An Asian Presence in the Atlantic Bullion Carrying Trade, 1710-50
2001; Modern Humanities Research Association; Volume: 17; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/port.2001.0018
ISSN2222-4270
Autores Tópico(s)Colonialism, slavery, and trade
ResumoAnAsianPresence intheAtlantic BullionCarrying Trade, 1710-50 A. J. R. RUSSELL-WOOD The eighteenth century saw theconsummation oftheshift inimportance from Eastto WestinthePortuguese empire. Fromtheperspective ofthe centre, namely Lisbon,oneperiphery was replacedbyanother interms of itsimportance tothemetropolis. Thiswasdescribed inthepithy comment of a Franciscan friar writing in Salvadorin 1702: 'A India Orientalhá muitos anosqueporpecadose injustiças já nãoé India:O Brasil, pelacana, pelosbizalhosde diamantes que embarcaemmilhares de caixastodosos anos, é a verdadeiraIndia e Mina dos portugueses'.1 That thiswas inevitable was alreadyapparentin the secondhalfof the seventeenth century andreceived greater impetus bygoldstrikes inthe1690sinBrazil, goldrushes inseriatum during thefirst third oftheeighteenth century, and 'discovery' of diamondsin the1720s.Unlikehis predecessors who had sought invainfora Brazilian counterpart tothecargoesofAmerican silver beingunloadedin the Guadalquivirin the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, DomJoãoVcouldwatch from hispalaceinLisbontheunloading ofAmerican treasures - goldanddiamonds from Brazil.2 Portugal was dependent on thesea fortheformation andconsolidation ofwhatCharlesR. Boxerdescribed as a 'seaborneempire'.Currents and tradewindsintheAtlantic andmonsoonal systems inoceansandseaseast of theCape of Good Hope dictatedtherhythm of empireas could no humanagent.3The mainstays of Portuguese maritime tradewere the carreira da Indiabetween LisbonandGoa andCochin,withMozambique islandas a portof call and withconnections eastwardsfromGoa to Malacca, Macao, Japan,and theMoluccasand Bandas,and thecarreira do Brasil betweenLisbon (less frequently Oporto and Setúbal) and 1FrAntóniodo Rosário,Frutasdo Brasilnumanova,e asceticaMonarchial(Lisbon:Antonio PedrosoGalram, 1702),citedby Diogo Ramada Curto,'As práticasde escrita'in Historiada expansão portuguesa, ed. byFranciscoBethencourt and KirtiChaudhuri,5 vols (Lisbon:Círculo de Leitores.iqq8). hl 421. 2 VirgílioNoya Pinto,O ouro brasileiroe o comércioanglo-português (São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional/MEC, 1979); and the revisisionist studyby Michel Morineau, Incroyables métaux:Les retours destrésors américaines d'aprèslesgazetteshollandaises,XVle-XVllle siècles (Cambridge:CambridgeUniversity Press,1985),pp. 120-217. JA. J.R. RussellWood ,Portugaland theSea: A WorldLmbraced(Lisbon: Assino öc Aivim, i998),'pp. 51-55. THE ATLANTIC BULLION CARRYING TRADE, 17IO-5O I49 Brazilian ports ofSalvadorandRiodeJaneiro primarily andPernambuco.4 Carreiras adaptedto changing conditions, responded to forces ofsupply anddemand,and developednewfeeder routes.In theeighteenth century vesselsfrom Brazilto Portugal tookon a new roleas majorcarriers of bullion. This did notmeanthedemiseof theCape route.Sincethesixteenth century therehad beena Braziliancomponent to thecarreira da India. Outward-bound Indiamen from LisbontoGoa andCochinandhomewardboundhad occasionally putintoBrazilianports.The eighteenth century witnessed anincrease inthispractice byhomeward-bound nausfrom Goa, andevenoccasionally thoseoriginating inMacao. Suchvessels usually left Salvadorto arrivein Lisbonin Octoberor January.5 These calls were discouraged bya kingsceptical ofcaptains'allegations ofimpending doom ortheneedforprovisioning ormedicalassistance, andwhobelieved such stopovers tobemotivated bytheincentive forprofits derived from thesale oforiental goodsand theopportunity to load Braziliancommodities for legalor illegalsale in Lisbon.Calls at Brazilianportsmetwithgreater official tolerance andevenapprovalas theeighteenth century progressed, andthesecondhalfofthecentury sawvessels boundforGoa withsoldiers regularly stopping at Salvador.Salvadorrather thanRio de Janeiroor other Brazilian ports waspreferred for callsbyhomeward-bound Indiamen, althougha caveat is in orderbecause some made theirfirst Brazilian landfall inRio deJaneiro andthencontinued toSalvadorbefore crossing theAtlantic to Lisbon.This also appliedto carrackshomeward-bound from Macao. One suchwas theSantaAna whoserouteincluded callsat Luanda,RiodeJaneiro andSalvadorbefore reaching theTagusinOctober of1714.6 Butmany Indiamen returning toLisbonmadeSalvadortheir only portofcall in Brazil.Customarily suchIndiamenwereaccompaniedto Lisbonbya convoyofvesselsfrom Salvador,whichmight beenlarged by vesselsfrom Rio de Janeiro and,morerarely, Pernambuco. Forexample, in 1735thefrigate Nossa Senhoradas Ondas,almiranta oftheRio fleet, 4 C. R. Boxer, The PortugueseSeaborne Empire,1415-1825 (London: Hutchinson,1969), pp. 205-27; From Lisbon to Goa, 1500-1750. Studies in PortugueseMaritime Enterprise (Aldershot andBrookfield: Ashgate, 1984).See also Ernestine Carreira, 'Os últimos anosda carreirada India', in A carreirada India e as rotas dos estreitos.Actas do VIU Seminário Internacional de HistóriaIndo-Portuguesa (Angrado Heroísmo,1998),pp. 809-34. C. R. Boxer, 'ThePrincipal Ports ofCallofthe"Carreira da India"', inLesgrandes escales, lerne partie: Lestemps modernes, Recueils dela Société Jean Bodinpourl'histoire comparative des institutions, xxxm (Brussels: Editions de la Librairie Encyclopédique, 1972),especially pp.49-64; on schedules see Frédéric Mauro,Le Portugal et l'Atlantique au XVlle siècle (1S70-1670). Etude économiaue (Paris: SEVPEN,i960)andNovaPinto, pp.m-84. Arquivo daCasadaMoeda,Lisbon (hereafter ACML),vol.1681. 150 A. J. R. RUSSELL-WOOD cameto Salvadorto accompany homeward-bound Indiamen and arrived inLisbonon 19November 1735.7 Despite attackson Portuguese overseascities,towns and fortsby Europeans, especially theDutchandEnglish, andbynon-Europeans from East Africa to thewestcoastofIndia,intheseventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in1700there was stilla Portuguese presence intheAzores, Cape Verdesand Madeira,in Brazil,in...
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