Rebirth of an Empire "O Renascimento de um Império" v2.0

[Lusitania]

Rebirth of the Empire (Part 1 of 2) (Cont.)
The Rebirth of Lisbon (Conclusion)

Money & Labor
​

The well-meaning and well-planned reconstruction of Lisbon was a massive endeavor of great ambition meant to revive the city like a phoenix from the ashes of the old empire but it was a project often stalked by innumerous problems worthy of its magnitude.

From the onset of the rebuilding process, labor shortages became one of the biggest limiting factors, so starting in 1756 thousands of Portuguese American Natives were brought to Portugal to work on the rebuilding of Lisbon and other earthquake damage areas. This was followed by additional workers from other parts of the empire in the subsequent years.

The circulation of labor, goods and money suffered a steep rewriting in the empire during this period as more and more strength was rerouted from the overseas to the capital so as to restore it back into full capacity. The new Pombaline style, however, though effective and necessary, proved demanding in sheer work. It soon turned out that the labor was not enough and, though the money from Brazil and England was still abundant, the Marquis of Pombal was increasingly concerned over the effects that spending so much income from such singular sources on a single project would have on the country’s inflation and economical wealth.

The situation aggravated in 1762, when the Fantastic War broke out and Portugal found itself with overstretched resources and efforts. Labor was cut short as the military was no longer in a position to maintain order in the ruined capital or even aid in the reconstruction and the upsetting nature of the invasion to the country’s finances and stabilities did little to improve matters.

As fate would have it the war would be won by December of that year, but the harsh effect it had on the countryside would still be felt as many villagers and farmers were uprooted from their lands or killed by the invasions. Many farms which once sent relief food to Lisbon were also destroyed or salted and the movement of dispossessed rural folk to Abrantes and Lisbon worsened the human disaster in the capital.

Pombal was thus forced to harshly interfere in both matters, demonstrating the first dictatorial signs of his time as Prime Minister. His intervention in the Treat of Paris came first, with him walking over all the protests demanding peace with Spain as soon as possible by upping the ante in the economic terms of the treaty. To many of his enemies, Pombal’s interference was what denounced him as a possible despot in the court as he endangered the peace they had so miraculously obtained while ignoring all those who protested.

Still, the new influx of money from Spain via war reparations, albeit small, proved vital for the country’s affairs. Not only did the Spanish coin reach them faster than the English or Brazilian ones, but it proved a steady and reliable alternative which lessened the burden on the colonies and the reliance on both them and the English. Pombal’s interference allowed many of the economic problems that should have arisen to be avoided, especially gold-related inflation and commercial unreliability.

While the problem of money would be solved by finding a new, closer and healthier source of it, the labor problem faced simultaneously a similar solution and a second, opposite one. Between 1762 and 1765, when the reconstruction of Lisbon faced its final and most important stages, the Marquis of Pombal made use of his ever increasing authority to draft from the uprooted population countless hands of labor. Many of the farmers, shepherds and even some clerics who fled the countryside or lost everything to the scorched earth tactics employed by the Count of Lippe were recruited into construction work in exchange of salary. Many were outright dragged into the work, often against their will and at bayonet point, so as to ensure the overbearing conditions their presence presented were minimized and the reconstruction project was accelerated.

Pombal’s dealing with the reconstruction problems proved vital to smooth what would otherwise be a longer and far more grueling and toxic process for the country’s financial and human situation. Even so, it also had the effect of demonstrating his radical intentions in the office regarding the country, whether on social or diplomatic terms. Like said above, many of his less aggressive adversaries were spiked by his iron grip on the people and state matters. This was all overshadowed, though, by the leverage the role he had in the reconstruction gained him.

Note:

This is the conclusion of the first part of Rebirth of Empire (part 1 of 2). Since this is a small update as an added bonus we will post another update on Friday January 27 with the start of "Earthquake’s Cultural Impact & Pombaline Rise to Power". ​

​

 

[Sceonn]

Will Portugal follow the UK in outlawing slavery in the early days? Seems logical if they want t modernize.

 

[tuxer]

Will Portugal follow the UK in outlawing slavery in the early days? Seems logical if they want t modernize.

Portugal did outlaw slavery, it was one of the first nations to actually do so. Unfortunately they only outlaw it in the metropolis and slavery/slave trade remained legal in the colonies.

 

[Lusitania]

Will Portugal follow the UK in outlawing slavery in the early days? Seems logical if they want t modernize.

Portugal did outlaw slavery, it was one of the first nations to actually do so. Unfortunately they only outlaw it in the metropolis and slavery/slave trade remained legal in the colonies.

