio de Janeiro. Representative of his state at the general assembly, he was accountant-general of the Treasury (1830-1833) and appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs (1835). Elected senator for Bahia (1837) he even accumulated the portfolios of the Empire and the Treasury (1937-1839).
Protectionist and opponent of the international trade model at the time, free trade, a commercial practice that favored the import of foreign products, mainly British, he was reappointed to the Ministry of Finance (1844-1845), together with the Ministry of Justice, when he reformed the import tariffs, which earned him many dislikes. Its protectionist policy aimed to increase tax revenue and reduce the internal deficit, stimulate industrialization, take importers Englishmen to a more equitable treatment in trade with Brazil, favor the expansion of the domestic market and the growth of work salaried.
However, this policy provoked opposition from importers and British reprisals, including the Aberdeen Act (1845), which authorized English ships to sink slave ships, even on the coast. Brazilian companies. He also accumulated the Treasury portfolio and the presidency of the council of ministers (1847). He was appointed by the Emperor Councilor of State and Knight of the Order of the Cross and with the title of Viscount of Caravelas (1854) and died in Niterói, RJ, in the middle of the following year.
Source: http://www.dec.ufcg.edu.br/biografias/
Order M - Biography - Brazil School
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/manuel-alves-branco.htm