 Initially the organ functioned as a distribution attached to the Secretariat of State for the Business of the Empire, becoming autonomous in 1840.However, it occupied the secretarial building until 1854, when it was transferred to the upper floor of the Convent of Santo Antônio.In 1860, decree n. 2,541 reformed the institution, maintaining the same division of the sections, however, detailing a little more the attributions of each one.