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U.Porto Memory

University of Porto Famous Alumni

Daniel Barbosa

Daniel Barbosa 1908-1986 Economist, university teacher and political leader

Daniel Maria Vieira Barbosa was born in Porto on 13 July 1908.
He studied Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto, where he was taught by Ezequiel de Campos. In 1935, he completed the course with the highest mark of the year, which earned him a prize from the Porto City Council. After the degree, he studied at German, Swiss and French university centres.

He began to work as a Deputy Engineering in 1936, at the Technical Department of the Douro and Leixões Port Administration, and in the following year he joined the faculty where he had studied, first as an Assistant, then as Assistant Professor (1941) and finally as Full Professor (1948), teaching Engineering, Finances and Political Economics.

Between 1950 and 1951, he took a course at the Centre for Economic and Financial Studies of the Porto Industrial Association, and in 1952 he transferred to the Instituto Superior Técnico, in Lisbon, where he was responsible for teaching Economics as Full Professor. Here, he also taught Organization and Administration and Economics, and developed studies that led to the publication of "Análise Económica" [Economic Analysis] (1960), recognized as his master work on the theory on Economics.

Alongside his teaching career, he was also active in the public and private sectors. He was appointed by the Ministry for Economic Affairs to study the reform of the paper industry, in December 1941, and at the beginning of 1942 he was chosen to chair the Organizing Commission of the Paper Industry. Between 1945 and 1947, he served as Governor for the Autonomous District of Funchal. He was a member of the National Assembly (1949-1957), President of the Association of Engineers (1953-1956), governor of the National Development Bank (1965-1974) and Minister of Economic Affairs (1947-1948) and Minister of Industry and Energy (1974), in the last government headed by Marcelo Caetano. He also held many functions in the business world.

As an economist, he wrote on the theories of production and of wages, and produced an innovative study on the black market, included in the book "Realidades Económicas" [Economic realities] (1952), in which he presented studies on applied economics. He rejected Socialism as an organizational model, did not espouse corporate economics and defended an authoritarian capitalism of a nationalist and interventionist nature. From the time he wrote about economic affairs in the newspaper "Diário Popular", he defended that the modernization of the Portuguese economy basically involved industrial development: the launching of heavy industries, the creation of an energy production and distribution system, the reorganization and modernization of industries, etc. On the other hand, unlike the elite of the New State, he defended that active finances should outstrip budgetary discipline.

During his political activity, in particular as Minister of Economic Affairs, he did not respect basic principles but sought, above all, to regulate public supplies through the import of consumer goods, and to stabilize prices, leaving behind, to a great extent, the desired creation of industries and restructuring of the banking system.

Daniel Barbosa died on 12 May 1986.
(Universidade Digital / Gestão de Informação, 2010)