AN EXTREMELY RARE ENGLISH-LANGUAGE BRAZILIAN IMPRINT, NO COPY AT AUCTION SINCE 1978. 8vo. (2), (5), 6-95 pp, (1). Bound in original blue publisher’s wrappers. Spine wrapper perished, but binding holding perfectly. With a handful of contemporary manuscript notes in lower margins: “Since 1st July the duty is inc’d to 30%”, etc. A delightful, very genuine copy. Very rare sole Brazilian-printed edition of this complete guide for importer merchant activity at the port of Rio de Janeiro following the country’s declaration of independence in 1822. First printed in Baltimore in 1828, Maxwell, Wright & Co’s publication was evidently aimed at ship captains responsible for supplying goods to Brazil’s main port. The present edition is the only one printed in Rio de Janeiro, placing it among a very small handful of English-language Brazilian imprints before 1850. According to OCLC, the press of Thomas B. Hunt on the Rua de Cadêa published a few other items between 1831-1838, all of which were in Portuguese. “Like other Anglo-American merchant firms, [Maxwell Wright & Co.] got its start in Brazil by providing Luso-Brazilian slave traders with vessels, but it appears to have jettisoned that business for coffee and flour produced by slaves.” (Rood, The Reinvention of Atlantic Slavery: Technology, Labor, Race, and Capitalism, pp. 243-4). The present guide shows that the firms’ interests encompassed a much wider range of goods: beef, beeswax, codfish, chairs, cheese, cotton, burlap, “fancy goods”, American gin, Ipecacuanha, olive oil, writing paper, and of course sugar are among the products for which current import regulations and a brief discussion of quality are provided. A sample ship’s manifest found here on p. 18 provides an instructive example of what a single ship might be expected to bring as cargo during this period. “The firm of Maxwell, Wright and Company, the largest U.S. merchant house operating in Rio de Janeiro between the 1820s and 1840s, responded to increasing American interest in the Brazilian market with the 1828 publication of Commercial Formalities of Rio de Janeiro, a manual to trade in the city… The volume provided a roadmap for successful trade and insight into the trade regulations established by the Brazilian government. Perhaps most useful to aspiring merchants was a summary of the port and custom house rules to which all foreign traders were bound to comply. The most critical requirement, the ship’s manifest, was described in great detail… and was the basis for calculating import tariffs.” (Parks, pp. 51-52). OCLC shows copies of this Rio de Janeiro edition at Stanford, the Boston Athenaeum, Temple (PA), U Texas, the Virginia Historical Society, and the State Library of Massachusetts. In contrast, the Baltimore-printed editions are relatively common in census. * cf Sarah Balou Parks, Britain, Brazil, and the Trade in Printed Cottons, 1827-1841 (University of Delaware thesis, 2010), pp. 51-57.