Rods of Way / Rodas de Caminho

Having the Royal Treasury Board requested the Municipal Chamber of Funchal 'to indicate the gentlest way to demand a contribution from the residents of this island for the repair of the ruins caused by the flood of October 9, 1803,' the same Chamber, in a session on August 21, 1804, and after hearing the nobility and the people, represented by the House of Twenty-Four, 'decided that the most fair, least burdensome, and most appropriate way to encourage the inhabitants of the island to contribute to the repair of the streams, was to obligate all male inhabitants from the age of 16 to 60, without exception of any ecclesiastical or secular person, national or foreigner, nobleman, noblewoman, or commoner, to work on the cleaning and repair of the streams on a rotating basis, not exceeding five times each year, free of charge, each in those of the city or village district where they reside and where such work is necessary.' Thus originated the contribution of the rods of way, which fell into disuse in Funchal around the 1880s, and it was allowed to redeem it for money according to 'the price that each day laborer would earn,' as established in the aforementioned municipal session of August 21, 1804 (1921).