O discurso que vale ouro: a dimensão econômica do pensamento de Serzedelo Correia

Abstract

This article seeks to trace the creativity and uniqueness of Brazilian economic thought at the turn of the twentieth century, in its radical liberal strand. It examines the financial policy of the First Brazilian Republic (1889-1930) and the political-ideological debates of the era. Based on the methodological premises of the social analysis of ideas, we highlight the thinking of Inocêncio Serzedelo Correia, a trained military man who played an active role in Brazil’s economic and industrialist debates. Serzedelo Correia was also the creator and founding minister of the Federal Court of Accounts in 1892, with the power to supervise the use of public resources. Taking a selection of his works as a source, the article highlights his role in the project of construction of nationality and bourgeois hegemony in the First Republic, based on themes such as industrialization, the strengthening of the national market, business, economic independence, the containment of profits, and state interventionism. Our hypothesis is that Serzedelo’s liberalism united economics and politics to combat favor ideology and clientelism, valuing autonomy, independence, and moral and ethical principles.