desire
of the State Administration to guide and maintain constant touch with
the activity. The thoroughness of the latter is apparent upon a perusal
of these pages in which there is evident the statistics on the
production and industrial organization in that state for all minerals
produced there these in reality, being the resume of more detailed data.
Although
there was the desire to avoid highly technical data, there was,
necessarily, the inclusion of the principal geological aspects of the
problem for which there was freely used the valuable publications and
suggestions of the. De-partamento National da Produqdo Mineral whose
members are realizing a magnificent work which could little be
improved. The writer also had the good fortune of having at his
disposal the facilities of the Library and Archives of the Conselho
Federal de Comercio Exterior through the kindness of the Director of
the Secretariat, Consul Raul Bopp, whose suggestions proved a great
incentive in this work. In addition, the writer wishes to mention the
collaboration received from the Director of the Federal Servico da
Estatistica Economica e Financeira, Mr. Joao de Lourenco, Mr. Ribeiro
da Costa, Director of the Depar-tamento Estadual de Estatistica of the
state of Minas Gerais and Mr. Mario Beni, Secretary-General of the
Conselho de Expansao Economica of the state of Sao Paulo.
Grateful
acknowledgements are hereby extended to the valuable cooperation of
the members of the Conselho Federal de Comercio Exterior and Centra de
Estudos Economicos, Americo Cury, Octavio Malta, Waldemar Pinna, Dona
Bluma C. Wainer, Dona Dulce Barbosa and Harry S. Ikuia, the latter
being entrusted with the translation and adaptation of the text to the
English. In the attempt to present a statistical picture of the mineral
industry with the scanty elements at hand, it was necessary, in none
too few cases, to apply personal interpretations to the vague
terminology utilised at times in the references and may have given rise
to shortcomings which are to be regretted-It may be noted, however,
that it was always with the view in mind of presenting as conservative
an estimate as possible that guided the final word.
It
must be pointed out that the colloquial terminology, "Estado do Rio"
(State of Rio), which refers to the state of Rio de Janeiro was adopted
throughout the book for purposes of clarity inasmuch at it would
otherwise1 appear as "Rio de Janeiro", and thereby give rise
to the confusion which ist unavoidable due to the world-wide fame of
the city of Rio de Janeiro which, in addition, is itself a federated
unit.
In
view of difficulties often encountered abroad in the comprehension of
the terminology of the Brazilian monetary system which does not
strictly follow the orthodox decimal system, the writer wishes to add,
by way of explanation, that the mil-reis, the standard unit of currency, when translated means one thousand reals, mil being one thousand and reis, the plural form of real in Portuguese. One conto-de-reis which when abbreviated is conto and is equivalent to 1,000 milreis.
Rio de Janeiro, May 23rd., 1941.
JOSE JOBIM
