Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-r5fsc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T16:21:07.711Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Rise of the Brazilian Cotton Trade in Britain during the Industrial Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2018

THALES A. ZAMBERLAN PEREIRA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When and why did Brazilian cotton become important to the Industrial Revolution in Britain? Between 1791 and 1801, Brazilian cotton represented 40 per cent of raw cotton imports in Liverpool, rivalling those from the West Indies. Using archival data between 1760 and 1808, this paper shows that Brazil benefitted from increasing British demand for a new variety of cotton staple that emerged with mechanised textile production. Previous explanations for the rise of Brazilian cotton trade attributed it to the revolutions in the Caribbean in the 1790s, and the American War of Independence, which ended in 1783. Evidence, however, suggests that these explanations are incomplete or incorrect. The United States did not export cotton to Britain before 1790, and British imports from the West Indies did not fall after the revolutions.

Spanish abstract

¿Cuándo y por qué el algodón brasileño se volvió importante en la Revolución Industrial en Gran Bretaña? Entre 1791 y 1801, el algodón brasileño representó el 40 por ciento de las importaciones de algodón en bruto en Liverpool, rivalizando con las Indias Occidentales. Utilizando datos de archivo del periodo 1760–1808, este artículo muestra que Brasil se benefició de la creciente demanda británica de una nueva variedad de planta de algodón que emergió con la producción textil mecanizada. Explicaciones anteriores sobre el incremento del algodón brasileño lo atribuyen a las revoluciones en el Caribe de los años 1790s, y la Guerra de Independencia Americana, que terminó en 1783. Las evidencias, sin embargo, sugieren que esas explicaciones son incompletas o erróneas. Los Estados Unidos no exportaron algodón a Gran Bretaña antes de 1790, y las importaciones británicas desde las Indias Occidentales no decayeron tras las revoluciones.

Portuguese abstract

Quando e por que o algodão brasileiro se tornou importante para a Revolução Industrial na Grã Bretanha? Entre 1791 e 1801, o algodão brasileiro representava 40 por cento do total das importações de algodão bruto em Liverpool, competindo com as Índias Ocidentais. Através do uso de dados de arquivo entre 1760 e 1808, este artigo demonstra que o Brasil se beneficiou da crescente demanda britânica por uma nova variedade de fibra de algodão que surgiu com a produção têxtil mecanizada. Explicações anteriores sobre o aumento do comércio de algodão do Brasil atribuíam tal aumento às revoluções no Caribe nos anos 1790 e à Guerra da Independência Americana, que terminou em 1783. No entanto, evidências sugerem que tais explicações são incompletas ou incorretas. Os Estados Unidos não exportaram algodão para a Grã-Bretanha antes de 1790, e as importações britânicas oriundas das Índias Ocidentais não diminuíram após as revoluções.

Keywords

cotton tradecolonial BrazilIndustrial RevolutionSouth American tradecomercio de algodónBrasil colonialRevolución Industrialcomercio sudamericanocomércio de algodãoBrasil colonialRevolução Industrialcomércio sul-americano
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , November 2018 , pp. 919 - 949
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

For their suggestions I am indebted to Renato Colistete, Kara Dimitruk, Robert Greenhill, Knick Harley, Anton Howes, Alejandra Irigoin, Rafael Marquese, John Styles, William Summerhill, André Villela, and participants in seminars at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP), the University of California Los Angeles, Oxford, the Institute of Historical Research, and the Britain and Brazil Conference at the University of London, Institute of Latin American Studies. The research was funded by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de São Paulo (Foundation for the Support of Research in São Paulo, FAPESP).

References

1 Beckert, Sven, Empire of Cotton: A Global History, 1st edn (New York: Knopf, 2014)Google Scholar.

2 Ashton, T. S., The Industrial Revolution 1760–1830 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 60Google Scholar; Harley, C. Knick, ‘Was Technological Change in the Early Industrial Revolution Schumpeterian? Evidence of Cotton Textile Profitability’, Explorations in Economic History, 49: 4 (Oct. 2012), pp. 516–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Broadberry, Stephen and Gupta, Bishnupriya, ‘Lancashire, India, and Shifting Competitive Advantage in Cotton Textiles, 1700–1850: The Neglected Role of Factor Prices’, The Economic History Review, 62: 2 (May 2009), pp. 279–305CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Price, Jacob M., ‘What Did Merchants Do? Reflections on British Overseas Trade, 1660–1790’, The Journal of Economic History, 49: 2 (June 1989), pp. 267–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Lakwete, Angela, Inventing the Cotton Gin: Machine and Myth in Antebellum America (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005)Google Scholar.

