The General Contract of Tobacco and the Azorean Economy (17th and 18th Centuries)

  • Margarida Vaz do Rego Machado Universidade dos Açores, CHAM, FCSH
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7410/1514
Keywords: Azores, Portugal, Contractors, Tobaco Contract, Monopoly Rights, Açores, Contrato do tabaco, Contratadores, Direitos monopolistas

Abstract

From the second half of the 17th century, the Tobacco trade became one of the main revenues for the European colonial empires. In Portugal there was a general contract, based on a system of contracts and exclusive businesses, with associated financial and tax benefits. How were the regulatory and surveillance mechanisms of this monopoly transposed to insular spaces? What kind of behavior did contractors have in island society? What is the role of the tobacco trade in the Azorean economy? These are some of the questions we will try to answer in this text.

A partir da segunda metade do século XVII, o comércio do tabaco passou a ser uma das principais receitas dos impérios coloniais europeus. Em Portugal existia um contrato geral, baseado em regime de contratos e negócios exclusivos, com benefícios financeiros e fiscais associados. Como foram transpostos para os espaços insulares os mecanismos reguladores e de vigilância deste monopólio? Que tipo de comportamentos tinham os contratadores na sociedade insular? Qual o papel do comércio do Tabaco na economia açoriana? Estas são algumas das perguntas que tentaremos responder neste texto.

Author Biography

Margarida Vaz do Rego Machado, Universidade dos Açores, CHAM, FCSH

Margarida de Mendonça Vaz do Rego Machado obtained her PhD in Modern History from de University of Azores, Portugal. Currently retired she was a professor in the Department of History, Philosophy and Arts of the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences from the same university. Researcher at CHAM-CH at Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Universidade dos Açores, she was director of CHAM-Açores. Her main research interests lie the economic and social  history of Azores, with a particular focus on the 18th and 19th century. The importance of tobacco in the Portuguese archipelagos (Madeira and Azores) and its integration into the Atlantic system is, currently, at the center of her research.

Published
2021-12-31
Issue
Vol. 9/II n.s. (December 2021)
Section
RiMe 9/II n.s. (December 2021). Special Issue
Copyright (c) 2021 Margarida Vaz do Rego Machado

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