Note from João Maria Botão to António Negrinho, the alias of Luís Caetano Leirós de Andrade e Castro.
The author sends the money from a ransom that was extorted from him.
In the first quarter of the 19th century, extortion letters became a very typical practice. Authors threatened rich addressees with all sorts of ruinous events in the case they didn't hand in a certain amount of money. The frequentness of this practice was possible also because of the political and social turmoil associated with these first years of Liberalism.
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