Guerra Dos Mascates

“THE PEDDLER’S WAR” (1711-1712) CAN BE EXPLAINED BY EXAMINING THE VARIOUS EXTERNAL FACTORS THAT INFLUENCED 18TH CENTURY PERNAMBUCO

Recife and Olinda, Pernambuco

Portugal’s Decision on the Political Status of Recife

Recife was an appendage of Olinda, existing without any municipal council or the status of township

Merchants excluded from gaining representation

November 19, 1709 Recife becomes a township, Governor of Pernambuco, Castro e Caldes, is left to settle its boundaries

“It could hardly have been done otherwise, since the port now had a population variously estimated at anything between ten and sixteen thousand souls, and was undeniably of much greater demographic and economic importance than the thinly populated and half-ruined city on the neighboring hills” (Boxer 111)

Social Stigma Against “New Christians” “Trade is only sustained

by the merchants of the Hebrew caste who illustrated it thanks to their skills. Without them the whole trade would have been lost and destroyed, because the noble Old Christians don’t like to be merchants, and when they are they don’t have the skills of those from the Hebrew caste.”

-Duarte Gomes Solis

“ She likewise took in some Salt-meats…upon which we lost a great deal in the exchange,* by reason that the Go∣vernour having prohibited the Inhabi∣tants to trade with us, and taking upon him to be the sole Seller and Buyer, we were oblig'd to afford our Commodities at a cheaper rate than they bear in Europe; which sufficiently shows the sinister Practices of that Nation, of whom three quarters are originally Jews.

-Siuer Froger

Economic Factors Cause Hostility

Volatile sugar economy, which Olinda is heavily reliant upon, relies on loans from Mascate merchants in Recife Loans were guaranteed by mortgages planters took out on their land

Merchants were able to manipulate prices for import and export goods

“SONS OF THE SOIL” VS. UPSTART IMMIGRANTS

“The dwellers of Recife were never indebted to the sugar planters, whereas rare indeed was the sugar planter who did not owe them a considerable sum”

-Manuel dos Santos

Sources

“The Golden Age of Brazil: 1695-1750: Growing Pains of a Colonial Society”. C.R. Boxer.

“The ‘Marrano’ Mercantalist Theory of Duarte Gomes Solis”. Nathan Wachtel.

“Tropical Babylons: Sugar and the Making of the Atlantic World”. Stuart B. Schwartz

“A Relation of a Voyage Made in the Years 1695,1696, 1697…”. Froger, Francois.

“Discursos”. Duarte Gomes Solis

“Profitability of Engenho Sao Bento dos Lajes”. Estados of the Mosteiro de Sao Nedo Bento da Bahia. Arquivo da Universidade do Minho.