A Brief History of Portugal

Part  9 - From Wool & Port to Gold & Diamonds

WITH ALL THAT excitement over who the face belonged to which matched the outline of Portugal, revealed in Part VIII, I think we had better take things a bit slower and calm down.  Now, if my memory serves me right, which it seldom does, I believe we have got as far as the end of Dom Afonso VI reign, and so we should now move on.

Dom Pedro II: 1683-1706

Just before Dom Pedro II finally took over as King of Portugal, the Count of Ericeira had been appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.  And, boy, didn't Portugal need a shrewd head at that time.  The constant bombardment of Portugal's overseas settlements by a number of other nations, but particularly the Dutch, was causing serious domestic problems.  With the lack of taxes from the overseas settlements, home taxes were sharply increased to try to make up the loss.  This in turn led to real hardship in the rural areas.  So much so, that there was a big increase in people wanting to settle in Brazil.  There was little the authorities could do to stop this outflow of people wishing to seek a live less arduous than in their homeland.

In a desperate attempt to stop people wanting to go abroad, the Portuguese authorities decided to adopt the principles outlined in a book entitled O Discurso Sobre a Introdução das Artes no Reino.  ( No, clever clogs at the back, it has nothing to do with a Zoo without a rhinoceros.)  Translated, it came out as A Discourse on the Introduction of the Arts into the Kingdom.  What was so special about this book, presumably introducing crafts like needlework? But no, the `Arts' in this case meant `industry' and the government set about promoting and assisting the setting up of factories to produce woolen goods for export.  And so, in a short time there were over 400 weavers in Covilhã alone, which was traditionally the home of woolen weavers some time previously.  Weaving was only one example of the production units being set up all over the country.  There were soon a whole host of crafts being produced, from tanneries, glass-works and silk-spinning mills.

This hive of activity also led to the start of something for which Portugal is still famous; you have guessed it, of course, Port.  The major extension of the vineyards, noticeably around Douro, in the seventeenth century, made the production of wine, but particularly Port, one of Portugal's major exports.

As far as foreign policy was concerned, Portugal got dragged into the dispute over Spanish Succession, following the death of Carlos II in 1700.  With no clear indication of who was to succeed Carlos II, King Louis XIV of France, who had married one of Carlos's sisters, and the Hapsburg emperor, Leopold I, who was married to Carlos's other sister, both felt entitled to claim the Spanish throne for themselves.  As there was unlikely to be any common ground between these two, Leopold made the first move by declaring war.  Portugal got dragged into the conflict along the way, initially supporting the French claim.  However, with the signing of the Methuen Treaty with Britain in 1703 an Anglo-Portuguese army was formed.

Dom João V (The Magnificent): 1706-50

One of the first major expeditions of the Anglo-Portuguese army, assembled towards the end of Dom Pedro II reign but fully supported by Dom João V was to Madrid.  There they crossed swords with the Hapsburg pretender, Archduke Charles III, who, as one of Leopold's sons, had assumed the title of king.  After several skirmishes the Archduke was defeated at the Battle of Almansa in 1707.  Things dragged on for a while, but with yet another signing, this time the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, the conflict was eventually settled. Under the new agreement, France were required to hand over to Portugal the rights to both banks of the River Amazon, in Brazil; a significant gain for them.  And Spain's punishment required them to give up its claims to the colony of Sacramento, which gave Portuguese traders frontier access right through to the River Plate.

Whilst all this fighting and signing of documents was going on, rich deposits of alluvial gold had been discovered in Brazil.  And guess who the main beneficiaries of this windfall were? The Portuguese of course!  Around 500 kilograms of gold from the initial gold mine was the first shipment to Lisbon.  Although there doesn't appear to be any official documentation still around to show how much gold was shipped from Brazil, it could have been as high as 3,000 tonnes!

To cap it all, in 1730, diamonds were also discovered in Brazil.  By the turn of the century around 2 million carats had been mined.  All this exploration was undertaken by private enterprise with the Portuguese state keeping an eye on things and collecting the taxes.  It was inevitable that, with all this valuable cargo swilling around the system, there would be some smuggling.  But, right from the start, the Portuguese decided to take a strong line on these illegal activities and came down hard on those found guilty.  As usual, in these sorts of situation, the `minnows' were caught in the net as well as the serious, well organized smugglers.  The heavy handedness with which the small fry were dealt with was the source of a good deal of unrest in the Portuguese population.  With fortunes being made by the unscrupulous traders and dealers, the ordinary man in the street felt that they too should benefit from these untold riches too.  This predictably resulted in a wave of public unrest which lasted to the end of the century.

From a social standpoint, Portugal kept up with the standards being adopted in Western Europe around this era.  However, the lack of commitment and decision in government circles was manifest in the failure to stop the spread of the Inquisition.  Even as late as 1739, António José da Silva, a well-known dramatist in his day, of Portuguese-Jewish parentage, was strangled and burnt to death in Lisbon.  This was supposedly carried out for the Church, still intent on stamping out heresy in whatever form they cared to nominate.  The Jesuits were still very much in evidence in the educational doctrine they proscribed.

With the `privileged classes' growing in numbers and power, the general consensus was to curb any involvement in disputes in other countries.  In this way, it was hoped that the tarnished image of the House of Braganza could be enhanced.  It also became obvious about this time that radical changes were necessary in the cultural make-up of the country if it was not to fall back in prominence amongst the other European countries.

I think that is as good a place as any to call a halt to the proceedings. And so, it's time to put your quill pens down until the next occasion we gather together.  What's coming up next? Well, the eighteenth century reforms are on the agenda but the House of Braganza survives to the beginning of the Republic in 1910.  Looking forward to being with you again next month, I hope. Until then, Goodbye.

    David Devereux

     dfdev@btinternet.com

Why not now have a look at the Family Tree of Kings and Queens of Portugal?

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