Ill
THE STORY OF BRAZILIAN COMMERCE
I. TIME AND SITUATION
WHEN the Portuguese navigators discovered Brazil, in
1500 (so the story runs), Portugal was already in her
third cycle of geographical discoveries; the first had been the
Azorian cycle in the earlier half of the fifteenth century, the
second, the South African cycle up to the Cape of Good Hope
turning-point, the third was the Brazilian cycle—the starting
of a new era. Pressed hard by Spain on her eastern bounda-
ries, Portugal, the balcony of Europe, providentially turned
to the open seas, lured by the Atlantic islands, Azores,
Madeira, and Cape Verde; Portugal was predestinated to
find Brazil, but not at the proper time nor in the proper situa-
tion and position.
Time and situation appear as the two main factors that
carry the possibilities, the opportunities, the necessities out
of which history is made. When we say “time,” it is not only
pure chronology, it is “social time,” the moment or epoch of
a certain knowledge, advancement, and equipment; by
“situation,” we mean the possible contacts, physical and
social, the interdependence in human affairs.
Under these conditions it might be said that Brazil was
discovered at the wrong moment for Portugal, in untimely
situation and position, for it was out of the way to India,
it was too far to the southwest in the “Tenebrous Sea.” The
Portuguese of King Manuel were far more interested in Asia,
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