The Story of Brazilian Commerce 249
In the middle of the eighteenth century Portugal was
no longer economically independent, and the Marquis of
Pombal, the great minister of King Joseph I, described the
situation in the following words : “The English had conquered
Portugal without the inconveniences of conquest. In 1754
Portugal scarcely produced anything for her own support:
two-thirds of her necessities were supplied by England; all
the trade of the country was carried on by her agents. The
English monopolized even the commerce of Brazil.” The
English cloth trade appeared to him as ruinous to Portugal
as the fictitious value of Brazilian gold.
From 1760 onwards, the new policy of Pombal tries to
alter the situation; Brazilian trade becomes more important
though a decrease is registered in Portuguese commerce
with England. The development of cotton manufacture in
England corresponds to the growing production of cotton in
Brazil. But the creation by Pombal of two new chartered
corporations for exclusive trade—the Companhia Geral do
Para e Maranhao, and the Companhia Geral do Pernambuco
e Parahyba—prevented the English from controlling Brazil-
ian trade and limited their share as members of the companies.
Trade of Portuguese goods was favored, export of bullion
prohibited; the private trader was left in a poor situation to
carry on business with Brazilian merchants.
At the end of the eighteenth century there was an increas-
ing demand for Brazilian products, chiefly sugar and cotton;
the balance of exchange was reversed in favor of Lisbon,
but as Portugal was growing weaker and more dependent,
the development of the American colony did not greatly
improve the situation. The boom of 1791 in Brazilian
products was due to the failure of the French Antilles to
supply tropical goods, a consequence of French revolutionary
affairs at the time.