Abstract

The 2nd Viscount of Vila Maior, Julio Maximo de Oliveira Pimentel (1809-1884), stood out for his public life dedicated to the promotion and defense of liberal ideals, to the advances of knowledge and the development of agriculture and industry sustained by technical and scientific progress. The probate inventory for minors that arises from his death, having as heirs his minor grandchildren, allows a better understanding of the conditions of material existence and the life options of an active and relevant personality in the Portuguese 1800s. This paper proposes to characterize the nature and value of the assets and liabilities in the inventory and link them to what we already know of Julio Maximo de Oliveira Pimentel’s personal and family life. And, in this way, to contribute to the knowledge of his private and public biography. We identified the circumstances of the inventory organization, and the constitution of the Family Council, a body that supervised the overall process and guardianship of minors. We also identified assets and liabilities and traced both the general orientation on how the Viscount gathered his assets during his life; and the general financial situation of the family when he died. A fragile financial situation made it urgent to carry out cash through the sale of land assets, carried out by a subsequent mandatory public auction. It is possible to conclude that the Visconde’s public notoriety, based on the ideals of the common good and the civil service, corresponded to a material detachment that the inventory clearly shows and that the auspices of his birth and childhood did not anticipate. Most of the value of his legacy had to be used to satisfy previous responsibilities and to pay for the inventory process itself.

Highlights

  • The 2nd Viscount of Vila Maior, Júlio Máximo de Oliveira Pimentel (1809-1884), stood out for his public life dedicated to the promotion and defense of liberal ideals, to the advances of knowledge and the development of agriculture and industry sustained by technical and scientific progress

  • This paper proposes to characterize the nature and value of the assets and liabilities in the inventory and link them to what we already know of Júlio Máximo de Oliveira Pimentel’s personal and family life

  • We identified assets and liabilities and traced both the general orientation on how the Viscount gathered his assets during his life; and the general financial situation of the family when he died

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Summary

Situação financeira

A situação financeira em que o falecido Visconde de Vila Maior deixava a sua viúva era bastante precária. Dizia então que o rendimento da casa não chegava nunca para o pagamento das prestações à Companhia do Crédito Predial, vendo-se obrigado a supri-las com parte dos seus vencimentos. Tentou depois uma outra solução para o governo das suas terras, despedindo o feitor e arrendando o resto dos bens, mas parece que a gestão continuou do mesmo modo ineficiente, não sendo a produção agrícola capaz de gerar fundos para possibilitar a liquidação das dívidas que ficaram. A manutenção das propriedades impunha uma contínua intervenção com obras que também consumiam parte do rendimento, como se vê de vários lamentos dos rendeiros informando que na quinta de Vila Maior, em 1881, chovia na casa e nos palheiros, sendo preciso substituir o telhado, na casa do Cuco, estavam constantemente a cair paredes, na casa da Quinta Branca, estava a cair a cozinha, no Tapadão, foi preciso fazer uma cancela[48]. O produto dessa venda destinava-se a custear as despesas correntes de sua casa, feitas tanto com a própria, como com as netas que tinha a seu cuidado

Venda dos bens fundiários
Mapa das Partilhas
Fontes manuscritas
Fontes impressas
Referências bibliográficas
Full Text
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