The merchant web: business and power in the São Paulo (1711-1765)

Author(s)

Maria Aparecida de Menezes Borrego

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH/SBD)
• Defense date: 2007-03-07

Examining board members

Laura de Mello e Souza; Leila Mezan Algranti; Carlos de Almeida Prado Bacellar; Junia Ferreira Furtado; Maria Cristina Cortez Wissenbach

• Advisor: Laura de Mello e Souza

Abstract

This work deals with the activities of merchants in the city of São Paulo between 1711 and 1765. Central characters in the provision of goods to the population, in the connections between the city and other regions of the colony and Portugal, and in the competition with rural elites for ruling positions, they have a key role in the understanding of 18th Century Piratininga\'s socialeconomic dynamics. Firstly, the analysis focuses on the business activities to which merchants were devoted, on the goods that were traded, on the places where these people and goods circulated and on the most profitable businesses they were involved in. As in colonial society wealth and prestige were necessary conditions for men and values to ascend and to be hierarchically positioned, this work, in a second moment, sheds light on the participation of merchants in local power institutions (AU)