1.
Domingos Sequeira
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Domingos António de Sequeira was a famous Portuguese painter at the Royal Court of King John VI of Portugal. He was born in Belém, Lisbon, into a modest family and he later changed his family name from Espírito Santo to the more aristocratic Sequeira. He studied art first at the academy of Lisbon, before moving to Rome, by the age of thirteen, he had evinced such marked talent that F. de Setubal employed him as an assistant in his work for the João Ferreiras Palace. Sequeira resided in Rome from 1788 to 1794, when he was honorary member of the Academy of St Luke. In 1802, he was appointed first court painter and, in role, executed many works for the prince regent, for Dona Maria Teresa. He designed the silver service which was presented by the Portuguese nation to Wellington. In 1823, he visited Paris where he is known to have tried his skill in lithography, in 1825, he painted the Death of Camões, which was considered by many to be the first proto-romantic or romantic Portuguese painting. The last years of his life he spent in Rome, devoting himself chiefly to devotional subjects and he saw a Turner exposition in the late 1820s, that served as inspiration for some of his best paintings, like the Adoração dos Magos. Among his best-known pictures are the Miracle of Ourique, Prince John Reviewing the Troops at Azumbuja, numerous paintings by Sequeira are held at the Mafra National Palace, the Ajuda National Palace, and in the principal palaces and churches of Lisbon. The Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, in Lisbon, has one of the best collections of his paintings, palácio Nacional da Ajuda José-Augusto França, A Arte em Portugal no Século XIX, Lisboa, Bertrand Editora,1991, volume 1
2.
Lisbon
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Lisbon is the capital and the largest city of Portugal, with a population of 552,700 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km². Its urban area extends beyond the administrative limits with a population of around 2.7 million people. About 2.8 million people live in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area and it is continental Europes westernmost capital city and the only one along the Atlantic coast. Lisbon lies in the western Iberian Peninsula on the Atlantic Ocean, the westernmost areas of its metro area is the westernmost point of Continental Europe. Lisbon is recognised as a city because of its importance in finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, education. It is one of the economic centres on the continent, with a growing financial sector. Humberto Delgado Airport serves over 20 million passengers annually, as of 2015, and the motorway network, the city is the 7th-most-visited city in Southern Europe, after Istanbul, Rome, Barcelona, Madrid, Athens and Milan, with 1,740,000 tourists in 2009. The Lisbon region contributes with a higher GDP PPP per capita than any region in Portugal. Its GDP amounts to 96.3 billion USD and thus $32,434 per capita, the city occupies 32nd place of highest gross earnings in the world. Most of the headquarters of multinationals in the country are located in the Lisbon area and it is also the political centre of the country, as its seat of Government and residence of the Head of State. Lisbon is one of the oldest cities in the world, julius Caesar made it a municipium called Felicitas Julia, adding to the name Olissipo. Ruled by a series of Germanic tribes from the 5th century, in 1147, the Crusaders under Afonso Henriques reconquered the city and since then it has been a major political, economic and cultural centre of Portugal. Unlike most capital cities, Lisbons status as the capital of Portugal has never been granted or confirmed officially – by statute or in written form. Its position as the capital has formed through constitutional convention, making its position as de facto capital a part of the Constitution of Portugal. It has one of the warmest winters of any metropolis in Europe, the typical summer season lasts about four months, from June to September, although also in April temperatures sometimes reach around 25 °C. Although modern archaeological excavations show a Phoenician presence at this location since 1200 BC, another conjecture based on ancient hydronymy suggests that the name of the settlement derived from the pre-Roman appellation for the Tagus, Lisso or Lucio. Lisbons name was written Ulyssippo in Latin by the geographer Pomponius Mela and it was later referred to as Olisippo by Pliny the Elder and by the Greeks as Olissipo or Olissipona. The Indo-European Celts invaded in the 1st millennium BC, mixing with the Pre-Indo-European population and this indigenous settlement maintained commercial relations with the Phoenicians, which would account for the recent findings of Phoenician pottery and other material objects
3.