You are correct in that Portugal was one of the first countries to outlaw slavery in "Metropolitan" Portugal, that being European Portugal. It continued in some form or another into the 20th century in Africa and definitely in Brazil even after independence. Ironically over 20,000 American Confederates immigrated to Brazil following the defeat of the Confederates States because it was one of the few places they could continue living the lifestyle they were used to, being plantation owners with slaves. as for the British Empire even after they outlawed slavery it continued in one way or other throughout the British Empire. One simply has to look at the composition of the British Caribbean or South Africa to see its legacy.

Now for slavery to be eradicated not only in Metropolitan Portugal but throughout the Portuguese Empire circumstances like those that existed in Northern US states would need to exist. For example New York only outlawed slavery in the 1820s so the Portuguese have a very good chance of accomplishing this. So I pose the question to the readers what conditions would need to exist in the rest of the Portuguese Empire for slavery to be eradicated? Will it be Empire wide or only in specific parts? Let us see if anyone will be able to guess how things actually worked out.

 

[Sceonn]

I guess a new taxable base? Slaves don't pay taxes after all and money's kinda tight.
Also reducing the power of Plantation owners who are basically the nobility of the colonies.

 

[Archangel]

So I pose the question to the readers what conditions would need to exist in the rest of the Portuguese Empire for slavery to be eradicated? Will it be Empire wide or only in specific parts? Let us see if anyone will be able to guess how things actually worked out.

These conditions might also help:

• A widespread moral outrage against slavery among the educated classes (and among the common citizen, to avoid any rabble rousing);
• industrial development/methods that renders slavery economically unproductive;
• A switch from large land properties in the colonies for small farms to long established colonists, or to new colonists;
• Several sources of colonists, that provide a cheap workforce for industries, or a demand for farms.

 

[Lusitania]

Rebirth of the Empire (Part 1 of 2) (Cont.)​

Earthquake’s Cultural Impact & Pombaline Rise to Power​

The reconstruction of Lisbon, albeit successful, was marked by Pombal’s intense role in all its matters and influencing factors. From start to finish all operations, both civil and military, could be traced back to the Prime Minister’s strict orders and actions and the monopolization of the rebuilding effort, combined with the shocking and radical transformation it caused in Lisbon, would soon translate into the first deep changes in the Portuguese psyche.

The cultural shockwave of the earthquake, however, predated Pombal’s and travelled much beyond Portuguese borders. It was safe to say that the Lisbon Earthquake was felt all over Europe and more than in just actual earth shacking. To many enlightened folk from the French courts to the Austrian halls, the destruction of the Portuguese capital was far more than a severe natural disaster; it was a human catastrophe.

Cultural Catastrophe & Religious Doubt

Was then more vice in fallen Lisbon found, Than Paris, where voluptuous joys abound?
Was less debauchery to London known, Where opulence luxurious holds the throne?
-Voltaire’s poem on Lisbon’s destruction​

The presence of so many historical, artistic and cultural treasures alone in the city, especially in the Royal Palace, gathered not only by the late King John V but by countless other monarchs, monks, travelers and patrons across the centuries, meant that the loss of human patrimony alone could be compared to the burning of Alexandria’s Library itself.

In France, the philosopher Voltaire wrote poems detailing the Portuguese tragedy and what it meant as an attack to the Church’s religious optimism. The poems of the enlightened French were marked by a steep sorrow contrary to his usual wit and laughter and the criticism latent in it towards religious mania was considered one of the most savage and effective of its age. Skeptics and Empiricists like Pierre Bayle and John Locke would join his side and the promotion of his example, further demonstrating how the shaking of Lisbon affected the contemporary mindset.

The blow to the church was most enlarged, though, by the many strange circumstances surrounding the Earthquake. In a time where a natural disaster such as this was still considered to be ‘God’s Wrath’, as demonstrated by inflammatory Spanish pamphleteers of the time, it fell as an extremely strange and mind-bending event that a capital of a such a pious patron of Catholicism as Portugal was would be the main victim of the Lord’s fury.

The gravity of the location’s significance was then increased by the date and the destruction itself. All Saint’s day was, after all, one of the most important religious celebrations in the Catholic calendar, one where most of the Portuguese population would happily honor in the Churches with candles, piety and devotion. Yet, all signs of the earthquake seemed to point at how such piety made the disaster worse; the candles fallen during the Earthquakes were pointed as the main contributor to the massive firestorm that assailed the city. The fact that so many churches were packed to the brim with praying people was pointed as the primary cause of the large number of deaths during the Earthquake itself. Even King Joseph I’s absence from the church that day was what contributed to his life being spared.

