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A Note on Currency, Measures, and Spelling The smallest coin of the Portuguese realm was the vintém, which could theoretically be divided into twenty réis. A thousand réis made a mil-réis (written 1$000) and a million réis constituted a conto (1:000$000). The purchasing value of the currency declined considerably over the course of the eighty years covered in this book, so I first converted nominal values of postmortem estates and some other items to 1824 values, as I explain in Appendix A. I then established one particular estate, described in some detail, as a standard to which I compared others. In the notes, however, I indicate both the nominal and real value, the latter in parentheses. There were many measures used for food, only two of which I use in the text. The alqueire in Salvador was equivalent to 36.27 liters; except in some notes and tables where precision is important, I use the word “bushel” instead. The arroba weighed 32 pounds, or about 15 kilos. For names or words in Portuguese within the text, I use modern spelling. In the notes I have cited authors and titles as they appeared in the work used, whether it is a manuscript or has been published. Graham-final.indb xi Graham-final.indb xi 6/30/10 10:31:39 AM 6/30/10 10:31:39 AM THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK ...

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