Carlos Costa (banker)
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Carlos da Silva Costa is a Portuguese economist and the current governor of the Bank of Portugal since June 7,2010. Carlos Costa started his career in 1973 as a lecturer in economics at the University of Porto, following his graduation he continued his studies at Sorbonne and then in 1981 went to the former Banco Português do Atlântico, now Banco Comercial Português, research department. In 2006 Costa became vice president of the European Investment Bank under the leadership of president Philippe Maystadt and he was responsible for the banks funding financing operations in Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as in Asia and South America. He was also a member of the Committee of European Securities Regulators, on 22 April 2010 Costa was nominated for a five-year-term by the Portuguese government, recommended by the Finance minister Teixeira dos Santos. He replaced Vítor Constâncio, who became president of the European Central Bank on June 1,2010. The Left Bloc and the Portuguese Communist Party openly called for Costa to resign, the attacks triggered a political storm over what the centre-right opposition described as a “shameful” attempt to interfere in the regulator’s independence. Bank of Portugal official website Biography on Banco de Portugal official website
4.
Portugal
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Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. It is the westernmost country of mainland Europe, to the west and south it is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and to the east and north by Spain. The Portugal–Spain border is 1,214 kilometres long and considered the longest uninterrupted border within the European Union, the republic also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeira, both autonomous regions with their own regional governments. The territory of modern Portugal has been settled, invaded. The Pre-Celts, Celts, Carthaginians and the Romans were followed by the invasions of the Visigothic, in 711 the Iberian Peninsula was invaded by the Moors, making Portugal part of Muslim Al Andalus. Portugal was born as result of the Christian Reconquista, and in 1139, Afonso Henriques was proclaimed King of Portugal, in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal established the first global empire, becoming one of the worlds major economic, political and military powers. Portugal monopolized the trade during this time, and the Portuguese Empire expanded with military campaigns led in Asia. After the 1910 revolution deposed the monarchy, the democratic but unstable Portuguese First Republic was established, democracy was restored after the Portuguese Colonial War and the Carnation Revolution in 1974. Shortly after, independence was granted to almost all its overseas territories, Portugal has left a profound cultural and architectural influence across the globe and a legacy of over 250 million Portuguese speakers today. Portugal is a country with a high-income advanced economy and a high living standard. It is the 5th most peaceful country in the world, maintaining a unitary semi-presidential republican form of government and it has the 18th highest Social Progress in the world, putting it ahead of other Western European countries like France, Spain and Italy. Portugal is a pioneer when it comes to drug decriminalization, as the nation decriminalized the possession of all drugs for use in 2001. The early history of Portugal is shared with the rest of the Iberian Peninsula located in South Western Europe, the name of Portugal derives from the joined Romano-Celtic name Portus Cale. Other influences include some 5th-century vestiges of Alan settlements, which were found in Alenquer, Coimbra, the region of present-day Portugal was inhabited by Neanderthals and then by Homo sapiens, who roamed the border-less region of the northern Iberian peninsula. These were subsistence societies that, although they did not establish prosperous settlements, neolithic Portugal experimented with domestication of herding animals, the raising of some cereal crops and fluvial or marine fishing. Chief among these tribes were the Calaicians or Gallaeci of Northern Portugal, the Lusitanians of central Portugal, the Celtici of Alentejo, a few small, semi-permanent, commercial coastal settlements were also founded in the Algarve region by Phoenicians-Carthaginians. Romans first invaded the Iberian Peninsula in 219 BC, during the last days of Julius Caesar, almost the entire peninsula had been annexed to the Roman Republic. The Carthaginians, Romes adversary in the Punic Wars, were expelled from their coastal colonies and it suffered a severe setback in 150 BC, when a rebellion began in the north
5.