Worst of all was the ironic fact that it was precisely the darkest places of Lisbon, namely the brothels and red light districts that were looked down upon by the pious as havens of whores, pimps and slaves, that were most untouched by the Earthquake. The Alfama district, by then the source of all that was criminally or sexually related in the capital, was left practically untouched by the Earthquake, tidal wave and fires while the ‘proper and prim’ streets were razed to the ground.

Even the Grand Inquisitor of Portugal perished in the earthquake while heretics like the Prime Minister and his associates as well as several members of the British merchant community in Lisbon miraculously survived. To many honorable Portuguese, what baffled them the most was perhaps not the destruction itself, but the way how their families suffered while the filthy heretics were spared.

Thus the road was opened to the biggest and broadest political and religious questioning in the popular mindset in Portuguese history, one that in turn open many doors in Pombal’s government and affect the very way Portuguese society would evolve from then on.

From Despot to Savior​

And Pombal would not hesitate to travel this road as fast as he could; the fact that he monopolized reconstruction efforts while most clerics did naught but announce the apocalypse and the aristocrats stood idly by allowed him to not only show off his talent and management to the King, but also to the population in general. His brutal actions in the first years after the earthquake, however, were met with much controversy.

All in all, Pombal was still regarded as a violent despot and foreigner for much of his early reign as the de facto ruler of Lisbon. His calling to arms in Lisbon in order to restore command and lay the criminals to justice was called all sorts of things from all sorts of people; half the poor called it a needed rescue while the other half called it an unnecessarily aggressive action with much foreboding signs of future repetition. Nobles put the order itself in question due to fears of Pombaline despotism as they felt the reigns of the soldiers suddenly taken from their hands into the Prime Minister’s. Clerics in turn criticized Pombal for prohibiting the Inquisition’s actions after the destruction and using ‘God’s soldiers’ for his dirty work.

Moreover, Pombal had a fairly low popularity beyond Lisbon. Villagers, priests and magistrates both in Portugal and Brazil regarded him as a dictator with little regard for the common folk and anxious to pass laws limiting their commercial and rural rights. For the first few years, it seemed as if Pombal’s support came mostly from the more enlightened parts of the Royal Family and court as well as the people thankful for his actions in recovering the capital from its ashes.

The Pombaline style of architecture also drew scant and stubborn criticism. Many were hostile to new style of street design and the laboring methods involved in it. Pombal’s urban designs, after all, were something that Europe as a whole would not adopt until the age of Classicism ushered during the Napoleonic and early Victorian eras, more than seventy years later. From calling it ugly, impractical, expensive to just outright proof of Pombal’s madness, the Pombaline streets would have many birth pains, but time would avenge these affronts as the Fantastic War concluded itself and Lisbon’s reconstruction finished.

During the events of the Spanish invasion, many countryside folk, primarily consisting of Pombal’s rural enemies, were uprooted from their land and forced to be taken under government’s protection. Pombal’s administration offered them not only protection but countless reconstruction jobs paid by Spanish reparation coin. This resulted not only in an emptying of antagonism in the Alentejo eastern countryside but also in a new small trickle of rural popularity that helped create the first small bases of government support amongst the people outside Lisbon over the years.

Moreover, as Lisbon’s rebuilding finally reached its later stages and the city was given not only a new look of beauty and efficiency but also a brand new form of circulation, many of the critics to Pombal’s architects were silenced. After all, nobody expected that Pombal’s efforts would be successful, much less to such an extent. In a way, those still seen criticizing Pombal’s actions after the Earthquake following the Fantastic War were increasingly seen as ridiculous rabble-rousers in their arguments before the new magnificence ushering in Lisbon’s downtown.

Pombal and the Reborn Lisbon​

At the end of 1763, as the first major positive effects of Pombal’s government became increasingly undeniable, the Marquis political power and popularity steadily increased both in Lisbon and in the countryside. Though still regarded by the majority of the Empire as an uppity despot, nobody, including his fiercest enemies, could deny the legacy he had created for himself as the rebuilder of Lisbon.

Pombal’s efforts and political power were respectively rewarded and consolidated by King Joseph himself upon being granted his first noble title; the County of Oeiras. The reward was intended as both a recognition from the King towards Pombal’s extraordinary services and a message to the court to not challenge Pombal’s authority. Many aristocrats looked upon this reward as the proof the King had Pombal’s back, after all, and would not hesitate to promote his every reform and law passing.

This gave him much of the leverage he needed for his plans for Portugal between the late 1750s and the late 1770s and few still imagined the groundbreaking effect he would yet have in the country, one that would probably rival that of the earthquake itself.

