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 Rio de Janeiro is the seaport for a large area of the richest, most productive and most thickly settled parts of Brazil, including the states of Rio de Janeiro and Minas Geraes and a small part of eastern São Paulo. Its exports include coffee, sugar, hides, cabinet woods, tobacco and cigars, tapioca, gold, diamonds, manganese and sundry small products. Rio is also a distributing centre in the coasting trade, and many imported products, such as jerked beef (carne secca), hay, flour, wines, &c., appear among the coastwise exports, as well as domestic manufactures. The total exports for 1905 were officially valued at 62,572,033 milreis gold, or a little over one-sixth the exportation of the whole country. Formerly Rio led all other ports in the export of coffee, but the enormous increase in production in the state of São Paulo has given Santos the lead. The exports of coffee from Rio in 1908 amounted to 3,062,268 bags of 60 kilogrammes each, officially valued at about $27,846,000. The coffee-producing area tributary to this port is slowly decreasing, owing to the exhaustion of the soil and the greater productiveness of São Paulo. The imports include wheat, flour, Indian corn, jerked beef (carne secca), lard, bacon, wines and liquors, butter, cheese, conserves of all kinds, coal, cotton, woollen, linen and silk textiles, boots and shoes, earthen- and glasswares, railway material, machinery, furniture, building material, including pine lumber, drugs and chemicals, and hardware. The imports for 1905 aggregated 103,874,724 milreis gold, or about two-fifths the importation of the whole republic. The shipping arrivals in 1908 were as follows: from foreign ports, 1195 steamers of 3,479,357 tons and 75 sailing vessels of 84,474 tons; from national ports, 243 foreign steamers of 582,633 tons, 773 national steamers of 475,587 tons and 294 national sailing vessels of 20,250 tons—in all 2580 vessels of 4,642,3O1 tons.

Manufactures.—The industrial activities of Rio Janeiro have been largely increased since the organization of the republic through increased import duties on foreign products. There were a number of protected industries before this, but they made slight impression on imports. Rio de Janeiro has manufactures of flour from imported wheat, cotton, woollen and silk textiles, boots and shoes, ready-made clothing, furniture, vehicles, cigars and cigarettes, chocolate, fruit conserves, refined sugar, biscuits, macaroni, ice, beer, artificial liquors, mineral waters, soap, stearine candles, perfumery, feather flowers, printing type, &c. There are numerous machine and repair shops, the most important of which are the shops of the Central railway. One of the most important industrial enterprises in the city is the electric plant belonging to the Rio de Janeiro Light and Power Company, which supplies electric currents for public and private lighting, and power for the tramways. and many industries. The hydro-electric works are situated about 50 m. N.W. of the city in a valley of the Serra do Mar, where a large reservoir has been created by building a dam across the Rio das Lages.

Government.—Rio de Janeiro is governed by a prefect, who represents the national government, and a municipal council which represents the people. The prefect is appointed by the President of the republic for a term of four years, and the appointment must be confirmed by the Senate. There are seven directorias, or boards, under the prefect, each one assigned to a special field of work, chief among which are education, health and public assistance, public works and transportation, and finance. The municipal council is elected by direct suffrage for a term of two years, and is composed of 15 members. The funded debt of the city on the 30th of June 1907 was £7,000,677, a part of which is guaranteed by the national government. There is some confusion in administration and accounts, however, and it is sometimes difficult to determine the exact situation. The Federal District is represented in Congress by 2 senators and 10 deputies, and is credited with the rights and privileges of citizenship. On the other hand, the city is a garrison town and a district under the direct administration of the national executive, who appoints its chief executive, controls its police force, and exercises part control over its streets, squares and water front. In the work of improving the city, the national government assumed the expense of the commercial quays, the filling of the São Christovão bay, the opening of the Mangue canal and its embellishment, the opening of the Avenida Central, the extension of the sewage system and the addition of new sources to the water supply, while the city was responsible for the Avenida Beira-Mar, the opening of a new avenue from the Largo da Lapa westward to Rua Frei Caneca, the removal of the Morro do Senado, the widening of some streets crossing the Avenida Central and the opening and straightening of other streets.

