Sorocaba 7.38

Sorocaba is a municipality in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Sorocaba is the eighth-largest city in the state of São Paulo. Outside the Greater São Paulo region, it ranks behind only Campinas, São José dos Campos and Ribeirão Preto. It is part of the Metropolitan Region of Sorocaba. The population is 644,919 (2015 est.) in an area of 450.38 km2.Over the past twelve years the city has been undergoing extensive urbanization projects, improving streets and avenues, as well as infrastructure for the traffic which the city receives every day.It is the eighth and fourth municipality in the consumer market in the state outside the Greater São Paulo metropolitan area, with a potential annual per capita consumption estimated at $2,400 for the urban population and $917 for rural areas (7200 people) and twenty-ninth-largest city in Brazil with potential for consumption. Still, it is the fourth-largest city of the state to receive new investments and one of the largest in the country, figuring in the list of 30 cities that create more jobs in Brazil.HistoryDom Francisco de Sousa, general governor of Brazil (1591 to 1602), believing in the existence of gold in the region, settled the Pelourinho—a Portuguese translation of the English "pillory", symbol of the Royal power, as the village Nova Vila de Nossa Senhora da Ponte de Mont Serrat. When gold wasn't found there, the governor returned to the Royal Court. Twelve years later, Dom Francisco de Sousa changed the name of the village to Itavuvu.