Note:
This is the 2nd part of Rebirth of Empire (part 1 of 2). We will next start a much larger part of Rebirth of Empire (part 1 of 2) "Pombal's government 1750 -1762". It will be one of the principle parts of the Pombaline government and one that will provide some new POD and divergence. Return February 1 for the next exiting installment of the real History of the Portuguese.

 

[Sceonn]

You go Pombal! Rooting for ya!
But man, Pombaline Style is set to Conquer Brazil and Portuguese Africa ain't it?
Perhaps Pombal will redirect colonial efforts & activities from exploitation towards assimilation.

 

[Johannes Parisiensis]

Looks interesting.

Subscribed.

 

[Lusitania]

Note:
Tomorrow we start posting the 3rd part of Rebirth of Empire (part 1 of 2) Pombal Government (1750 - 1762). This part of the TL will cover the 1st phase of the Pombaline government as it dealt with many of the great tragedies and challenges facing the Portuguese people. On the 1st post when we introduced the TL this part was not expanded but in reality it is comprised of several chapters since it deals with several important aspects and topics. So before we start posting Pombal Government (1750 - 1762) thought it would be important to provide a list of its chapters:

• Rebirth of the Empire (Part 1 of 2)
  • Pombal's Government (1750 - 1762)
    • Economic Problems
    • Productivity Reforms
    • Economic Infrastructure
    • State Communication & Census
    • Colonial Reforms
    • Social Upheaval & Backlash
    • The Tavóra Affair
      
    • Overview

PS: For ease of reading each chapter will be posted in its entirety. Return tomorrow for the intro to Pombal's Government (1750 - 1762) & Economic Problems.

Also as each chapter is added the links are updated above.

 

[miner249er]

PS: For ease of reading each chapter will be posted in its entirety. Return tomorrow for the intro to Pombal's Government (1750 -01762) & Economic Problems.

you've got an extra zero

 

[Lusitania]

You go Pombal! Rooting for ya!
But man, Pombaline Style is set to Conquer Brazil and Portuguese Africa ain't it?
Perhaps Pombal will redirect colonial efforts & activities from exploitation towards assimilation.

Yes I have admired Pombal since I studied Portuguese history eons ago. While he accomplished great things iotl he still had great limitations. Our goal it to show his accomplishments succeed over greater period of time. As for empire building iotl Pombal did very little, but circumstances will present themselves and we will see what we can accomplish.

Looks interesting.

Subscribed.

Welcome glad to have you aboard.

you've got an extra zero

Thank you. Fixed.

 

[Johannes Parisiensis]

you've got an extra zero

It could have been in octal, giving 1010.

 

[Lusitania]

Rebirth of the Empire (Part 1 of 2) (cont.)
Pombal’s Government (1750-1762)​

In the period between 1755 and 1762, throughout the reconstruction of Lisbon, authority over many political, diplomatic and economic affairs were passed to Prime Minister Sebastian as a result of the state of absolute emergency in the country over the destruction and chaos in Lisbon. This did not limit itself to the institutions in and around Lisbon, but to most high-end segments in Metropolitan Portugal and the Colonial regions, such as Brazil.

After military order was put in the capital, but years before the Fantastic War started, Portugal was in a state of diplomatic peace, but also of structural disarray, social stagnation and economic addiction which threatened to worsen the injuries already made by nature.

As the new prime Minister but lacking a competent, cohesive cast of lesser Ministers, Pombal set out to tackle the first few problems which impeded wealth from being properly gained or spent. His first sweeping set of reforms that set the stage for the rest of his dictatorial quasi-reign was the recreation of the guild system in several sectors of Portuguese society.

Economic Problems​

Even discounting the wreckage of the Lisbon Earthquake, Portugal was beset with economic problems, both structurally and culturally. Finances were not a direct concern since the kingdom still enjoyed a large amount of revenue from Brazil but this relief did not solve and sometimes even contributed to some of the coffer’s greatest problems.

Brazilian Gold Fever
“We live in a country who thinks the coffers can be kept filled by its backyard gold hole…”
-Pombal, on Portugal’s economic structure problems​

As a direct result of the discovery of enormous deposits of gold, diamonds and silver in Brazil, particularly in the ‘Minas Gerais’ province, Portugal ushered in a golden financial age throughout most of King John V’s reign, something that reflected itself on the King’s expenditures in the arts, religion and culture. At times, the mineral revenue coming from Rio de Janeiro was so great that the Portuguese King’s income surpassed that of the King of England several tens of times.

