Caricatura política: o suc-cesso tem razão... bancarrota

This Portuguese political etching satirizes financial collapse, depicting anthropomorphic apes and demons amid burning buildings and industrial machinery. The central figure labeled "Indústria" oversees chaos as bankers and speculators, rendered as simian caricatures, destroy wealth and credit. The crude bestial imagery reflects period conventions equating financial malfeasance with moral degradation and primitive behavior—a rhetorical strategy common to 19th-century print satire across Europe.

The work descends from Hogarth's narrative engravings and Gillray's political etchings, employing exaggeration and grotesque transformation to expose corruption. Such prints reached mass audiences through serial publication, directly prefiguring the political cartoons and sequential narratives of modern comics.