THE PORTUGUESE CROWN AND BRAZIL. TOBACCO CULTIVATION, ASIA AND THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE, AND THE ATLANTIC AND GLOBAL ECONOMY, C. 1674 TO 1776葡萄牙王室和巴西：煙草的種植、亞洲及非洲的奴隸買賣，以及1674至1776年間大西洋和全球經濟
The article analyzes how the Portuguese royal monopoly and trade of an American commodity—Brazilian tobacco—integrated, between approximately 1674 and 1776, the Atlantic and Indo-Atlantic circuits of the global economy, articulating Portuguese America with Africa and Asia. The central thesis holds t...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
January 2008
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40025/3671 |
| Summary: | The article analyzes how the Portuguese royal monopoly and trade of an American commodity—Brazilian tobacco—integrated, between approximately 1674 and 1776, the Atlantic and Indo-Atlantic circuits of the global economy, articulating Portuguese America with Africa and Asia. The central thesis holds that, after an initial phase of failed attempts at commercial control, the Crown's fiscal reorganization in the post-1640 context transformed tobacco into a key instrument for sustaining imperial finances, while simultaneously connecting the production and circulation of commodities with the African slave trade and with the commercial relations of the State of India.
Methodologically, the text employs a historiographical approach and the history of commodity economics, framing the "commoditization" of tobacco within long-term intercontinental exchanges, with attention to the interaction between maritime routes, markets, and cultural mediations. It is argued that the diffusion of tobacco in Asia—made possible by Portuguese networks and facilitated by local practices such as the habit of chewing betel—created a vast space of consumption that enabled the Crown to expand revenues and control channels of supply. The article concludes that the case of tobacco demonstrates how royal monopolies functioned as infrastructures of integration between colonial ecosystems, fueling the emerging global economy and reinforcing Africa's role as a platform for the mobilization of labor for the Americas. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |