O Angola e Metropole" Dossier Secreto, fragmentos preciosos para a história da Politica, da Finança e da Magistratura Portuguesa, coligidos por Artur Virgílio Alves Reis.

Lisbon, Artur Virgílio Alves Reis, [1927?].. FIRST and ONLY EDITION. Folio (27.3 x 19.8 cm.), plain brown paper wrappers (somewhat frayed). Half-tone illustrations. Uncut. Light foxing and soiling to title page. In good to very good condition. 160 pp. *** FIRST and ONLY EDITION [?]. Defense by Artur Virgilio Alves Reis, perpetrator of one of the most sensational financial crimes in all history, often called the "Portuguese Bank Note Crisis".Alves Reis did not produce counterfeit bank notes. Instead, he forged documents in 1925 that were purportedly from the Bank of Portugal to the London firm Waterlow and Sons, which produced Portugal's paper currency. The documents authorized the printing of 300 million escudos (then equal to over $15,000,000) in 500$00 escudo notes - the largest denomination then in circulation. The documents also authorized Alves Reis to take delivery of all the notes, and called for secrecy on the part of Waterlow and Sons. Alves used the funds to finance his failing Banco de Angola e Metrópole.The notes were perfect, having been printed from the same plates and on the same paper as were used for the Bank of Portugal orders. Except for a telltale flaw in their numbering, they might never have been identified. Before this flaw caused the scheme to be discovered, Alves Reis was attempting to purchase the Bank of Portugal. Had he succeeded, the crime might never have come to light. When it did, it had enormous repercussions on the economy and politics of Portugal. By the end of 1925 Reis had managed to introduce into the Portuguese economy escudo bank notes worth £1,007,963 at 1925 exchange rates: 0.88% of Portugal’s nominal GDP at the time. The Portuguese currency was severely compromised and existing 500$00 escudo bank notes had to be withdrawn.When Reis's fraud became public knowledge in December 1925, it brought about a crisis of confidence in the Portuguese government. This crisis had a strong impact on the 28 May 1926 nationalist military coup against the Primeira República government of President Bernardino Machado, which brought the República Autoritária to power and led to the dictatorship of Prime Minister António de Oliveira Salazar from 1932 to 1968. (Salazar was briefly Finance Minister in 1926, but resigned; in 1928 he accepted the post again, but on condition that he be given a free hand. Once General António de Fragoso Carmona gave him the full financial control that he demanded, Salazar put Portuguese finances on a stable footing for the first time in the twentieth century.)The Bank of Portugal sued Waterlow & Sons in the High Court in London. In one of the most complex trials in English legal history, the case was finally settled in the House of Lords on 28 April 1932 in favour of the Banco de Portugal, which was awarded £610,392 in damages. Waterlow & Sons' business never completely recovered; it was finally acquired by another firm in 1961. *** See Murray Teigh Bloom, The Man Who Stole Portugal; Andrew Bull, "Alves Reis and the Portuguese Bank Note Scandal of 1925" in The British Historical Society, No. 24: pp 22-57 (1997); C. Kisch, The Portuguese Bank Note Case. Porbase locates 5 copies, all in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. Jisc locates a single copy, at the London School of Economics. Not located in KVK (51 databases searched). Not located in Orbis. Not located in Melvyl, which cites a single copy of another work by the author at UCLA.