COMMERCIAL ACTIVITIES DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD IN GOIÁS - BRAZIL

Atividades comerciais durante o período colonial em Goiás - Brasil

Actividades comerciales durante el período colonial en Goiás - Brasil

The economic and urban history of the state of Goiás begins with gold and everything that the exploitation of the metal represented. This first cycle commenced in the 1720s, with the arrival ofthe Bandeirantes and the official occupation of the territory, and extended, roughly, until 1820, when gold extraction was no longer an economically viable option.

During the first century of Goiás’ socioeconomic history, which was marked by the extractive economy, it is difficult to write about the existence of any other structuredeconomic activities. This is due to the almost complete absence of services such as education, health, and communications, and transformation activities of raw materials, as well as the limited agricultural activity developedin the Captaincy. As explained by Palacin (1972), Alencastre (1979) and Furtado (2004), the high profitability of mining, especially during the initial phases, concentrated all the available resources in mining activities,thus inhibiting the development of other productive undertakings. 1 However, mercantile trade was always present and, to a greater or lesser extent, contributedto the productive dynamics of the captaincy. The objective of this geographic, historical article is to discuss the development of commercial activities in Goiás in the context of the colonial economy.

In the first instance, the research methodology is based on a bibliographical survey on the historical geographic formation of Goiás; the classic contributions of Palacin (1976), Salles (1992),Palacin et al. (1995) and Bertran (1978, 2010) are noteworthy as their research is based on primary documentary sources. After this, the focus was on documentary research using the databasesof the Historical Geographical Institute of Goiás (IHGG), and the Ultramarinho Historical Archive of Lisbon (AHU). The documents analyzed are fiscal reports of the local colonial administration, which, although limitedin terms of the methodology of the data collection, definitions of terms and time gaps, provided important records about the julgados (jurisdictions ) in Goiás, allowing the delineation of hypotheses about the dynamics of mercantile activity carried outin the period.

The historiographical records of Goiás indicate that mercantile activities followed mining activities during the colonial period. The document Notícia Geral da Capitania de Goiás de 1783 (BERTRAN, 2010), describes a commercial exchange carried out in the year 1726.

After six months of Journey, they arrived at the plateau where the Arraial de Ouro Fino is now, and a few days later Antônio Ferraz de Araújo arrived, who was one of the most challengeda second entrance, leading forty pigs, with which later he installed at Cabasacus, and sold them for a pound of gold each. With his arrival, Captain Mor sent him to examine the Ribeirão, that today is the Rio Vermelho until he found some land where his father had planted crops for 40 years. (BERTRAN, 2010, page 48)

Salles (1992, p. 110) emphasizes that this fact does not illustrate the trade that should emerge with the mining activities and the implementation of the royal administration in the captaincy. Instead,"it was an occasional and irregular exchange, which, however, would often repeat itself throughout colonial history." The historian goes on to highlight that "the initial stage of mercantile life in the regionwas based on anomie and improvisation until the first access routes to the population center of Sant'Ana outlined the norms of the system" (p. 110).

The Arraial de Sant'Ana, now the city of Goiás, was established by Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva in 1727. Fromthat time, the nuclei of settlements multiplied in the vast region of Minas dos Goyazes2 . Figure 1 shows the location and the foundation year of the mining centers in Goiás during the eighteenth century.

Figure 1
Arraiais do Ouro, Captaincy of Goiás, eighteenth century

As can be observed in Figure 1 and is also evidenced by Gomes et al. (2004), one of the main aspects of mining settlements were their ad hoc and irregular character, which was due to the very nature of colonial mining activities, as Furtado (2004: p. 82) explains:

[...] the mining company did not allow connections to the land of the type that prevailed in the sugar regions. Fixed capital was reduced since a mine’s lifespanwas always uncertain. The company was organized so that it could remove itself in a relatively short time.

The panning of alluvial gold predominated in Goiás, with the main extraction centers located near the riverbanks. According to Palacin (1976), the presence of water and gold were enough for campsto be set up throughout the immense territory of the Minas dos Goyazes.

