 Other gold circulated illegally, and still other gold remained in the colony to adorn churches and for other uses.The municipality of Ouro Preto became the most populous city of Latin America, counting on about 40 thousand people in 1730 and, decades after, 80 thousand.At that time, the population of New York was less than half of that number of inhabitants and the population of São Paulo did not surpass 8 thousand.