European Central Bank
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The European Central Bank is the central bank for the euro and administers monetary policy of the eurozone, which consists of 19 EU member states and is one of the largest currency areas in the world. It is one of the worlds most important central banks and is one of the seven institutions of the European Union listed in the Treaty on European Union, the capital stock of the bank is owned by the central banks of all 28 EU member states. The Treaty of Amsterdam established the bank in 1998, and it is headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany. As of 2015 the President of the ECB is Mario Draghi, former governor of the Bank of Italy, former member of the World Bank, the bank primarily occupied the Eurotower prior to, and during, the construction of the new headquarters. The primary objective of the ECB, mandated in Article 2 of the Statute of the ECB, is to price stability within the Eurozone. The ECB has, under Article 16 of its Statute, the right to authorise the issuance of euro banknotes. Member states can issue euro coins, but the amount must be authorised by the ECB beforehand, the ECB is governed by European law directly, but its set-up resembles that of a corporation in the sense that the ECB has shareholders and stock capital. Its capital is €11 billion held by the central banks of the member states as shareholders. The initial capital allocation key was determined in 1998 on the basis of the population and GDP. Shares in the ECB are not transferable and cannot be used as collateral, the European Central Bank is the de facto successor of the European Monetary Institute. The EMI itself took over from the earlier European Monetary Co-operation Fund, the bank was the final institution needed for EMU, as outlined by the EMU reports of Pierre Werner and President Jacques Delors. It was established on 1 June 1998, the first President of the Bank was Wim Duisenberg, the former president of the Dutch central bank and the European Monetary Institute. The French argued that since the ECB was to be located in Germany and this was opposed by the German, Dutch and Belgian governments who saw Duisenberg as a guarantor of a strong euro. Tensions were abated by an agreement in which Duisenberg would stand down before the end of his mandate. Trichet replaced Duisenberg as President in November 2003, there had also been tension over the ECBs Executive Board, with the United Kingdom demanding a seat even though it had not joined the Single Currency. Under pressure from France, three seats were assigned to the largest members, France, Germany, and Italy, Spain also demanded and obtained a seat. Despite such a system of appointment the board asserted its independence early on in resisting calls for interest rates, when the ECB was created, it covered a Eurozone of eleven members. On 1 December 2009, the Treaty of Lisbon entered into force, ECB according to the article 13 of TEU, on 1 November 2011, Mario Draghi replaced Jean-Claude Trichet as President of the ECB
6.
Central bank
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A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages a states currency, money supply, and interest rates. Central banks also usually oversee the commercial banking system of their respective countries, Central banks in most developed nations are institutionally designed to be independent from political interference. Still, limited control by the executive and legislative bodies usually exists, prior to the 17th century most money was commodity money, typically gold or silver. However, promises to pay were widely circulated and accepted as value at least five hundred years earlier in both Europe and Asia. The Song dynasty was the first to issue generally circulating paper currency, in 1455, in an effort to control inflation, the succeeding Ming Dynasty ended the use of paper money and closed much of Chinese trade. The Bank of Amsterdam, established in the Dutch Republic in 1609, is considered to be the forerunner to modern central banks. The Wisselbanks innovations helped lay the foundations for the birth and development of the banking system that now plays a vital role in the worlds economy. Along with a number of local banks, it performed many functions of a central banking system. Lucien Gillard calls it the European guilder, and Adam Smith devotes many pages to explaining how the bank guilder works, the model of the Wisselbank as a state bank was adapted throughout Europe, including the Bank of Sweden and the Bank of England. Established by Dutch-Latvian Johan Palmstruch in 1668, Sveriges Riksbank is often considered by many as the worlds oldest central bank, the lenders would give the government cash and also issue notes against the government bonds, which could be lent again. A Royal Charter was granted on 27 July through the passage of the Tonnage Act 1694, the bank was given exclusive possession of the governments balances, and was the only limited-liability corporation allowed to issue banknotes. The £1. 2M was raised in 12 days, half of this was used to rebuild the Navy and these modern central banking functions evolved slowly through the 18th and 19th centuries. The currency crisis of 1797, caused by panicked depositors withdrawing from the Bank led to the government suspending convertibility of notes into specie payment. The bank was accused by the bullionists of causing the exchange rate to fall from over issuing banknotes. Nevertheless, it was clear that the Bank was being treated as an organ of the state, henry Thornton, a merchant banker and monetary theorist has been described as the father of the modern central bank. An opponent of the real bills doctrine, he was a defender of the bullionist position, thorntons process of monetary expansion anticipated the theories of Knut Wicksell regarding the cumulative process which restates the Quantity Theory in a theoretically coherent form. Until the mid-nineteenth century, commercial banks were able to issue their own banknotes, many consider the origins of the central bank to lie with the passage of the Bank Charter Act of 1844. Under this law, authorisation to issue new banknotes was restricted to the Bank of England, at the same time, the Bank of England was restricted to issue new banknotes only if they were 100% backed by gold or up to £14 million in government debt
7.
