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Fiscal Policy and Royal Sovereignty in Minas Gerais: The Capitation Tax of 1735

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Robert Allan White
Robert Allan White*
Affiliation:
Amherst, Massachusetts
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Extract

A study of the capitation tax of 1735 in Minas Gerais is interesting since it illustrates the way in which the Crown of Portugal succeeded in enforcing its will through the machinery of colonial administration in a newly incorporated, frontier society. It also tells something about the men of that administration and the political process in which they were involved.

The collection of the tax on mineral wealth known as the quinto was one of the most enduring problems confronting Crown officials in Brazil during the eighteenth century. The king permitted his subjects to mine precious metals in his dominions in return for the payment of one fifth of the annual production. Rich alluvial gold deposits discovered in the closing years of the seventeenth century, lay beyond the territory effectively controlled by the governors of the littoral captaincies. Hidden in the shadows of Sabarabuçú, the shining mountain of Indian legends, the isolation of the mines and the tenuous control of the region by the royal administration made collection of the tax haphazard. As the eighteenth century progressed, the production of the gold mines increased, however the king's share failed to grow accordingly. The need for added revenue and the realization that the full amount due the Crown was not arriving at the customs house in Lisbon convinced the king that payment of the quinto should be rigorously enforced.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , October 1977 , pp. 207 - 229
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1977

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References

1 The best treatment of the history of the whole mining cycle in Brazil is the unpublished Ph.D. dissertation by Soares Cardozo, Manoel da Silveira “A History of Mining in Colonial Brazil, 1500–1750,” Stanford, 1939.Google Scholar The extraction of the quinto is described on page 259.

2 Cardozo, , “Alguns subsídios para a história da cobrança do quinto na capitanía de Minas Gerais até 1735,” I Congresso da Expansão Portuguesa no Mundo, 3 (Lisbon, 1937); 19–21.Google Scholar

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7 Grande Enciclopédia Portuguesa e Brasileira, 30 vols., (Lisbon, 1945), XII, 105.

8 Souza, Antônio Caetano História Genealógica da Casa Real Poitugueza, desde a sua origem até o presente com as famílias illustres, que procedem dos reys, e dos serenissimos duques de Bragança, 18 vols. (Lisbon, 1748; 2nd. ed., 1953), V, 507.Google Scholar

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22 Ibid., 366–67.

23 “Projeto de capitação,” AGTM, II (1), 57.

24 Ibid., 60.

25 Manuel Caetano Lopes de Lavre, secretary of the Overseas Council, believed the amount would exceed Gusmão’s estimate by more than 281,000 cruzados. A former governor of Minas Gerais, the Conde de Assumar, estimated the amount would exceed 310,000 cruzados. For Lopes de Lavre’s calculation see Cardozo, , “History of Mining,” 444–45Google Scholar; for the Conde de Assumar’s, see “Parecer … sôbre o projeto de capitação. 21 de setembro de 1733,” AGTM, V, 502–16.

26 “Projeto de capitação,” AGTM, II (1), 60–61.

27 Ibid., 82–104.

28 Ibid., 63–66.

29 de Gusmão, Alexandre “Reparos sôbre a disposião da Lei de 3 de Dezembro de 1750, a respeito do novo método da cobrança do quinto do ouro nas Minas Gerais, pelo quai se aboliu o da capitação. 19 de dezembro de 1750,” AGTM, 2 (1), 238.Google Scholar

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32 Gomes Freire de Andrada to Diogo de Mendonça Corte Real, February 16, 1734, ANRJ, 80, VI, 17.

33 Francisco Pereira da Costa, João Soares Tavares, and two other unnamed “ministers” were sent as intendants for the capitation tax. Cardozo, , “History of Mining,” 452–53.Google Scholar

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36 Martinho de Mendonça de Pina e de Proença to Gomes Freiré de Andrada, January 30, 1734, ANRJ, 87, Χ, 123.

37 “Regimentó ou Instrução,” Arquivo Público Mineiro, Seção Capitanía, II, 102–06.

38 Ibid., 105.

39 Ibid., 106.

40 AGTM, I (1), 370.

41 Ibid.

42 Gomes Freire de Andrada to the Conde de Sabugosa, February 20, 1734, ANRJ, 84, V, 52v–53v. In another letter to the Conde de Sarzedas, governor of São Paulo, February 20, 1734, he wrote: “The junta which is to deal with the method of capitations in Villa Rica has still not met and I hear that the new method has strong opponents in all those interested in the mint because it is essential to conserve the present system by maintaining that institution. May God will that His Majesty’s wishes prevail for I am persuaded that the contrary will result.” ANRJ, 84, V, 53v–54v.

43 Idem to Antonio Pedro de Vasconcelos, governor of Colônia, February 20, 1734, ANRJ, 84, V, 47.

44 Idem to the governor of Pernambuco, April 5, 1734, ANRJ, 84, V, 66–68.

45 Idem to the Conde de Sabugosa, March 29, 1734, ANRJ, 84, V, 63–63v.

46 Idem to the Conde de Sabugosa, March 30, 1734, ANRJ, 84, V, 65–66.

47 Ibid.

48 Cardozo, , “History of Mining,” 450.Google Scholar

49 Charles Boxer gives the slave population of Mariana in 1735 as 26,892, and that of Vila Rica as 20,863. From the Códice Costa Matoso, fôlhas 181–87, of the Biblioteca Municipal de São Paulo, and reproduced in The Golden Age of Brazil, 1695–1750. Growing Pains of a Colonial Society, (Berkeley, 1969) 341.

