Que se abram os sertões: um projeto político de centralização e livre comércio para o tráfico de cativos e a escravização em Angola (1753-1772)

Abstract

On January 11, 1758, a license was published that freed the interior trade in Angola for white traders. The dissertation therefore analyses how that law started a political project of centralization and freedom of trade to the captive trade and enslavement in Angola’s hinterland in the second half of the Eighteenth century, a period of deep reformist attempts along the Portuguese Empire. The examination of this legal project is one of the possible ways to understand the reformist face of the Portuguese monarchy in West Central-Africa, as well as its bounds on African terrain. The research examines the representations that were evoked by the administrative architecture in the normative texts for the Portuguese domains in Angola. For that, it is noteworthy some recurring themes in the political project, such as the attempt to create commercial guidelines based on the juridical concept of “good faith”, policies to combat the entrance of goods from foreign trade, in addition to stablishing well-defined jurisdictions for capitães-mores, escrivães das feiras and the slave duty contractors. However, the African agency was an almost insurmountable obstacle for the full realization of the political project.