By the 18th Century, as a result of several bullion crises Europe went through, economic bubble bursts such as the Dutch Tulip Fever and the infamous inflation the treasure fleets of the Spanish Empire caused in Madrid, understanding of a currency’s value and how it could drop or rise in favorable amounts was increasing little by little amongst the Europeans. Part of the reason why Free Trade was so popular in Northern countries such as Britain and was slowly winning favor over the rest of Europe was due to the way it finally brought light to as to why entire national coffers suddenly lost their value and how this could be avoided.

Having raised its fortune mostly on the Spice Trade, the Portuguese Empire avoided some of the un-pleasantries the Spanish faced as to why prices were rising so exponentially throughout the 17th century and was even able to solve its silver crisis by selling slaves to Spanish Peru during the Iberian Union. The concept of a coin being ‘trustworthy’ was thus not thoroughly explored the way it should regarding how a country should be structured to promote such trust. A lack of knowledge of how to handle gold and excessive treasury settled in the country.

Adding to this ignorance and lack of immunization was the culturally crippled status of the Portuguese merchant class. For a nation that boasted having ports and merchants all throughout the globe and having been adventurous enough to be the first group of Europeans to strike deals directly with India and Japan, Portugal had very little inclination towards promoting enlightened practices of commerce or government mercantile policies. An infamous example was that the practice of lending or owning money, something vital to create small businesses and maintaining larger ones, was considered ‘sinful’ by proper Catholic societies such as the Iberian ones.

This extended to many other important practices which became largely associated with sinner attitudes or Protestant cultures. The same way moneylending was demonized as corrupt and greedy, the separation of Church and Market was also viewed as either an affront or unnecessary. The pursuit of the commercial career in itself was something viewed with little encouragement and aristocrats were more interested in owning land than businesses.

Another important problem this caused was related to the pursuit not of career, but of commercial knowledge. Work on trade advancement became limited or even completely stale. At the same time Adam Smith began his first important steps in researching and promoting Free Trade, Portuguese scholars found themselves writing studies on religious books and noble family trees and finding little merit elsewhere.

This all culminated in an inability in Portugal to understand or study modern trade and industry at the same time the state became increasingly dependent on Brazil’s glitter and crops.

By the early 1750s, Portuguese land usage was so structurally addicted to agriculture and mining that trade, which was increasingly becoming an enlightened empire’s healthiest and most promising looking source of wealth, had been completely replaced as the main source of revenue. Inflation slowly raised each year as the Portuguese coin was worth less and less, as smuggling increased, as fraud grew rampant and as the economy became in a general manner a structural laughing stock. The potential to keep up with rapid development mechanization would bring became blocked and social problems in Brazil raised as more and more slaves were brought to work at the mines and plantations. All these issues were then accentuated by the Methuen Agreement of the early 1700s.

Methuen’s Industrial Deficiency​

The Methuen Agreement signed by the late King Peter II was a diplomatic and economic agreement which ensured firm, open ties between Portuguese and British commerce. This seemingly two sided treaty, at least at the time, allowed the wine industry to grow in Portugal as the British were quite fond of Port Wine so long as British wool was allowed in Portugal with equally free entrance.

In short term this meant a boom in wine exportations and the growth and development of vineyards in the Douro River regions in Portugal as well as a firm guarantee of British protection to the Portuguese. In long term, however, this had catastrophic effects in Portuguese industrial growth. The unbarred entrance of higher quality and quantity of British wool goods at first only seemed to have the side effect of making life harder for Portuguese shepherds, but over the decades and as the Industrial revolution rolled out the true extent of the damage became visible.

Textiles, as a whole, had much greater potential for industrial development than wine, as well as much more demand. Machines could be built to process textile goods quite easily and technological branches of new, improved patents rolled out every year in Britain. The 18th Century industrial development would see textile manufactory undergo an enormous leap in productivity and quality, something the British were in an ideal position to thrive on. Agriculturally based goods such as vineyards, however, could not be industrially produced which meant its productivity was still classic and the means to improve agricultural methods as a while via industry would not come until the 19th century.

As a result, while textile manufactory, the British side of the Methuen agreement, became a boon of wealth with the industrial revolution due to its enormous potential for mass production, the vineyards, the Portuguese side of the agreement, became stale and overproduced. Quality standards in wine dropped over time as uncontrolled adulteration mushroomed as a result of the unhealthy encouragement of vineyard expansion.

Portuguese reliance on the British for a supply of textile goods also meant that industry did not take off in Portugal; maintaining the Agreement meant a satisfied demand for textiles and British friendliness. In the meantime, by the early 1730s, several British warehouses and trade associations were built in the Douro region to prey on the weakened wine commerce and profit further from the Agreement.

Complaints regarding the British enormous leverage and unfair practices reached the Government and Pombal saw his first opportunity to not only further the reconstruction effort but also tighten his grip in the country and push his first set of reforms.

