The form and extent of taxation profoundly affected Brazilian development. As merchants were the axis of Brazil's export-import economy, so were they the focus of taxation. In addition to import and export tariffs, a host of minor taxes and fees were levied on the movement, handling, or storage of goods. Between 1831 and 1885, some seventy to seventy-five percent of the Empire's revenue came from the movement of external commerce. The chief source was importation. Between 1850 and 1900 importation represented an average of ninety-four percent of the value of exportation, taking about thirty percent of national income. During the Empire, import tariffs commonly accounted for half or more of the central government's revenue. With the Republic, export taxation was turned over to the states, and by 1896 import revenues furnished more than ninety percent of federal government income.

In addition to taxes on the movement of trade, merchants also bore the brunt of several important noncommercial taxes, such as the urban real estate (dècima urbana) tax and the industries and professions tax, which despite its title burdened physicians and lawyers little and landowners not at all. Their central position in the Brazilian taxation system not only encumbered merchants financially but complicated and slowed the conduct of business. Brazilian taxation was characterized by number and variety of levies and their frequent illogical application. As the president of a commercial association put it: “The tax office, that mysterious and terrible creature, well known to all, appears everywhere, takes part in all business, intervenes in everything, always for money, and unhappily everything gets damaged from its woeful intervention.”