5 Benedict, C. R., Kohel, R. J. and Lewis, H. L., ‘Cotton Fiber Quality’, in Smith, C. Wayne and Cothren, J. Tom (eds.), Cotton: Origin, History, Technology, and Production, 1st edn (New York: Wiley, 1999), pp. 269–87Google Scholar.

6 Manchester, Alan Krebs, British Preeminence in Brazil: Its Rise and Decline: A Study in European Expansion (New York: Octagon Books, 1964)Google Scholar; Platt, D. C. M., Latin America and British Trade, 1806–1914: The Merchant Adventurers (London: Harper and Row, 1973)Google Scholar.

7 Simonsen, Roberto, História econômica do Brasil (1500/1820) (Rio de Janeiro: Brasiliana, 1967; 1st edn 1937)Google Scholar; Prado, Caio Jr., Formação do Brasil contemporâneo (Place: Editora Brasiliense, 1948; 1st edn 1942)Google Scholar.

8 Simonsen, História econômica do Brasil (1500/1820), pp. 369–70.

9 Disney, A. R., A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire: From Beginnings to 1807, Vol. 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 283Google Scholar; Novais, Fernando A., Portugal e Brasil na crise do antigo sistema colonial (1777–1808) (São Paulo: Editora HUCITEC, 1979), p. 189Google Scholar.

10 The British Newspaper Archive (hereafter TBNA), ‘To Be Sold, by Auction’, Manchester Mercury, 13 March 1787, no. 1866, p. 4; ‘Cotton Business’, Manchester Mercury, 28 Dec. 1790, no. 2064, p. 1.

11 Silva, Andrée M., ‘Imperial Re-Organization, 1750–1808’, in Bethell, Leslie (ed.), Colonial Brazil (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987), p. 270Google Scholar; Dias, Manuel Nunes, A Companhia Geral do Grão Pará e Maranhão (1755–1778) (São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo, Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, 1971), p. 372Google Scholar; Boxer, Charles Ralph, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415–1825 (London: Hutchinson, 1969), p. 206Google Scholar; de Mello, Evaldo Cabral, A outra independência: O federalismo pernambucano de 1817 a 1824 (São Paulo: Editora 34, 2004), p. 58Google Scholar; Eisenberg, Peter L., The Sugar Industry in Pernambuco: Modernization without Change, 1840–1910 (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1974)Google Scholar; de Arruda, José Jobson Andrade, ‘O algodão brasileiro na época da revolução industrial’, América Latina en la Historia Económica, 23: 2 (May 2016), pp. 167–203CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

12 Chapman, Sydney John, The Lancashire Cotton Industry: A Study in Economic Development (Manchester: University Press, 1904), p. 143Google Scholar; Ellison, Thomas, The Cotton Trade of Great Britain: Including a History of the Liverpool Cotton Market and of the Liverpool Cotton Brokers’ Association (London: Effingham Wilson, 1886), p. 81Google Scholar; Donnell, E. J., Chronological and Statistical History of Cotton (New York: J. Stutton and Co., Printers, 1872), p. 49Google Scholar.

13 Prado Jr., Formação do Brasil contemporâneo, p. 125.

14 For the relation between consumer preferences and the new British products at the time, see Berg, Maxine, ‘From Imitation to Invention: Creating Commodities in Eighteenth-Century Britain’, The Economic History Review, 55: 1 (2002), pp. 1–30, doi: 10.1111/1468-0289.00212CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Riello, Giorgio, Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 154CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Styles, John, ‘Fashion, Textiles and the Origins of Industrial Revolution’, East Asian Journal of British History, 5 (March 2016), pp. 161–89Google Scholar; Mokyr, Joel, The Enlightened Economy: Britain and the Industrial Revolution, 1700–1850 (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 2011), p. 143Google Scholar; Chapman, S. D., ‘Quantity versus Quality in the British Industrial Revolution: The Case of Printed Textiles’, Northern History, 21: 1 (Jan. 1985), p. 182, doi: 10.1179/007817285790176156CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Harley, C. Knick, ‘Cotton Textile Prices and the Industrial Revolution’, The Economic History Review, 51: 1 (1998), pp. 49–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

17 The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA), ref. CUST 3: ‘Ledgers of Imports and Exports’ (82 volumes), 1697–1780.