Palacin et al. (1995, p. 32) point out that the formation of the gold Arraiais "brought a new form of settlement to colonial Brazil: an urban settlement." By nature, this occupancy profile generates consumption demands, either for primary-need items or complementaryarticles. The new settlement profile allowed the emergence of trade flows determined by the logic of the society that was engendered there. As Palacin et al. (1995: p. 37) explain:

The human concentration and preponderance of the mining activity, together with the long distances from other centers, led, for the first time in Goiás, to the formation of an internal market,which bought and sold horses, animals, and cattle, besides trading other products, such as food and manufactured goods.

On the predominance of mining activity and the dependence on external supplies, D'Alincourt (1975, p. 113), in his passage through Goias in 1818, recorded that:

[...] the first discoverers, eager for this precious metal, covered a large part of the country where they found rich discoveries, and without looking to the future, tied themselves to them.There they founded their works and judging perhaps that the sources of gold were inexhaustible, they were utterly contemptuous of agriculture, and with the same ease with which they extracted the gold, they passed it on toother hands, in exchange for the goods they needed.

In order to prove the "urban character" of the population of Goiás during the colonial period, Palacin et al. (1995) draw attention to the number of commercial establishments paying the Capitação tax in the years 1736 and 1742 3 . Table 1 shows that in those years, there were already more than 300 establishments distributed in Goiás’ settlements.

Table 1
Establishments recorded for payment of the capitação tax, Minas dos Goyazes, 1736 - 1742

The number of establishments is very expressive, considering that the population estimates for the period were of 15,000 inhabitants, in 1736, and 20,000 inhabitants, in 1742. 4This represents an average of one establishment for every 45 inhabitants in 1736, and one establishment for every 56 inhabitants in 1742, "a proportion found only in urban concentrations at the time" (PALACIN et al., 1995, p. 39 ).

According to Palacin et al. (1995), in general, the stores sold everyday staples, all in the same establishment. Salles (1992) points out that they sold mainly wheatflour, ointments, fabrics such as baize, burlap, velvet, linen, tow, lace, blankets, satin, other fabrics, sewing thread, ribbons, braid, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, guns, gunpowder, lead, agricultural implements, wine,locks, wire sieves, and artist’s paint. In the stores and taverns, there was a small trade in beverages and basic arable produce such as maize, cassava, rice, beans, and castor beans. 5Therefore, it is possible to deduce that the classification presented by the official documents (Table 1), was more related to the size of the inventories at the time of the inspection than to the specialization of the commercialestablishments.

Even with the conceptual limitation of the documents, it is possible to measure at least the minimum amount of commercial establishments existing at the time, as shown in Table 2, which displays the numberof these establishments of the Intendencies of Vila Boa and Tocantins, which left the Capitação during the first and second registrations between 1738 and 1751.

Table 2
Commercial Establishments of the Intendencies of Vila Boa and Tocantins, Captaincy of Goyaz, from 1738 to 1751, the 1 and 2 registrations of the Capitação Tax¹

In the document analyzed it is not possible to identify the criteria used to classify the establishments in the four typologies presented. For the creation of the table, the denominations in the documentswere used.

The reading of Tables 1 and 2 suggests that the commercial activities practiced during the period were unstable. This is evidenced by the differences between the number of establishments existing duringthe first and second registrations and by the positive or negative variations between the years. Three factors, or their sum, are believed to be associated with this instability. The first is related to the link between tradeand mining. Thus, the mercantile flow depended directly on the discovery of new sites and the level of production of the mines. This relation explains the higher number of establishments until the first registration of 1741,a period rich in discoveries (see Figure 01).

It was also during this period that the highest number of large or 1st class stores is observed. At the Intendancy of Vila Boa, on the occasion of the 2nd registration of 1741, therewere a total of 24 establishments of this size;14 in Vila Boa itself, 8 in Crixás and 2 in Meia Ponte. As stated by Palacin (1976), from that period there was a decline in new gold finds and, between 1745 and 1750,only three important arraiais were formed: Carmo (1746), Santa Luzia (1746) and Cocal (1749), after which they almost wholly died out.

Figure 2, shows that from 1753, the year in which the collection of tributes on the exploration of the gold reached its highest point, 40 arrobas, there was a downward trend in the fiscal revenues from mining.