Portuguese real
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The real was the unit of currency of Portugal from around 1430 until 1911. It replaced the dinheiro at the rate of 1 real =840 dinheiros and was replaced by the escudo at a rate of 1 escudo =1000 réis. The escudo was replaced by the euro at a rate of 1 euro =200.482 escudos in 2002. The first real was introduced by Ferdinand I around 1380 and it was a silver coin and had a value of 120 dinheiros. In the reign of King João I, the real branco of 3½ libras, by the beginning of the reign of King Duarte I in 1433, the real branco had become the unit of account in Portugal. From the reign of Manuel I, the name was simplified to real, in 1837, a decimal system was adopted for the coin denominations, with the first banknotes issued by the Banco de Portugal in 1847. In 1854, Portugal adopted a standard of 1000 réis =1.62585 grams fine gold. This standard was maintained until 1891, large sums were usually expressed as mil-réis or 1,000 réis, a term often found in 19th-century Portuguese literature. In figures a mil-réis was written as 1$000, so that 60,000 réis would be written as 60$000 or 60 mil-réis. )In 1911, one million réis was known as a conto de réis. This term survived the introduction of the escudo to mean 1000 escudos and is now used to mean five euros, Coins and banknotes were also issued denominated in réis for use in the different parts of the Portuguese empire. See, Angolan real, Azorean real, Brazilian real, Cape Verde real, Mozambican real, Portuguese Guinea real and São Tomé, brazil has revived the real as the denomination of its present currency. Before the middle of the 19th century, many different denominations were minted, for example, the cruzado was introduced at a value of 324 real branco in the reign of João II. It was fixed at a value of 400 réis during João IIIs reign and this remained the value of the silver cruzado until the reign of Pedro II, when it was revalued to 480 réis. Meanwhile, the gold rose in value to 750 réis in the reign of João IV. Two denominations which did not change their values were the vintém of 20 réis, the last 1 real coins were minted in the 1580s. After this time, the smallest coins were worth 1½ réis and these were minted until around 1750, after which the three réis coin became the smallest circulating denomination. From the early 18th century, the gold coin was the peça. Some of these coins showed denominations which were no longer due to earlier revaluations
8.
Portuguese escudo
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The escudo was the currency of Portugal prior to the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999 and its removal from circulation on 28 February 2002. The escudo was subdivided into 100 centavos, amounts in escudos were written as escudos $ centavos with the cifrão as the decimal separator. Because of the rate of 1000 réis = $1, three decimal places were initially used. Escudo gold coinage was introduced in 1722 with denominations including 1⁄2 escudo,2,4, and 8 escudos. The escudo was introduced on 22 May 1911, after the 1910 Republican revolution. The term mil réis remained a colloquial synonym of escudo up to the 1990s, one million réis was called one conto de réis, or simply one conto. This expression passed on to the escudo, meaning 1, 000$, the escudos value was initially set at 675$00 =1 kg of gold. After 1914, the value of the fell, being fixed in 1928 at 108$25 to the Pound Sterling. This was altered to 110$00 to the Pound Sterling in 1931, a new rate of 27$50 escudos to the U. S. dollar was established in 1940, changing to 25$00 in 1940 and 28$75 in 1949. During World War II, escudos were heavily sought after by Nazi Germany, through Swiss banks, as currency to make purchases to Portugal. Inflation throughout the 20th century made centavos essentially worthless by its end, with the entry of Portugal in the Eurozone, the conversion rate to the euro was set at 200$482 to €1. The escudo was used in the Portuguese mainland, the Azores and Madeira, for more details, see the escudos of Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portuguese Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe. Only Cape Verde continues to use the escudo, in Macau, the currency during the colonial period was, as it is today, the pataca. Timor-Leste adopted the escudo whilst still a Portuguese colony, having used the pataca. Portuguese India adopted the escudo before it was annexed by India, the gold escudo mintage period for each denomination was different, 1⁄2 escudo through 1821,2 escudos through 1789, and 4 escudos through 1799. The 8 escudo coin was struck between 1722–30. Between 1912 and 1916, silver 10,20 and 50 centavos, bronze 1 and 2 centavos and cupro-nickel 4 centavos were issued between 1917 and 1922. In 1920, bronze 5 centavos and cupro-nickel 10 and 20 centavos were introduced, followed, in 1924, by bronze 10 and 20 centavos, aluminium bronze was replaced with cupro-nickel in 1927
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