“Pura ambição de negócio”: Negócios, dívidas e propriedades na praça comercial de São Luís (c.1810- c.1840)

Abstract

The first years of the 19th century were marked by the strengthening of businessman in Maranhão. However, the province went through troubled times between its adherence to the Porto Revolution, in 182l, and its “adherence” to the Independence of Brazil, in 1823. The strong opposition of Portuguese businessmen to the project of political separation from Portugal and the change in the province's political order, undermined the power achieved by these figures related to trade. The intention was to retake the spaces of economic and political influence that had been weakened after Maranhão's “adherence” to Independence. Therefore, the objective of this research is to analyze the commercial square of São Luís in the first decades of the 19th century, based on the list of 47 subscribing businessmen who exhibited support, in 1825, to the then president of the province Pedro José da Costa Barros and who called themselves “main part of the Commerce Corps of this square”. The research period aims to encompass the period of greatest activity of these traders in Maranhão, marked by their arrival in the commercial square, still in the beginning of the 19th century, and their deaths from the 1830s and 1840s. Thereby, the purpose is understanding the commercial and family networks built by these men both in Maranhão and around the Atlantic. In addition, an analysis will also be made of the fortunes accumulated by businessmen and the importance of credit in their commercial and personal relationships, which had as their starting point the commercial square of São Luís. Aspects that allow identifying the particularities of mercantile relations in Maranhão in the first half of the 19th century. Among them, their settlement in the province, their most strong relations with Portugal than whith Rio de Janeiro and the mercantile nature of their fortunes.