While living in London from 1738 to 1744, the Marquis of Pombal was greatly impressed with capitalism and the capitalists who made it possible. He viewed the lack of industrial investment and new, more enlightened upper social classes in Portugal as a determent to its future. He was determined to create the conditions necessary for the creation of capitalism in Portugal and envisioned a new capitalistic class allied with the monarchy that would drive the Portuguese economy and create great wealth.

At the same time, Pombal was concerned about the lack of national strength to compete with foreign investors and merchants acting in Portugal and how this would affect the growth of said capitalist class. Without a degree of old-fashioned mercantilism, Portugal could not force its own trade back into its own hands, but with it could not hope to keep its methods modern and effective either.

Realizing that a true capitalist would never bow to the regulation of mercantilist companies, Pombal knew the best way to control a capitalist class was not to hit it was a stick, but to bait it.

This formed the basis of Pombal’s philosophy regarding his grooming of a new capitalist class. He would introduce new methods of commerce promotion unhindered by religious law, modernize tools of productivity and protect acquisitions. At the same time, however, he would institute new market regulations and overseeing that would allow him to gradually prevent Portuguese trade from being taken from Portuguese hands as it is raised by his government. The first step to all this were the Pombaline Companies.

Note:
This is the 1st chapter in the 3rd part of Rebirth of Empire (part 1 of 2) Pombal Government (1750 - 1762). Please return next week on February 7 for 2nd chapter Productivity Regorms.

 

[Lusitania]

Rebirth of the Empire (Part 1 of 2) (cont.)
Pombal’s Government (1750-1762) (cont.)
Productivity Reforms​

In order to solve the industrial problems caused by the Methuen Agreement, the reintroduction of plutocracy and the birth of new manufactory capitalist class was vital so as to transform productivity. The way to do this, according to many, passed by the introduction of Free Trade in Portugal as a mercantilist policy, but Prime Minister Melo felt highly skeptic of Adam Smith’s reasoning, at least concerning his country’s situation, believing a full adoption of modern free commerce to be akin to ‘trying to compete with economies which have already won’.

In addition, Portugal faced steep corruption and social problems which could not be countered with laidback policies, but instead a striking political intervention. His suspicions regarding British intentions in Brazil also made him paranoid towards opening the markets any further, especially after the events of the Seven Years War, and he was not about to trust British economical advice after the damage the Methuen Agreement caused the country.

Understanding that a strong action needed to be taken but also that true capitalist progress could not be made without some sort of lenience and encouragement, Pombal sought to balance the scale between mercantilism and free trade to best suit his situation and that of the country.

Commercial Companies
“You cannot force a merchant to buy or sell anything at your store, but you can ‘tell’ him it has the best prices...”-Marquis of Pombal, on Free Trade and Mercantilism​

The earliest actions from the Prime Minister concerned combating the poor Port Wine quality standards that were worsening by the year. To this end, he gathered with several top tier merchants in Oporto and founded the Royal Douro Wine Company.

Douro Wine Company​

Established in 1756, the Company was given several monopoly rights strangely reminiscent to that of overseas Trade Companies and is often regarded as the first and most iconic sign of Pombal’s neo-mercantilist policies. The powers of the Company were carefully regulated to allow it a strong intervention in several important matters including charting, tariffs and supply while instructing its strictly-Portuguese enforcers to follow a ‘guided encouragement’ policy towards plantation methods.

Which is to say that the company was entirely mercantilist in factual analysis, but also meant to ‘look like’ it encouraged free trade.

The first step in engaging the poor quality standards was to use the Company’s powers to reform the charting of the Douro Region, essentially demarking which region could produce Port Wine. This allowed the kingdom to prohibit several areas with high concentrations of granite outcrops which often infiltrated the wine, as well as to protect the corn development, at the time vital for the country’s food surplus, from being overtaken by grapes in their most important fertile areas. Tasters were employed to test the produce and control over ‘Brandy’ inputs in the wine was enforced.

Other more radical and strict measures were pursued, such as the mass uprooting of elderberries, prohibiting manure as a fertilizer and the separation of wine production by market, essentially creating types of wine for the Northern Europeans (feitoria) and types of wine for domestic consumption and South Americans (ramo). Finally, and more importantly, the Company reserved the right to set minimum and maximum prices for the British buyers.

All these measures were often enforced while limiting actual physical violence towards the farmers and merchants. The key to the Company’s authority and ideological hygiene lied mostly in its ability to control what entered and what exited the main markets at what prices. Farmers were still allowed to follow the outdated methods, but felt highly discouraged to do so as their fruit was often forcibly and publicly labelled of lesser quality and of more expensive produce by the company as a ‘regulation penalty’.

