Portuguese participation in the slave trade 131with physical defects being excluded. The Spanish crown associated itself with
the enterprise, contributing 200,000 pesos towards the building up of its fleet
This company was as short-lived as the rest, for it was dissolved in 1706.
It was only with the Pombal government that well-structured companies
made their appearance. As far as the slave trade was concerned, they were
intended to reorganize the triangular trade and to combat the smuggling that
had prevailed on a large scale since the demand for slaves had increased in
Brazil. Ship-owners in the service of Brazilian planters had got into the habit
of obtaining supplies direct, outside the contracts allocated by the crown—
even, in times of acute shortage, going as far as Mozambique. Two companies
were set up almost simultaneously: the Companhia Geral do Gràu Para e
Maranhäo in 1755 and the Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraiba in
- They divided the slave-trade area between themselves, the former com-
pany operating in the Guinea coast and Cape Verde area, the latter in Angola
and on the Mina coast. They both had exclusive rights to the slave and other
trade for twenty years. The Companhia do Maranhäo was in 1757, by a secret
rider, granted additional powers authorizing it to exercise military and political
authority for twenty years in the part of Africa for which it had a concession.
These powers entitled it to organize the trade in Guinea and Cape Verde,
where it likewise fostered the production of subsidiary exports such as cotton
goods and archil. It also took the praiseworthy step of giving a great impetus
to agriculture (particularly the growing of rice, cotton and cocoa) in the
Maranhäo area. One of the aims in setting up the company was to ensure a
regular supply of slaves ; and the policy was therefore adopted of making a
profit not so much on the sale of slaves as on the produce of their labour.
Hence, though both companies were reasonably prosperous and could dis-
tribute regular dividends to their shareholders, the Companhia de Pernambuco
e Paraiba showed a loss on the slave trade, and the Companha do Maranhäo
a slight profit. The goods supplied by Brazil in exchange were mainly tobacco
and rum. These two companies were dissolved, the former in 1778 and the
latter in 1787, without having been able to eliminate the smuggling, which
remained considerable both in slaves and in overseas produce. It was carried
on from Brazil, mainly by the British. The setting up of these companies is
clear proof that the triangular system and the so-called 'colonial pact'
inspired by mercantilism, which together formed the basis of the Portuguese
empire's prosperity, were threatened by the free trade which the British were
beginning to practise.
Portugal and the abolition of the slave tradeJust as, at the end of the sixteenth century, Portugal had been confronted by
one of the greatest crises in her history, as the result of failure to adapt herself