Irineu Evangelista de Souza in the “Guerra Grande”: the intermediary of secrets contracts between Brazil and Uruguay in 1850

Abstract

 The work aims to explore the role of intermediary played by Irineu Evangelista de Souza, future Baron, and later Viscount of Mauá, in the financial loan contracts made by the Empire of Brazil to the government of Uruguay in 1850, at the beginning of the “Patacão Diplomacy”. The analysis is based on the crossing of data between the documentary sources related to the “Patacão Diplomacy” in 1850 and the data and analyzes present in the historiography on the subject. The study indicates that Irineu was invited to act in this policy only as an intermediary, to make the scenario that the agents of the Empire intended to create more plausible, but his participation in the secret action allowed him to combine access to privileged information from regional geopolitics with business opportunities, in which he decided to invest.

Keywords: “Patacão Diplomacy”; Irineu Evangelista de Souza; Mauá; Guerra Grande; loans.