with the booming coffee sector in the Paraíba valley just to the north of Rio de Janeiro city. Coffee exports quadrupled during the 1820s and doubled again between 1829 and 1835." "The economic boom strengthened the position of the national government, increasing its revenues and its ability to secure loans." Feijo's Nativists allied with minor parties and remnants of other factions in opposition to the new government. These shared no common principles or ideology. "They were a pragmatic alliance involving everyone from republican radicals to moderate reformists to liberal monarchists to former restorationists." This group would evolve during the 1840s into the second "Liberal Party". Fearful that their adversaries would perpetuate themselves in power the Liberals began to call for a lowering of the age at which Pedro II would attain majority. They saw an opportunity to regain influence by doing away with the regency and instead dealing directly with a pliable young emperor. "Without experience, he might be manipulated by whoever brought him to power." Towards that end they allied themselves with a new and powerful political faction known as "The Courtier Faction" led by Aureliano de Sousa Oliveira Coutinho (later the Viscount of Sepetiba) who was one Feijó's supporters in the 30 July 1832 failed coup. The Courtier Faction had been formed by politicians and high-ranking servants in the Imperial Palace who were close to the young emperor. Consolidation The Courtier Faction and Pedro II's early majority The Coimbra bloc was not opposed to lowering the age of majority for the emperor but they demanded that any change should be made through legal means i.e. a constitutional amendment. After their experience of the perils and obstacles of government, the political figures – from both the Conservative and Liberal Parties – who had arisen during the 1830s became wary of taking on a greater role in ruling the nation. They looked to the Emperor as providing a fundamental and useful source of authority essential both for governing and for national survival. It was an ironic turn: the same politicians who opposed Pedro I for being a central figure in politics were now trying to put his son in that same position. Unlike the conservatives, however, the liberals were less scrupulous and with popular support and after pressuring the regent to accept the loss of his position declared Pedro II of age on 23 July 1840. This outcome was predictable