History.—The discovery of the Bay of Rio de Janeiro is attributed by many Portuguese writers to André Gonçalves, who entered its waters on the 1st of January 1502, and believed that it was the mouth of a great river, hence the name Rio de Janeiro (River of January). Another Portuguese navigator, Martim Affonso de Souza, visited it in 1531, but passed on to São Vicente, near Santos, where he established a colony. The first settlement in the bay was made by an expedition of French Huguenots under the command of Nicholas Durand Villegaignon, who established his colony on the small island that bears his name. In 1560 their fort was captured and destroyed by a Portuguese expedition from Bahia under Mem de Sá, and in 1567 another, expedition under the same commander again destroyed the French settlements, which had spread to the mainland. The victory was won on the 20th of January, the feast-day of St Sebastian the Martyr, who became the patron saint of the new settlement and gave it his name—São Sebastião do Rio de Janeiro. The French had named their colony La France Antarctique, and their island fort had been called Fort Coligny. In 1710 a French expedition of five vessels and about 1000 men under Duclerc attempted to regain possession, but was defeated; its commander was captured and later assassinated. This led to a second French expedition, under Duguay Trouin, who entered the bay on the 12th of September 1711, and captured the town on the 22nd. Trouin released Duclerc's imprisoned followers, exacted a heavy ransom and then withdrew. The discovery of gold in Minas Geraes at the end of the 17th century greatly increased the importance of the town. It had been made the capital of the southern captaincies in 1680, and in 1762 it became the capital of all Brazil. In 1808 the fugitive Portuguese court, under the regent Dom João VI., took refuge in Rio de Janeiro, and gave a new impulse to its growth. It was thrown open to foreign commerce, foreign mercantile houses were permitted to settle there, printing was introduced, industrial restrictions were removed, and a college of medicine, a military academy and a public library were founded. Dom João VI. returned to Portugal in 1821, and on the 7th of September 1822 Brazil was declared independent and Dom Pedro I. became its first emperor. There was no resistance to this declaration in Rio de Janeiro. There were some political disorders during the reign of Dom Pedro I., who was finally harassed into an abdication in favour of his son, Dom Pedro II., on the 7th of April 1831. The regency that followed was one of many changes, and led in July 1840 to a declaration of the young prince's majority at the age of fifteen. A long and peaceful reign followed, disturbed only by the struggles of rival political factions. In 1839 a steamship service along the coast was opened, but direct communication with Europe was delayed until 1850, and with the United States until 1865. These services added largely to the prosperity of the port. The first section of the Dom Pedro II. railway was opened in 1858, and the second or mountain section in 1864, which brought the city into closer relations with the interior. In 1874 submarine communication with Europe was opened, which was soon afterwards extended southward to the Platine republics. The first coffee tree planted in Brazil was in a convent garden of Rio de Janeiro. On the 15th of November 1889 a military revolt in the city under the leadership of General Deodoro da Fonseca led to the declaration of a republic and the expulsion of the imperial family, which was accomplished without resistance or loss of life. Disorders followed, a naval revolt in 1891 causing the resignation of President Deodoro da Fonseca, and another in 1893–94 causing a blockade of the port for about six months and the loss of many lives and much property from desultory bombardments. There have been since that time some trifling outbreaks on the part of agitators allied with the extreme republican element, but at no time was the security of the government in danger.

.—Nearly all books relating to Brazil devote some attention to its capital city. The history of its settlement and colonial development will be found in Robert Southey, History of Brazil (3 vols., London, 1810–19). For descriptions of the city, the customs and manners of its people and some of the larger political events during the first three-quarters of the 19th century, see R. Walsh, Notices of Brazil in 1828 and 1829 (2 vols., London, 1830); Thomas Ewbank, Life in Brazil (New York, 1856); M. D. Moreira de Azevedo, O Rio de Janeiro (2 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1877); and J. C. Fletcher and D. P. Kidder, Brazil and the Brazilians (9th ed., Boston, 1879), especially chapters iv. to xiv. For later descriptions, see A. J. Lamoureux, Hand-Book of Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, 1887); Frank Vincent, Around and About South America (New York, 1890), chapters xxv. to xxix.; Marguerite Dickins, Along Shore with a Man-of-War (Boston, 1893); Arthur Dias, Il Brasile Attuale (Nivelle, Belgium, 1907; also in French and Portuguese). pp, 367–449.