Wikipedia has the history of the Brazilian system: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companhia_Brasileira_de_Liquida%C3%A7%C3%A3o_e_Cust%C3%B3dia#Hist.C3.B3ria http

Wikipedia has the history of the Brazilian system: https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companhia_Brasileira_de_Liquida%C3%A7%C3%A3o_e_Cust%C3%B3dia#Hist.C3.B3ria https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Companhia_Brasileira_de_Liquid... According to that article, the original system used paper certificates stored with the brokers. To do a trade, the broker sent the paper certificates to a central place (the predecessor of the current one), which recorded the trade and sent the paper certificates to the other broker. The current system is a natural evolution of the old system: instead of paper certificates, we have records directly within the CBLC (now a department of BM&FBOVESPA). The 1988 constitution was rewritten as part of a regime change (from a USA-supported military dictatorship to its present-day democracy). From what I understand, every time the Brazilian constitution was written or rewritten was due to a regime change. I believe the current USA constitution is also from the last time its regime changed, so there's not much difference in that aspect.