The Road of golden bricks: gold, slaves, and Anglo-Portuguese relations in West Africa in the earlier half of the eighteenth century

• Autor(a) principal: Acioli, Gustavo
• Data de Publicação: 2024
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Almanack (Guarulhos)
• Texto Completo: https://periodicos.unifesp.br/index.php/alm/article/view/14853
• topic: Ouro; Costa da Mina; Royal African Company; Tráfico transatlântico de escravos; Gold; Slaves; Slave Coast; Royal African Company; Ouro; Costa da Mina; Royal African Company; Tráfico transatlântico de escravos

In the last four decades, at least, the historiography of the slave trade carried out by the Portuguese between Brazil and the Costa da Mina (Slave Coast) has highlighted the role of tobacco as the chief item of exchanging. More recently, a small number of researchers have pointed out that Brazilian gold was as important as tobacco in the relations of Portuguese with European and Africans agents and as a mean of procuring African enslaved workers. The article joins this later current in trying to demonstrate, based on Royal African Company trade records, the role of Brazilian gold in the trade relations involving Portuguese and British merchants, which became quite intense in the earlier half of the eighteenth century. My argument is that gold was a fundamental factor for the success of Luso-Brazilian in that African region, what it also demonstrates the trans-imperial character of the investments in this branch of trade. At last, the article suggests one possible contribution to assess the features of the relationship between the agents who engaged in this particular trade.