The bankers of the slave trade: financing and trade of people in Angola (1724-1771)

• Grant number: 18/10914-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: January 01, 2019
• End date: June 30, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Modern and Contemporary History
• Principal Investigator: Maximiliano Mac Menz
• Grantee: Maximiliano Mac Menz
• Host Investigator: Pepijn Brandon
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, Netherlands

Abstract

The project studies the slave trade from Angola and its relation to the transformations of credit in the Atlantic. I seek to understand the financial organization of the trade, mainly on its Lisbon/Angola component and its links with the most important financial markets in Europe. My time frame starts in 1724 in the context of expansion of credit and slavery in the entire Atlantic, when the slave duties contract was obtained by a Lisbon group. The study ends in 1771, when the slave duties contract was abolished and a credit crisis happened at the colonial markets in the North Atlantic.My hypothesis is that Lisbon's centrality in financing the Angola slave trade in these five decades occurred because of the complex interactions between the Financial Revolution in Europe, happening mainly in England in 1680-1720, and the expansion of gold mining in southern Brazil and the institutional changes on the Angola's slave trade duties contract which allowed to doubling the contractor's rents. The starting point is to understand the context of the contract, its mercantile branches and links with the businessmen in Lisbon and other financial markets in Europe. After this financial context, it is possible to expand the mapping of its relations with the operators of the trade. On that basis, it is possible to see the effects of this credit grow in Angola. In order to do so, I'll work with the documents of the Customs and Notary Public Offices of Lisbon, the legal proceedings that are in the Feitos Findos, the qualifications of investors and traders for the noble Order of Christ and for the relative of the Holy Office, all collections of the Arquivo Nacional Torre do Tombo. Also I'll examine the books of the gold manifests of the Arquivo Histórico da Casa da Moeda in Lisbon. Finally, I will study the materials of the Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, both the avulsos of Angola, and the copy books of the Conselho Ultramarino. (AU)