The Douro Wine Company, however, was but the first example of the series of guilds and reformed colonial secretaries that would be instituted. Many other commercial sectors were soon taken under the command of new companies with modernized and tightened policies, all with the objective of assaulting corruption, fraud and economic frailty. Everything from mining to farming to fishing gained a new vigilance from the government, new tools and new practices inspired by Pombal’s new mixture of enlightened commercial and political regulations.

The Metropolitan Mining & Quarry Company, for example, was founded in the late 1750s and gathered under its wing several already existing mining forces such as the Lena Mining Enterprise with the objective of prospecting and regulating the extraction of coal, iron and even stone. This revitalized the limited mineral production in Portugal by delineating new, reformed regulations on company land owning and mining rights while also increasing market-to-government transparency via the new overbearing bureaucracy and market regulation.

The Aveiro Delta, Sado and Guadiana Salt Companies were founded almost simultaneously so as to chart the areas adequate for collecting the precious mineral, at the time highly valued while heavily taxed, and regulate its distribution to the market.

The Douro, Minho, ‘Tejo & Sado’ and Algarve Fishing Companies, on the other hand, were established all along Portugal’s coast with the objective of regulating the fishing market and support fishermen and whalers. Fishing was a major sector in Portugal and one of its primary sources of food and productivity even at the time and so it employed most of the people who weren’t working as farmers or soldiers. Initially established to ‘promote the reroute of food to the disaster in Lisbon’, these regulating enterprises quickly became overshadowing mantles of administration and control over Metropolitan coastal development. Practices were outlawed or replaced, prominent figures were upstaged or recruited and several problems, schemes and ‘injustices’ were uncovered and rectified.

The Algarve Fishing Company, out of all the fishing companies established, became an unexpectedly successful and important step in promoting the region both economically and culturally. Being the region with, by far, the largest percentage of coastline and one of the most important sea positions in the mainland, the Algarve was heavily reliant on fishing for sustenance and growth. While other companies were quickly resented by the common folk for their indirect tyrannies, the Algarve Company had a rather strange effect on the Algarvians, who saw it as the first major crown investment in the zone in generations.

This investment was further impactful due to the circumstances surrounding the Lisbon Earthquake; Algarve was the second most afflicted region by the shacking and tsunamis due to its position and geography. Several important towns had been laid to ruins, the city of Faro had been severely damaged and many fishing businesses destroyed. While the Pombaline Companies were becoming known amongst the townsfolk all across Portugal for ending jobs, taking land and attacking farmer rights, the Algarve Fishing Company was slowly becoming celebrated for replacing boats, rebuilding harbors and reinstituting production and fish gathering.

The Algarve Fishing Company proved vital to revitalize the region​

This occurrence became an important symptom that allowed Pombal to understand the true impact his measures were having in the country and how the popular mind could shift depending on his actions.

In conjunction with the displacement of farmers by the Fantastic War which led to a rise of popular support for Pombal and the way the Távora Affair would soon shift the political panorama, one could also say that the popularity of the Algarve Company demonstrated how the problems in Portugal could be handled by uprooting of the status quo. In the 1850s, almost a hundred years later, the book “Weeds of the Nations” was published by scholars and historians in the University of Salamanca, dealing with how the strong, stale engrailment of communities was often the source of many social problems and comparing it to the way the destruction of Lisbon by the Earthquake and the destruction of several noble families by Pombal opened the way for rapid social development in Portugal.

All these companies, together with the Mining, Wine, Salt and Agricultural companies that were formed, became important tools for Pombal to combat the lack of control the state had over its own wealth and bring about the first trickles of advancement in the country and its people. Many agree that the formation of the companies and the development they suffered throughout the latter half of the 18th century in establishing a balance between regulation and free trade (with regulation often more favored) would culminate the formation in the immensely important Lisbon Chamber of Commerce and all the Chambers of Commerce that would follow in the Empire and play such a decisive role in many government policies in the early 19th Century.

Pombaline Colonial Companies​

Immediately following the success of the commercial companies in Metropolitan Portugal, the new Prime Minister decided to extend this to the country’s colonial administration. Seeking to improve communications with its major colonial possessions as well as their land distribution and wealth lines with the capital, a number of new companies with large land grants and powers over several sectors of the economy were created, namely the “Grão-Pará & Maranhão Company” in 1755 to develop and increase commerce in Northern Brazil and the 1759 “Pernambuco & Paraíba Company” to do the same in North-Central Brazil.