18 TNA, ref. CUST 17: ‘States of Navigation, Commerce and Revenue’ (30 volumes), 1772–1808.

19 Imlah, Albert H., ‘Real Values in British Foreign Trade, 1798–1853’, The Journal of Economic History, 8: 2 (Nov. 1948), pp. 133–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Ellison, The Cotton Trade of Great Britain, p. 15.

21 Wadsworth, Alfred P. and de Lacy Mann, Julia, The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1965), p. 521Google Scholar.

22 Crafts, N. F. R., British Economic Growth during the Industrial Revolution (Oxford: Clarendon, 1985)Google Scholar; McCloskey, D. N., ‘The Industrial Revolution 1780–1860: A Survey’, in Floud, Roderick and McCloskey, D. N. (eds.), The Economic History of Britain since 1700, Vol. 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 114Google Scholar.

23 Wadsworth and Mann, The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780, p. 523.

24 Styles, ‘Fashion, Textiles and the Origins of Industrial Revolution’, p. 185.

25 Wadsworth and Mann, The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780, p. 191. Demands for raw cotton constituted one of several petitions regarding trade that led to the Free Port Acts. For a detailed discussion see Armytage, Frances, The Free Port System in the British West Indies: A Study in Commercial Policy, 1766–1822 (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1953), pp. 28–32Google Scholar.

26 14 Geo. 3, c. 72, in A Collection of all the Statutes now in Force, Relating to the Duties of Excise in England (London: Charles Eyre and Andrew Strahan, Printers to the King, 1792), p. 588Google Scholar; O'Brien, Patrick, Griffiths, Trevor and Hunt, Philip, ‘Political Components of the Industrial Revolution: Parliament and the English Cotton Textile Industry, 1660–1774’, The Economic History Review, 44: 3 (1991), p. 415, doi: 10.2307/2597536CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

27 Riello, Cotton, p. 153.

28 Edwards, Michael M., The Growth of the British Cotton Trade, 1780–1815 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1967), p. 42Google Scholar; Allen, Robert C., The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective, 1st edn (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009), p. 34CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

29 Styles, ‘Fashion, Textiles and the Origins of Industrial Revolution’, pp. 181–3; Lindert, Peter H. and Williamson, Jeffrey G., Unequal Gains: American Growth and Inequality since 1700 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2016)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 Inikori, Joseph E. and Engerman, Stanley L., The Atlantic Slave Trade: Effects on Economies, Societies and Peoples in Africa, the Americas, and Europe (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992), p. 165CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 TNA, ref. T 64/275/143: Treasury. Miscellaneous Records. Trade Returns. Textiles. ‘1767 Xmas–1777 Xmas Quantity of Cotton Wool of Foreign Growth Imported each Year, under Countries’. 9 Feb. 1779.

32 TNA, ref. T 64/275/142: Treasury. Miscellaneous Records. Trade Returns. Textiles. ‘1767 Xmas–1777 Xmas Quantity of Cotton Wool Imported from British Colonies’. 9 Feb. 1779.

33 TNA, ref. SP 89/49/54: State Paper Office. 10 June 1753, fol. 109.

34 TNA, ref. SP 89/67/7: State Paper Office. 14 Jan. 1769.

35 de Andrade Arruda, José Jobson, O Brasil no comércio colonial (São Paulo: Editora Atica, 1980), p. 615Google Scholar; Viveiros, Jerônimo de, História do comércio do Maranhão, Vol. 1 (São Luís: Associação Comercial Maranhão, 1954)Google Scholar; Marques, Cesar Augusto, Diccionario historico-geographico da provincia do Maranhão (Maranhão: Typ. do Frias, 1870)Google Scholar, http://www2.senado.leg.br/bdsf/handle/id/221726 (last access 6 March 2018).

36 da Câmara, Manuel Arruda, Memoria sobre a cultura dos algodoeiros e sobre o methodo de o escolher, e ensacar (Lisbon: Officina da Casa Litteraria, 1799), p. 7Google Scholar.

