3 Capoeiragem in Rio de Janeiro, c.1800–1930
Adam, Adam
Where is Salomé, Adam?
Salomé went for a walk
(Capoeira song from the public domain, Bahia)Rio, capital of a plantation empire
Compared with the successful Portuguese captaincies of Pernambuco, Bahia or even São Paulo de Luanda
in Angola, Rio de Janeiro represented a rather secondary colony during the initial centuries of colonization.
The incipient sugar cane economy did not really take off here as it had in the Northeast. However, the
discovery of mines in the distant interior started to change the destiny of the port city. For a long time, the
Portuguese had been trying to discover precious metals in their colonial territories. In contrast to Spanish
America, this did not happen until the very end of the seventeenth century. When in 1693–1695, gold
prospectors finally hit upon deposits in riverbeds of present-day Minas Gerais, a veritable gold rush
followed. The mining boom also impacted on the surrounding regions. Rio de Janeiro and some other ports
on the nearest coast capitalized on the fast growing trade in foodstuff and other supplies to the mining
region. Workers were the most important commodity the mine owners needed. African slaves—once
again—provided the bulk of the labour force for the mines. Mining gave a further impetus to Brazilian
slavery. The mining economy provided huge benefits, not only for the mine owners, but also for the Crown.
The king of Portugal required miners to contribute one fifth of all precious metals to the royal treasury. Yet
if the export of bulky wooden crates filled with sugar from the coastal regions was relatively easy to
monitor, gold or diamonds mined in the distant hinterland were more likely to escape fiscal control. Since
only a very limited number of royal officers patrolled the vast interior of the colony, smuggling of gold and
diamonds expanded swiftly. The problem of tax evasion and the difficulties in effectively inspecting the
mining area showed the weakness of the Portuguese colonial state and was a cause of increasing concern.
One of the measures designed to improve control over the territory and inhabitants was the transfer of the
capital of the Viceroyalty of Brazil from Salvador da Bahia to Rio in 1763. This, in effect, acknowledged
the growing role of Rio de Janeiro in the mining economy.
Higher sugar prices during the late eighteenth century, following decades of depression, encouraged the
expansion of sugar plantations in the province of Rio, more particularly in the region of Campos dos
Goitacases and the lower Paraiba valley. The boom was further fostered by the disruption of sugar
production in the Caribbean, due to wars and the Revolution in Saint Domingue/Haiti (1791–1804). The
number of sugar mills in the province of Rio rose from 323 in the 1770s, to 400 in 1810, and again to 700 in