Map of lands granted to the two Portuguese companies in Brazil
Grão-Pará & Maranhão Company monopoly shown in Green
Pernambuco & Paraíba Company monopoly shown in Orange​

These companies differentiated from the Commercial Companies in European Portugal in the manner that they held power and regulation over several production and market sectors in their respective regions, rather than just one. In order to prevent this generalized authority from alienating that of the local colonial government while also keeping their efficiency in the combat against far-off corruption, contraband and fraud, they were doubly overseen by both Lisbon and Rio with several overlapping vigilances and reports, not preventing bribery but basically making it twice as risky and expensive.

Moreover, back in 1753 the Portuguese Company of Asia was founded with the objective of overseeing all the territories in Asia and the Spice Islands, including Timor and Macau. Later on, in 1760, as the other Colonial Companies developed and organized themselves, the Company of Asia was reformed following the unearthing of an anti-Pombal conspiracy involving the Távoras, saving it from bankruptcy and restructuring its powers and responsibilities to a more adequate decentralized model.[1]

In 1760 the Viceroy of Portuguese India, Manuel de Saldanha e Albuquerque, and the "Portuguese Asia Company” came at odds over the company’s treatment of the locals and its neglect of Portuguese possessions in India and Asia. The company was dissolved and two new companies were created:

• 1760: “Portuguese India Company” - develop and manage trade in Indian Subcontinent
• 1760 “Company of Timor & Macao” - develop and manage trade in the East Indies and Far East

To further increase Portugal’s trade in Africa the administration of Portuguese Africa came under government scrutiny in the 1760s. The outdated Captaincies were abolished and the administration and trade in Africa was changed with the creation of three new companies that received trade rights on the African continent.

• 1764 “Company of Angola” - exploit resources, develop and manage trade in Angola and the Congo Basin
• 1765 “Company of Mozambique” - exploit resources, develop and manage trade in Mozambique and East Africa
• 1767 “Company of Bissau” - exploit resources, develop and manage trade in West Africa

In 1762 to help stimulate the economy the government abolished all laws discriminating against Protestants giving them the same rights as Catholics. This allowed both Portuguese citizens as well as foreigners to invest in Portugal. The minimal number of these people did not prevent a sudden source of friction in the new capitalist class, however, which was being created until then among the mostly Catholic Portuguese businessmen.

The early years of the Colonial Companies were rocked by problems regarding their initial takeover of their respective regions, normalization of the balance of authority with already established offices and an overall indifference from those involved to the companies. They were quick to impose themselves, though, and the first major effects of the new administration were soon seen.

Pombal’s mark on Brazilian Tobacco Industry​

[1] iOTL in 1760 the company was dissolved and no new company formed to take its place. This in turn resulted in the remaining Portuguese Indian/Asian colonies continuing to be neglected and their continued economic malaise.

Note:
For your reading pleasure thought that the posting of a whole chapter would be better than breaking it in several posts. We hope you enjoy. If you do enjoy please let us know and if you have any questions please drop us a message.
This is the 2nd chapter in the 3rd part of Rebirth of Empire (part 1 of 2) Pombal Government (1750 - 1762). Please return next week on February 12 for 3rd chapter Economic Infrastructure.

 

[ruisramos]

Enjoying greatly this second version of your TL. Do you plan on taking it further down the road (or should I say "down the times"?) than the first version?

Força nisso.

 

[Lusitania]

Enjoying greatly this second version of your TL. Do you plan on taking it further down the road (or should I say "down the times"?) than the first version?

Força nisso.

Obrigador/ Thanks

Sim, Yes we stopped posting the v1.0 so we could work on revising and re-writing the TL. With the talent and help of Thrudgelmir2333 we have greatly expanded the topics and details we are covering, for example we took a 60 page 1750-1777 book and expanded it to over 300 pages. We will continue as far as we can physically continue.

 

[Johannes Parisiensis]

Interesting.

This neo-Colbertian approach could ensure more capital is kept in Portugal if no nepotism is allowed to occur.

 

[Lusitania]

Interesting.

This neo-Colbertian approach could ensure more capital is kept in Portugal if no nepotism is allowed to occur.

Yes a real challenge both in developing commerce and industry in a country where segments of the population despised anything to do with business as well as preventing the growth of nepotism. One very important factor will be who can participate in the new enterprises.

Quick note regarding the Colonial companies and Productivity Reforms chapter, as indicated the Asian companies are a deviation from iOTL in addition the African companies are also a deviation since there were none in iOTL. The difference here is several important government officials that will be introduced later, they provide the impetuous to create these extra companies who in turn will shape those part of the empire.

 

[Unknown]

Good update; at least you're being realistic in what could be done.

Waiting for more, of course...