Portuguese research on the slave trade 261acquire a plot of land (or increase it if he already had one), to buy a few teams
of oxen, and to improve his house or build a new home. Relatively few immi-
grants made their fortunes in a big way. Those who did, bought or built manor
houses—especially in the north of the country—or invested their capital in the
trading and slave-trafficking operations which were set up in the middle of the
eighteenth century, Such was the background to the emergence of the rural
and merchant middle classes in northern and central Portugal and the 'joke'
of our second-rate capitalism. The fact that so few Portuguese became rich in
Brazil gives a certain idea of the cultural standing of the vast majority of emi-
grants, particularly those who went to South America. Emigration proceeded
without any reference to qualitative considerations ; it was a purely quantitative
phenomenon, and the majority of emigrants were unskilled or minimally
trained workers who were as a rule illiterate. Brazil accepted anyone who was
willing to work in the country, as it was interested in building up the Brazilian
population. Hence most of the Portuguese found themselves on the lower
rungs of the employment ladder. This is borne out by the kind of epithets
with which the Portuguese immigrant was tagged, many of which were dispar-
aging. These workers were never afraid to take up a new type of work and could
turn their hand to anything that came along.
Despite all this, emigration was largely responsible for the fact that the
Portuguese acquired new habits and new forms of behaviour, and evolved a
different view of the world and other peoples, which was much broader and
more enlightened than the narrow-minded approach characterizing life in
Portugal. The Portuguese acquired a new mentality and raised his own cultural
level. We should also mention eating and other habits in European countries,
which were the outcome or the large-scale introduction of tropical products :
sugar, coffee, cocoa (hence chocolate), peanuts, piñón seed, palm oil and coco-
nuts, etc. Most of these foodstuffs entered Europe as raw materials and were
then processed. Sugar had to be refined and purified; peanuts were imported
for their edible oil (in view of the growth of the population and the inadequate
olive-oil production) and for their bagasse which was used in soap-making;
piñón seed was also used in soap-making; palm oil and coconut oil were used
in the manufacture of margarine and in the soap industry. The processing
operations required the construction of large factories (for processing oils,
cocoa and chocolate). Cocoa and chocolate became very popular in Europe.
The peanut, introduced into Africa in the first half of the nineteenth
century, became a leading crop within little over fifty years. The seed headed
the list of exports in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and other areas. The
expansion of peanut farming brought about a radical reorganization of local
economies and significant social and political changes in practically all the
areas concerned.
Cocoa, which was originally a leading crop on the islands of Sao Tomé