37 Smithers, Henry, Liverpool, Its Commerce, Statistics, and Institutions: With a History of the Cotton Trade (Liverpool: T. Kaye, 1825)Google Scholar; Baines, Edward, History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain (London: R. Fisher and P. Jackson, 1835)Google Scholar; Branner, John, Cotton in the Empire of Brazil; the Antiquity, Methods and Extent of Its Cultivation, Together with Statistics of Exportation and Home Consumption (Washington, DC: US Department of Agriculture, 1885)Google Scholar. Branner cites Lyman, Joseph, Cotton Culture with an Additional Chapter on Cotton Seed and its Uses, by J. R. Sypher (New York: Orange Judd and Co., 1868)Google Scholar.

38 Smithers, Liverpool, Its Commerce, Statistics, and Institutions, p. 155.

39 Shillington, Violet Mary and Chapman, Annie Beatrice Wallis, The Commercial Relations of England and Portugal (London: G. Routledge and Sons, 1907)Google Scholar.

40 Lang, James, Portuguese Brazil: The King's Plantation (New York: Academic Press, 1979), p. 163Google Scholar.

41 TNA, ref. CUST 3: ‘Ledgers of Imports and Exports’.

42 TNA, ref. T 64/275/143: ‘1767 Xmas–1777 Xmas Quantity of Cotton Wool of Foreign Growth Imported Each Year’.

43 TNA, ref. SP 89/77/24: State Paper Office. 4 July 1774.

44 TBNA, ‘Further Extract from Memorials of the British Consul and Factory at Lisbon’, The Caledonian Mercury, 13 Dec. 1766, no. 6927.

45 Riello, Cotton; Styles, ‘Fashion, Textiles and the Origins of Industrial Revolution’, p. 177.

46 Wadsworth and Mann, The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780, pp. 185; 189; Mackenzie, Charles, Facts, Relative to the Present State of the British Cotton Colonies: And to the Connection of Their Interests with Those of the Mother Country (Edinburgh: T. Bryce and Co., 1811), p. 18Google Scholar.

47 Lakwete, Inventing the Cotton Gin, pp. 2–3.

48 Donnell, Chronological and Statistical History of Cotton, p. 44.

49 Ibid., p. 53.

50 In 1776, because of smuggling, Portugal's de facto leader the Marquês de Pombal issued an edict banning the vessels from English colonies from docking at Brazilian ports: Novais, Portugal e Brasil na crise do antigo sistema colonial (1777–1808), p. 177.

51 Contemporary reports show contraband between the West Indies and Brazil: The Times Digital Archive 1785–2012 (www.gale.com; subscription only), hereafter TDA, ‘The Island of Martinique’, The Times, 2 May 1794, no. 2978, p. 3.

52 Coatsworth, John H., ‘American Trade with European Colonies in the Caribbean and South America, 1790–1812’, The William and Mary Quarterly, 24: 2 (April 1967), p. 243, doi: 10.2307/1920838CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

53 Ellison, The Cotton Trade of Great Britain, p. 22; Edwards, Bryan, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British West Indies, Vol. 2, 5th edn (London: G. and W. B. Whittaker, 1819), p. 316Google Scholar.

54 Baines, Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain, p. 311.

55 Macpherson, David and Anderson, Adam, Annals of Commerce, Manufactures, Fisheries, and Navigation, with Brief Notices of the Arts and Sciences Connected with Them., 4 vols., Vol. 4 (London: Nichols, 1805)Google Scholar.

56 The John Rylands Library, Manchester, Wadsworth Manuscripts, ‘Messrs Cardwell, Birley and Hornby: Stock and Ledger Books’, Stock book 1 (1768–1792), Eng MS 1199.

57 Smithers, Liverpool, Its Commerce, Statistics, and Institutions, p. 123.

58 Edwards, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British West Indies, p. 317.

59 TNA, ref. BT 6/140: Board of Trade. Miscellanea. Cotton. 1787–92, fol. 35.

60 Lakwete, Inventing the Cotton Gin.

61 Edwards, Bryan, Broughton, Arthur and Young, William, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British Colonies in the West Indies, Vol. 2 (London: Printed for John Stockdale, Piccadilly, 1801), p. 310Google Scholar. This is a new edition of Edwards, The History, Civil and Commercial, of the British West Indies (1819), which was cited in note 53.

62 de Sá Bettencourt, José, Memoria sobre a plantação dos algodões, e sua exportação; sobre a decadencia de lavoura de mandiocas, no termo da villa de Camamú, comarca dos Ilhéos, governo da Bahia, appresentada, e offerecida a sua alteza real o Principe do Brazil nosso senhor ([Lisbon]: Na Officina de Simão Thaddeo Ferreira, 1798), pp. 29–33Google Scholar.