Figure 2
Collection of taxes on gold extraction, Captaincy of Goiás. 1736 to 1822

The decline became more pronounced in the 1770s, and by the end of the colonial period, the contribution of mining to the public coffers was so trifling that it did not even cover the maintenance costsof the foundry houses where gold was cast.

In addition to affecting colonial revenues, the fall in productivity also undermined the trade dynamics. Based on a documentary source from 1763, Palacin et al. (1995) record the manifest decline of the municipal "aferição" tax paid by stores when their systems of weights and measures wereinspected. In Vila Boa, the tax fell from "1,250 and 1,280 octaves in 1752 and 1753 to 709 octaves in 1760 and 1761." As the authors point out, "the crisis of urban life, which was brought about by the falling-offof mining, was already clearly announced in Vila Boa" (p. 53).

Figure 3, which demonstrates the decrease in tax collection, suggests that from the 1780s, trade in imported goods in the captaincy declined considerably.

Figure 3
Income from Tax collection, Captaincy of Goiás, 1762-1807.

Figure 4, based on the information available in the document Notícia Geral da Capitania de Goiás em 1783 6 , corroborates the previous statement because it is possible to verify that in 1783 commerce in Goiás was carried out predominantly by stores and taverns. This proves the stronger link of commerce with the internal production of the captaincy, which, due to the reduction of mining activities, began to develop.

It is important to note that, though Bertran (2010) registers the increase in the absolute number of establishments, relative to the population, there was a decrease. The average number of inhabitants per establishment, which was 43:1 in 1736, rose in 1783 to 116:1.

Figure 4 also verifies the privileged situation of the capital Vila Boa concerning commerce, due to its administrative function, and of the Arraiais of Meia Ponte and Santa Luzia, which were located at the path junctions, which facilitated the reception of marketable goods.

Figure 4
Commerce by categories, Captaincy of Goiás, 1783

The second explanation for the instability of trade can be attributed to supply problems. Although very active in the initial years, commerce in Goiás was predominantly based on the importationof goods from the coastal captaincies. On this, Chaim (1975: p. 61) writes:

[...] in Brazil, the gold mines were a kind of colony within the colony, the territory was economically dependent on the producers and traders of Bahia, Rio, and São Paulo, since the miningterritories were devoted almost exclusively to the production of gold. Effort was not diverted to the production of other goods, which could be imported from the other captaincies.

The long distances from the supply centers, coupled with the inherent difficulties of the paths, hindered the arrival of tradable goods. According to Funes (1986), it took around eight months to travelthe route from Rio de Janeiro to Vila Boa. This could lead to some commercial houses closing their activities for a few months of the year due to lack of goods. This hypothesis explains, for example, the fluctuations betweenthe number of establishments in the same year. In 1741, there was a difference of 82 establishments between the first and the second matriculation.

As can be seen in Tables 1 and 2, on the whole, there is a higher number of establishments in the second registration, in the second half of the year, coinciding with the peak of the dry season in thecentral-western region of Brazil, which facilitated the arrival of products to supply the stores. Although well after a year than the data of in the tables, the record left by Saint-Hilaire, when passing through a farm betweenArraial of Meia Ponte and Arraial of Jaraguá in mid-June of 1819, corroborates this observation.

I asked my host whether there had been many mule trains coming from Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and Sao Paulo that year. He replied that he had not yet seen any, and that, in general, they only beganto arrive after the Feast of St. John, since, understandably, they could never set out before the end of the rainy season (SAINT-HILAIRE, 1975, p. 42).

The third factor related to the oscillations in the numbers of establishments until 1751, was the practice of tax evasion, indicating that possibly, the actual number of trading houses was higher thanthat given in Mapas de Rendimento da Real Capitação. As Salles points out (1992, p. 113):

The unjust discrimination [In Goias, the rates of Capitação were higher than in other Captaincies] led the settler to reimburse himself throughevasion and smuggling. In the North and Northeast goldfields, illicit commerce might be more profitable than legally installed establishments.

Later, Salles (1992, p. 114) explains that "it is still probable that the Capitação tax exerted a certain influence, forcing the gradual closure ofthe less solid commercial firms."

