Iara Lima

Although it may not seem so, there are central themes that present themselves each month in the making of this blog’s posts. Elections aside, this month the theme is ancestry. I thought the best way to begin this theme would be to review an article to which I was able to contribute in the collection and analysis of data, through a scientific study group in which I worked for a year and a half, in support of professors Renato Leite Marcondes and Lelio Luiz de Oliveira, from FEA-RP/USP. The article, the result of the research, was published in 2025 and proposes a new data series on the importation of Brazilian sugar by Portugal between 1761 and 1807.

Brazilian economic historiography lacked systematic data on the sugar trade in the period between 1765 and 1796. Brazilian archives do not hold these records. The solution found was to resort to Portuguese customs documents, which provided detailed information on quantities, Brazilian origin, quality, and taxes on sugar.

The project, supported by FAPESP (process 21/01389-5), aimed to reconstruct a series of sugar exports from Brazil to Portugal between 1750 and 1800. The research also sought to relate this series to the Brazilian producing regions and to analyze microdata such as ports of shipment and disembarkation, types of sugar, and the names of the merchants involved.

The results of the research confirm the thesis of the agricultural renaissance of Brazilian sugar in the second half of the 18th century. This period was marked by a deep crisis in the colony’s mining and by an imbalance in the Portuguese trade balance. The sugar economy, which already came from a productive structure assembled earlier, had to readapt to conditions of greater international competition, especially with the growth of Caribbean production.

The data verified a significant increase in Brazilian sugar exports, especially after the beginning of the 1770s. This growth occurred despite the stagnation of the Portuguese economy, which suggests that factors external and internal to the colony were decisive for the dynamism of the sector.

The agricultural renaissance was not an accident. It was driven by a favorable international conjuncture and by internal policies to stimulate production.

On the external plane, the Seven Years’ War (1756–1763) benefited tropical products, creating an environment propitious for Brazilian sugar. Later, the American War of Independence (1776) affected Caribbean supply and raised prices on the international market.

On the internal plane, the creation of the Pombaline trading companies, such as the General Company of Commerce of Grão-Pará and Maranhão (1755) and that of Pernambuco and Paraíba (1759), centralized business in Lisbon and benefited the growth of production in the colony. The elimination of the fleet system in 1765 generated greater mercantile freedom, allowing Brazilian sugar to circulate with fewer restraints.

The reconstruction of the import series allows a more precise analysis of the commercial connections between Brazil and Portugal. The microdata gathered reveal not only the volume of trade, but also the quality of the product from different origins, the ports involved, and the degree of inequality among the participants in long-distance trade.

Speaking about ancestry also involves looking at the past and observing economic factors. And the history of Brazilian sugar in the 18th century is, in a way, a story about resilience. At a moment when mining was entering decline and the Portuguese economy was stalling, Brazilian sugar found space to grow. It was not linear growth, nor was it free of contradictions. But it was growth that helped sustain Portugal’s external accounts and that kept the colony economically relevant.