63 On ‘Maranhão cotton’, Gossypium de Lin (also a barbadense variety), see Câmara, Memoria sobre a cultura dos algodoeiros, p. 29; Royle, John Forbes, On the Culture and Commerce of Cotton in India and Elsewhere; with an Account of the Experiments Made by the Hon. East India Company up to the Present Time (London: Smith, Elder, 1851), p. 151CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

64 de Souza Gayoso, Raimundo José, Compendio historico-politico dos principios da lavoura do Maranhão (Paris: Officina de P.-N. Rougeron, 1818), p. 266Google Scholar.

65 Rees, Abraham, ‘Cotton’, in The Cyclopædia; Or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and Literature (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1819), vol. 10Google Scholar.

66 For an early typology of cotton varieties, see de la Platière, Roland, Encyclopédie méthodique: Manufactures, arts et métiers (Paris: Panckoucke, Libraire, 1785), p. 214Google Scholar.

67 TNA, ref. BT 6/140: Board of Trade. Miscellanea. Cotton. 1787–92, fol. 34.

68 Wadsworth and Mann, The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780, p. 185.

69 Ibid.

70 Câmara, Memoria sobre a cultura dos algodoeiros, p. 15.

71 Ibid.; for other descriptions of Maranhão's cotton quality, see Dias, A Companhia Geral do Grão Pará e Maranhão (1755–1778), p. 372; de Assis Leal Mesquita, Francisco, Vida e morte da economia algodoeira do Maranhão: Uma análise das relações de produção na cultura do algodão, 1850/1890 (São Luís: Universidade Federal do Maranhão, 1987)Google Scholar.

72 Butterworth, James, A Complete History of the Cotton Trade: Including Also, that of the Silk, Calico-Printing, & Hat Manufactories; with Remarks on Their Progress in Bolton, Bury, Stockport, Blackburn, and Wigan, to Which Is Added, an Account of the Chief Mart of These Goods, the Town of Manchester (Manchester: C. W. Leake, 1823), p. 51Google Scholar. Georgia was the most common variety as early as 1795, but its resulting fabric was considered ‘not wholly satisfactory’: Daniels, G. W., ‘American Cotton Trade with Liverpool under the Embargo and Non-Intercourse Acts’, The American Historical Review, 21: 2 (Jan. 1916), p. 276, doi: 10.2307/1835050CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

73 Antônio Bernardino Pereira do Lago, Estatística histórico-geográfica da província do Maranhão (São Paulo: Editora Siciliano, 1822), p. 42Google Scholar. The same argument was made by Gayoso, a cotton planter in Maranhão, in 1813: Gayoso, Compendio historico-politico dos principios da lavoura do Maranhão.

74 de Andrade Arruda, José Jobson, Uma colônia entre dois impérios: A abertura dos portos brasileiros 1800–1808 (Bauru (SP): Cátedra Jaime Cortesão, 2008), p. 157Google Scholar.

75 Hunt, Roger, Observations upon Brazil Cotton Wool for the Information of the Planter, and with a View to Its Improvement (London: Steel, Printer, 1808), p. 3Google Scholar.

76 Woodhouse, Thomas, Yarn Counts and Calculations (London: H. Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton, 1921)Google Scholar.

77 Brooks, C. P., Cotton Manufacturing, 3rd edn (London: Blackburn, 1892)Google Scholar. A hank is 840 yards (770 m) in length.

78 Allen, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective, p. 184.

79 Chapman, Stanley D., The Cotton Industry in the Industrial Revolution (London: Macmillan, 1972), p. 29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

80 Mann, James A., The Cotton Trade of Great Britain: Its Rise, Progress and Present Extent (London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1860)Google Scholar.

81 Harley, ‘Cotton Textile Prices and the Industrial Revolution’, p. 50.

82 Chapman, ‘Quantity versus Quality in the British Industrial Revolution’; Edwards, The Growth of the British Cotton Trade, 1780–1815, p. 39.

83 O'Brien, Griffiths and Hunt, ‘Political Components of the Industrial Revolution’, p. 396.

84 TNA, ref. BT 6/140: Board of Trade. Miscellanea. Cotton. 1787–92.

85 Harley, ‘Cotton Textile Prices and the Industrial Revolution’, p. 58.

86 The remainder was used in candle wick production.

87 TNA, ref. BT 6/140: Board of Trade. Miscellanea. Cotton: ‘An Important Crisis in the Cotton Manufactory of Great Britain Explained’, 1787–92.