Gumiero (1991), gathers data from the examination of documents from the Archive of the Bandeiras Museum, in the City of Goiás, recording that the main products entering the Captaincy of Goiásbetween 1761 and 1799 were: sea salt, fresh and dry goods, cheese, gunpowder, lead, tobacco, cotton, slaves, spades, wine, dried meats and fish, soap, horses, oxen, wax, hardware, copper, nails, flour and iron. The authoralso indicates that Goiás’ leading suppliers were São Paulo, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais.

The data collected by Gumiero (1991) is noteworthy, as can be seen in Chart 1, where the number of salt shipments received at the end of the eighteenth century can be verified:

Chart 1
Products imported by the Captaincy of Goiás, 1761 -1799.

The data on salt imports suggest that at the end of the eighteenth century, cattle raising was a vigorous activity in the economy of Goiás. A comparison of Table 01 with Figure 04, which showsthe predominance of establishments trading in local goods in 1783, indicates that it is no exaggeration to affirm that cattle-raising had substituted gold as the motor for the maintenance, although in a smaller volume, ofthe import trade in the captaincy. Data from 1804, drawn up by Funes (1986), show that cattle accounted for 37% of Goiás exports in the North and 11% of the South. According to Campos (1982, p. 132-133), the importanceof cattle raising for Goiás is undeniable because after the fall of gold production it avoided the complete depopulation and economic bankruptcy of Goiás and functioned as an element of fixation of people andthe occupation of new parcels of the territory of Goiás.

Besides supplying miners, traders played a fundamental role in the circulation of the gold produced in the mines. As Palacin (1976: p. 60) points out:

The miner extracted the gold and could use it as currency in the territory of the mines, as other currencies were forbidden, and gold powder was the only currency in circulation. As soon as hedecided to withdraw his gold to other captaincies, he was forced to cast it and pay the quinto. [...] but this was a rare case. Buying everything on credit, over long periods, at very high prices, all his gold would immediately end up in the hands of merchants, and it was they who channeledthe gold from the mines to the outside and should, therefore, pay the corresponding quinto.

Although the law prohibited the use of gold powder as a currency in Goiás from the beginning of the colonial period until the first two decades of the nineteenth century, because of the negligiblevolumes of external trade, gold powder was the settlers’ currency.

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, trade in Goiás was all supplied by tropeiros (muleteers). As Palacin et al. (1995: p. 127) explain:

The tropeiros were transport entrepreneurs, indispensable for the export and import trade. They also acted as messengers, transmitters of personal news and newsthat they saw and heard in other parts of the country. They often became traders and acted as intermediaries in sending and withdrawing gold, at a time when there were no banks in the region.

Saint-Hilaire (1979, p. 41), in his journey through Minas Gerais in 1818, gives a detailed description of the tropeiros’ operations:

Tropeiros are the men who lead the caravans of mules destined to undertake these and similar trips. The considerable packs are divided into groups of seven animals, each entrusted to the custodyof a negro or mulatto who, walking behind the beasts of burden in his charge, drives them using shouts or whistles. Each beast carries eight arrobas (about 120 kilos), and so as not to hurt them, they are loaded with the utmostcare. On arriving at a ranch, each caravan takes its place; the animals are quickly unloaded, and the goods are sorted in order. Each animal receives its corn ration and is led to the pasture; the saddles are organized, andthe nails are straightened for the smithy. Meanwhile, the youngest tropeiro fetches water and firewood, lights the fire, sets up three sticks above it, binds them, and suspends a cauldron on the tripod, where he cooks theblack beans for the evening meal and the lunch the next day. The tropeiros from the various caravans approach each other, start talking, report their travels and love affairs, and sometimes one of them enchants the work ofthe neighbors playing the guitar and singing some of the Brazilian arias that have so much grace and sweetness. Everything is orderly, they rarely argue, and speak to each other with a delicacy unfamiliar in Europe among lower-classmen. The next day they get up very early; They give the mules a fresh corn ration. Leaving the ranch, they greet the tropeiros who are still there; they make another trek of three or four leagues and arrive at another station by two or three in the afternoon.

