Fonds: Companhia de Crédito Nacional

Date of creation: 31 December 1841
Date of extinction: 30 November 1844
Administrative history: So as to attenuate the 1841-1842 budget deficit, the Government took measures to obtain the funds it needed. Thus emerged the Companhia de Crédito Nacional whose statutes were approved by Executive Order of 31 December 1841 and which, by means of contract approved by a Decree of the same date, committed to lending the State 6,975 contos (1), partly in cash and partly in Government securities, whereby the Government committed to handing back 6,520 contos in Inscrições (public debt securities) at an annual interest rate of 5%.

According to the statutes, the company’s capital would amount to 2,800 contos or 2,400, if the Board deemed this amount sufficient to satisfy the commitments undertaken.

To insure the value of the military officers’ payment receipts it had taken, the Banco de Lisboa used them as stock in the Company, with a nominal value of 600 contos de réis.

The Companhia de Crédito Nacional, liquidated in 1844, the year by which, according to its statutes, it was to end its activity, closed its accounts having made substantial profits.

Documentation from this Company, totalling 10 books, covers its entire life span and reflects its entire activity. It consists of records of bookkeeping, the issue of promissory notes and shares, a shareholders record and an inventory of furniture and furnishings. As with other Companies subsidised by the Banco de Lisboa, the Companhia de Crédito Nacional was also housed in its premises, given that the Banco de Lisboa was its main shareholder. Thus being, its documentation arrived with Banco de Lisboa documentation.

Documentation dates: 1842-1845

No. items: 10
Extent: 0.27 Lm

Finding aid: Arquivo da Companhia de Crédito Nacional (Col. Inventários, 3)
Access: No consultation restrictions.

All documentation is microfilmed and digitalized.

(1) Conto is the value of 1,000 escudos, the former Portuguese currency.