88 Rees, ‘Cotton’.

89 TNA, ref. BT 6/140: Board of Trade. Miscellanea. Cotton: ‘An Important Crisis in the Cotton Manufactory of Great Britain Explained’, 1787–92.

90 Ibid.

91 Beckert, Empire of Cotton, Chapter 4.

92 Allen, The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective, p. 187; Porter, George Richardson, The Progress of the Nation (London: C. Knight and Co., 1836), p. 213Google Scholar.

93 Baines, History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain, p. 311; Donnell, Chronological and Statistical History of Cotton, p. 68.

94 Royle, On the Culture and Commerce of Cotton in India and Elsewhere, p. 129.

95 Lazonick, William, ‘Factor Costs and the Diffusion of Ring Spinning in Britain Prior to World War I’, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 96: 1 (1981), p. 95, doi: 10.2307/2936142CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

96 Fisher, Harold E. S., The Portugal Trade: A Study of Anglo-Portuguese Commerce, 1700–1770 (London: Methuen, 1971)Google Scholar.

97 TNA, ref. BT 6/63: Board of Trade. Miscellanea. Portugal: Trade with Great Britain. 1770–91.

98 For a detailed account of the treaty, see: Costa, Leonor Freire, Cardoso, José Luís and Monteiro, Nuno Gonçalo, O Tratado de Methuen (1703): Diplomacia, guerra, política e economia (Lisboa: Livros Horizonte, 2003)Google Scholar.

99 Ehrman, John, The British Government and Commercial Negotiations with Europe 1783–1793 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), p. 9Google Scholar.

100 Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415–1825, p. 181; Maxwell, Kenneth, Pombal, Paradox of the Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 60Google Scholar.

101 Francis, Alan David, Portugal 1715–1808: Joanine, Pombaline and Rococo Portugal as Seen by British Diplomats and Traders (London: Tamesis, 1985), p. 173Google Scholar.

102 Carreira, António, A Companhia Geral do Grão-Pará e Maranhão. Vol. 1: O comércio monopolista, Portugal–Africa–Brasil na segunda metade do século XVIII (São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional, 1988)Google Scholar.

103 Branner, Cotton in the Empire of Brazil, p. 17.

104 Dauril Alden, ‘Late Colonial Brazil, 1750–1808’, in Bethell (ed.), Colonial Brazil, p. 310; Alencastro, Luiz Felipe, O trato dos viventes (São Paulo: Companhia das Letras, 2000), p. 142Google Scholar.

105 ‘The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database’, http://www.slavevoyages.org/.

106 Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Lisbon), ‘Ofício do Governador e Capitão do Maranhão e Piauí, D. Diogo de Sousa para o Secretário de Estado da Marinha e Ultramar, D. Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho’ (São Luís do Maranhão, Abril 1799). Ref.: AHU_CU_009, Cx. 104, D. 8313.

107 Pedreira, Jorge M., ‘From Growth to Collapse: Portugal, Brazil, and the Breakdown of the Old Colonial System (1760–1830)’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 80: 4 (Nov. 2000), pp. 839–64, doi: 10.1215/00182168-80-4-839CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dias, A Companhia Geral do Grão Pará e Maranhão (1755–1778), p. 373.

108 For the relation between the treaty and the ‘wool interest’, see Duguid, Paul, ‘The Making of Methuen: The Commercial Treaty in the English Imagination’, Revista da Faculdade de Letras. História, 3: 4 (2003), p. 28Google Scholar.

109 Maxwell, Kenneth, Conflicts and Conspiracies: Brazil and Portugal, 1750–1808 (London: Routledge, 2004), p. 45CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

110 TNA, ref. CUST 17: ‘States of Navigation, Commerce and Revenue’.

111 TBNA, ‘The Memorial of Francis Ibbetson’, The Caledonian Mercury, 23 Sept. 1767, no. 7048.

112 TNA, ref. BT 6/63: Board of Trade. Miscellanea. Portugal: Trade with Great Britain.

113 Ludington, Charles, The Politics of Wine in Britain: A New Cultural History (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013), p. 167CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

114 TDA, ‘The Following Is an Authentic ABSTRACT of the TREATY of NAVIGATION and COMMERCE, Signed at Paris on the 26th Ult.’, The Times, 5 Oct. 1786, no. 547.