The work of the tropeiros played an essential role in the integration between the coast and the interior of Brazil. As Furtado points out (2004, p. 84):

The mule train was an authentic infrastructure of the whole system. The almost total absence of local food supplies, the long distances overland that all imported goods traveled, and the need toovercome long treks in the mountainous region to reach the workplaces all contributed to the transport system playing a fundamental role in the functioning of the economy, creating a large market for livestock.

According to Chaim (1975), large areas of Brazil, from the sertões of Maranhão and Piauí to the plains of Rio Grande do Sul, underwent a massivehitherto unknown commercial upheaval. "All the producing centers of this area increased their productive capacity to supply the mining regions" (page 61) 7.Furtado also writes about this (2004, p. 83):

if the demand for cattle for slaughter and mules for transportation are considered together, in the eighteenth century the mining economy was a market of greater proportions than the one that hadserved the sugar economy in its stage of maximum prosperity.

The action of the tropeiros also had repercussions in the spatial formation of Goiás. Cunha Matos (1875, p. 87) states that the settlements of Ouro Fino and Ferreirolost their importance after the tropeiros started to use the road called Picada do Correio de Goiás, eliminating the two camps from the transportation route. Gomes et al. (2004, p. 87) point out that the tropeiros stopping points were a considerable urbanization factor in Goiás, as they emerged along the paths and, dependingon the frequency of the mule trains, "soon evolved into a small agglomeration, with some typical services of a small urban agglomeration: a small business and entertainment for the tropeiros and travelers." In this sense, the authors note:

Several cities were born of these movements of men and mule trains: Três Ranchos, which later became a registry or fiscal post, under the name of Mano de Pau, Campo Alegre de Goiás,Damianópolis and Mambai, at the foot of the Serra Geral of Goias. This tropeiro route from Bahia, Itaberaí, the old Curralinho, that sheltered the first mule trains that penetratedin Goiás, only in the eighteenth century, Ituaçu, along the GO-070 highway, Palmelo, Varjão, Sanclerlândia and, the most charming name among them, Pouso Alto, renamed, also charmingly, Piracanjuba.(page 87)

The privileged economic situation of Meia Ponte at the end of the eighteenth century arose from it being the resupply point of the tropeiros who came from Cuiabá and followed to Bahia and São Paulo. This also influenced the development of agriculture in the region (D'ALINCOURT, 1975).

With the decrease of mining activities, there was also a reduction in the movement of tropeiros. Table 3 gives an example of the reduction in the number of tropeiros who passed through the count at São João das Três Barras between 1788 and 1818.

Table 3
Movement of tropeiros at the entrances, in milreis, count of São João das Três Barras

The long distances and the transport structure influenced the charges set by traders. Palacin and Morais (1989, p. 22) highlight that initially "the prices of everything were extraordinarily highsince the mines produced nothing and the distances from Rio, Bahia and Sao Paulo were so long for imported goods, and the interest charged by the traders was extremely high." D'Alincourt's account (1975: p. 110)on passing through Goias during his voyage from the port of Santos to the city of Cuiabá in 1818, illustrates this statement:

[...] Agriculture was entirely neglected, and only the sutlers, who were still were coming from S. Paulo, made considerable reliable profits. They were the masters of taxing the goods, and at thattime the prices rose sharply. Suffice it to say, that the basket of flour cost ten, and eleven gold octaves, of grain six, seven; the first port, sold for eighty, and cow’s milk for two pounds of gold. Despite theseprices there was still hunger because there were many people, and the tropeiros could not carry enough: the men were only thirsty for gold, walking around as though stunned, and did not givea second thought to their real interests, faithfully depositing a large part of the wealth they obtained with excessive work, into the hands that provided them, without much cost to life’s indispensables.

A comparative table of the values of some goods traded in Goiás between 1736 and 1786, taken from Salles (1992, p. 121), gives an idea of the high prices charged in the early years of mining:

Table 4
Prices in the commerce of the Captaincy of Goiás in 1736 and 1786

The fall in the prices of the items shown in table 4, as indicated by Salles (1992, p. 123):

suggests that the lack of gold aroused an interest in agriculture and livestock, increasing the production of certain goods, such as beans, livestock, and chickens, and lowering their value, theharvest periods during the good years also forced the decline in prices.

