An account nonsense

This article seeks to investigate how, behind the legal and Jesuit language of Dom Casmurro's narrator, an economic plot based on the fundamental idea of debt, paper money and counterfeit currency is constructed. The argument presented is that the narrator is, in addition to being a lawyer and former seminarian, also a kind of forger in constructing a plot based on delays and defaulting on debts. The historical basis for the treatment given by Machado in his novel seems to be the Encilhamento crisis and the funding loan of 1898, events contemporary to the writing of the novel.

KEYWORDS:
Encilhamento; economy; Machado de Assis