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52 Martinho de Mendonça de Pina e de Proença to Gomes Freire de Andrada, October 19, 1734, AGTM, II (2), 134–38.

53 Idem to the king, Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, I (1896), 655–56.

54 Vasconcelos, , “Minas e quinto de ouro,” 884–85.Google Scholar

55 Gomes Freire de Andrada to the governor of Pernambuco, April 5, 1734, ANRJ, 84, V, 68.

56 Idem to the Conde de Sabugosa, April 10, 1734, ANRJ, 84, V, 68–69.

57 He made this portentious remark in a letter to Antônio Pedro de Vasconcelos, governor of Colônia, June 11, 1734, ANRJ, 84, V, 87–88: “Martinho de Mendonça continues to work with great zeal, activity and success in the service of our Lord, and without doubt the quinto of Minas are like the straw baskets of the Minho. Only abolition of them will provide a certain method of avoiding fraud.”

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60 Carta régia, July 18, 1734, AGTM, II (1), 137.

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64 Gomes Freire de Andrada to the governor of Pernambuco, December 23, 1734, ANRJ, 84, V, 134.

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67 Martinho de Mendonça de Pina e de Proença to the king, Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, I (1896), 660.

68 Southey, Robert, History of Brazil, 3 vols., (London, 1817–21) III, 268–70.Google Scholar

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70 Gomes Freire de Andrada to the Conde de Sabugosa, March 11, 1735, ANRJ, 84, V, 171–72.

71 Azevedo Pizarro, José de Souza e Araújo, , Memórias Históricas do Rio de Janeiro, 10 vols. (Rio de Janeiro, 1945–51). 4, 238.Google Scholar

72 “Termo de Posse do Ex.mo Sr. Gen.al Gomes Fr.e de Andrada,” Arquivo Público Mineiro, Seção Capitanía, XXV, 3.

73 “Termo que fes no Pallacio do Ex.mo Sr. Gen.al Gomes Fr.e de Andrada adonde forão convocados os Procuradores das cámaras destas V. as das Minas por ordem do Mesmo Ex.mo Sr. Governador, para votarem s.e o modo melhor para aumentarse o Real Quinto de S. Mg.e sem prejuizo do mesmo Quinto e do Povo.” Arquivo Público Mineiro, Seção Capitanía, XXIV, 29.

74 Report of the Conde das Galvéias to the king. Cardozo, , “Alguns subsídios,” 30–31.Google Scholar

75 Martinho de Mendonça de Pina e de Proença to Gomes Freire de Andrada, September 24, 1734, AGTM, II (2), 130–33.

76 Ibid.

77 Conde de Sabugosa to Martinho de Mendonça de Pina e de Proença, August 12, 1734, AGTM, II (2), 127–29.

78 Martinho de Mendonça de Pina e de Proença to Diogo de Mendonça Corte Real, December 23, 1737, Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, I (1896), 664.

79 Idem to Gomes Freire de Andrada, September 24, 1734, AGTM, II (2), 131.

80 Idem to Diogo Mendonça Corte Real, December 23, 1737.

81 The vintém was worth twenty réis, thus, with the oitava valued at 1,520 réis, the tax per slave was 3,280 réis. “Regimento da Capitação,” Vila Rica, July 2, 1734, Arquivo Público Mineiro, Seção Capitania, I, 106–10.

82 Martinho de Mendonça de Pina e de Proença to Gomes Freire de Andrada, June 7, 1734, AGTM, II (2), 124.

83 “Regimento da Capitação,” 108.

84 José da Silva Pais to Gomes Freire de Andrada, July 13, 1735, ANRJ, 84, V, 201v.

85 “Termo de posse,” Arquivo Público Mineiro, Seção Capitania, XXV, 3.

86 Martinho de Mendonça de Pina e de Proença to Diogo de Mendonça Corte Real, October 2, 1737, Revista do Arquivo Púlico Mineiro, I (1896), 658.

87 Ibid., 660.

88 Ibid., 664.

89 Ibid., 670.

90 Related in several letters from Martinho de Mendonça de Pina e de Proença in Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, I (1896), 649–63.

91 Revista do Arquivo Público Mineiro, I (1896), 660.

92 Ibid., 670–71.

93 Cardozo, , “History of Mining,” 469.Google Scholar An arroba contains 4,096 oitavas. The oitava under the capitation tax system was valued at 1,520 réis. The arroba thus was worth 6,225,920 réis or 15,564.80 cruzados (one cruzado equals 400 réis). The largest shipment of gold under the capitation tax, i.e., the 291 arrobas of 1739, valued then at 4,529,356.80 cruzados.

94 Gomes Fveire de Andrada to Cardeal da Mota, September 14, 1743, AGTM, V, 522–26.

95 Gusmão, , “Reparos,” AGTM 2 (1), 235–36.Google Scholar

96 Cardozo, , “History of Mining,” 471.Google Scholar

97 Gomes Freire de Andrada to Cardeal da Mota, September 14, 1743, and idem to Frei Gaspar da Encarnação, August 30, 1748, AGTM, V, 522–31.

98 AGTM, II (1), 228–29.