Funes (1986) states that the decline in mining and the high cost of food products triggered a process of occupation of the areas near the mining centers:

At a time when gold ceased to be the base product of the economy of Goiás, the people who did not leave the province went to the countryside, where they began to dedicate themselves to farmingand cattle raising. (p.95).8

Bertran (1978) estimates that at the end of the 1770s, agriculture was already responsible for 30% of Goiás’ income, while mining still represented 50% and the import trade, so active inprevious years, accounted for the remaining 20%.

Palacin et al. (1995) point out that, due to the high prices charged by merchants, especially in the early years of mining, trade represented an important means of accumulatingcapital in the nascent captaincy. To illustrate the argument, the authors quote from the French traveler Ferdinand Denis, who passed through Brazil between 1816 and 1819:

The affluence was such that after two years, that a kind of hunger was declared, and the food provisions from São Paulo were insufficient. Then what had happened in America was repeatedin all the mining regions. The settlers who had apparently followed the slower path to riches were precisely the ones who walked more directly to fortune. (Denis, 1980, pp. 345, Palacin et al., 1995, p. 138)

The Entrance tax also contributed to the high cost of the goods. The excerpt from a taxation contract gives an account of some of the sums collected during the passage of the goods in the records:

Subject to the condition that the contractor shall be entitled to all the rights paid in the paths of Rio de Janeiro, Parati, São Paulo, Sertão da Bahia, and Pernambuco, and likewiseshall be entitled to the said rights of any other routes that are currently open, or may be opened in the time of the contract. The contractor may charge for each male and female slave passing through the register two octaves, and for each head of cattle an octave, and for each horse or other mule beast that enter without a load, withouta saddle, bare and not mounted, two octaves, and for each dry fabric load weighing two arrobas an octave and a half and for each wet fabric load will pay half an octave. [emphasis added]

Contract of the Entrance of the mines, Rio de Janeiro, Biblioteca Nacional, Goiás cód. 19.2.8, p. 2, In: PALACÍN et al., 1995, p. 153.

The high prices charged also resulted in sales on credit, "a damaging resource that stimulated the increased price of products" (SALLES, 1992, p 123).

Indirectly, tithing, a tax levied on agricultural production, also discouraged the development of agriculture and, consequently, the production of surpluses in quantities that would make it possible toreduce prices and increase the supply of marketable products.

In addition to the above factors, the restrictive laws imposed on the Captaincy contributed to the high value of the goods, since they made it hard to concentrate marketable surpluses. Among them, theroyal letter of January 10, 1730, which determined that there was only one way into to Goiás, and next, the prohibition of navigation by the river Tocantins, only revoked in 1782. Also, the law of 1732, which establishedthe prohibition of sugar mills and the destruction of sugarcane plantations existing in the Captaincy. These factors influenced the reduction in the availability of local goods for commercialization during the colonial periodin Goiás

he various considerations presented in this article lead us to conclude that, during the mining cycle in Goiás, commercial activities, based predominantly on the importation of goods, were developedthanks to the surplus of capital generated by gold. Although these activities emerged as subsidiaries to mineral production, during the eighteenth century, they were essential mechanisms of capital accumulation, mainly dueto their capillarity and to the high prices practiced by merchants during the period.

Internal or export trade during the first colonial decades in Goiás was small, mainly due to the excessive attention given to the development of mining activities and the consequent reductionin agricultural, livestock and manufacturing production in the territory. The captaincy was heavily dependent on supplies from other regions in the colony, mainly of the captaincies of São Paulo, Bahia, Rio de Janeiro, and Minas Gerais.

The decline of mining activities, especially from the second half of the eighteenth century, led to a drop in the capital in circulation, thus causing a reduction in imports. This decrease, coupled with the incipient structuring of subsistence agriculture and allied with the captaincy’s geographic isolation, was notimmediately able to move the export trade by promoting the involution of mercantile exchanges in the captaincy. However, commercial activities continued by focusing on the more structured urban centers and graduallyincorporating the goods from local production into the range of goods offered.