115 TDA, ‘Universal Register’, The Times, 20 Oct. 1786, no. 560, p. 2.

116 TDA, ‘Mr. Eden Has Been More Negligent, and Less Informed, in the Affair of the Commercial Treaty’, The Times, 7 Dec. 1786, no. 565.

117 TDA, ‘House of Lords’, The Times, 1 March 1787, no. 688, p. 2.

118 Ehrman, The British Government and Commercial Negotiations with Europe 1783–1793, p. 73.

119 TDA, ‘Portugal’, The Times, 30 Sept. 1788, no. 1132, p. 2.

120 Ehrman, The British Government and Commercial Negotiations with Europe 1783–1793, p. 151.

121 Maxwell, Conflicts and Conspiracies, p. 50.

122 O'Rourke, Kevin H., ‘The Worldwide Economic Impact of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793–1815’, Journal of Global History, 1: 1 (2006), pp. 123–49CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Robson, Martin, Britain, Portugal and South America in the Napoleonic Wars: Alliances and Diplomacy in Economic Maritime Conflict (London: I. B. Tauris, 2011)Google Scholar.

123 ‘State of Public Affaire, Commons Sitting’ (20 June 1805), Hansard, http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/ commons/1805/jun/20/state-of-public-affaire (last access 6 March 2018).

124 Alden, ‘Late Colonial Brazil, 1750–1808’, p. 322.

125 de Macedo, Jorge Borges, O bloqueio continental: Economia e guerra peninsular (Lisbon: Gradiva, 1990), p. 56Google Scholar.

126 Eltis, David, ‘The Slave Economies of the Caribbean: Structure, Performance, Evolution and Significance’, in Knight, Franklin W. (ed.), General History of the Caribbean (Paris: UNESCO, 1997), p. 114Google Scholar. Coffee and rum represented 18 per cent each.

127 Pearce, Adrian J., British Trade with Spanish America, 1763–1808 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2007), p. 41Google Scholar.

128 Ibid.

129 Duffy, Michael, ‘The French Revolution and British Attitudes to the West Indian Colonies’, in Gaspar, David Barry and Geggus, David Patrick (eds.), A Turbulent Time: The French Revolution and the Greater Caribbean (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 78–101Google Scholar.

130 For the French economy at the time, Dubois, Laurent, A Colony of Citizens: Revolution & Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787–1804, 1st edn (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2004), pp. 50Google Scholar and 53.

131 Ibid., p. 228.

132 Edwards, The Growth of the British Cotton Trade, 1780–1815, p. 75.

133 TNA, ref. BT 6/140: Board of Trade. Miscellanea. Cotton. 1787–92, fol. 17.

134 Tobago: under Britain (until 1781), then under France (until 1814); Cayenne and Saint Domingue: under France; Berbice, Surinam and Demerara: under the Netherlands.

135 TNA, ref. BT 6/140: Board of Trade. Miscellanea. Cotton. 1787–92, fol. 17.

136 Wadsworth and Mann, The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, 1600–1780, p. 523.

137 TNA, ref. BT 6/140: Board of Trade. Miscellanea. Cotton. 1787–92, fol. 16.

138 Saunders, Gail, Slavery in the Bahamas, 1648–1838 (Swanley: D. Gail Saunders, 2000), p. 23Google Scholar; see also Edwards, The Growth of the British Cotton Trade, 1780–1815, p. 76.

139 TNA, ref. CO 37/40/21: Colonial Office, 5 Feb. 1787.

140 Duffy, ‘The French Revolution and British Attitudes to the West Indian Colonies’, pp. 78–80.

141 Dubois, A Colony of Citizens, p. 115.

142 TNA, ref. CUST 17: ‘States of Navigation, Commerce and Revenue’.

143 Ibid.

144 Burnard, Trevor, Planters, Merchants, and Slaves: Plantation Societies in British America, 1650–1820 (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2015), p. 125CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

145 Mackenzie, Facts, Relative to the Present State of the British Cotton Colonies, p. 17.

146 Bolingbroke, Henry, A Voyage to the Demerary, Containing a Statistical Account of the Settlements there, and of those on the Essequebo, the Berbice, and Other Contiguous Rivers of Guyana (London: R. Phillips, 1807), p. 140CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

147 Dubois, A Colony of Citizens, p. 224.

148 Beckert, Empire of Cotton.