José da Silva Carvalho

Carvalho was born to a humble farming family in middle Portugal, rising from obscurity as lawyer, judge and eventually politician on the back of the Liberal movement. Distinguished during the Liberal Wars as a courageous and devoted speaker and soldier of the Liberal cause, Carvalho was duly elected to Portugal's parliament following his chosen sides victory. A moderate aligned with the Cartists, he was Minister of Finance and Public Administration during the first two Devorist administrations, during which time he distinguished himself as a competent enough administration, if one more than willing to overlook the corruption of his peers in pursuit of funding his own expensive tastes.

After the failure of the third Cartist government, which Carvalho had been a mild critic of, he became (by process of the elimination of the elder, more respected or more corrupt members of the Cartist faction) de facto leader of his parliamentary bloc, and was tapped to lead what would be the fourth and final Devorist administration. While he made some desultory efforts at fixing the states finances, his government proved the briefest of the four, albeit in no small part thanks to the failures of his predecessors. Nonetheless, when the new President of the Ministers reached out to him and his faction to create a purified coalition government, he accepted again his old position as Minister of Finance, eager enough to restore some of his tattered reputation.