The portuguese emigration to Brazil during the second half of the 18th century

the settlement of the portuense Elias Antonio Lopes in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The current paper aims at discussing the emigration of Elias Antonio Lopes from Porto city to Rio de Janeiro around 1770. The main objective of his duty is his trial, as well as other Portuguese emigrants of the XVIII century, in approaching to the market place of Rio de Janeiro. Furthermore, Elias was the greatest dealer, who played a significant role in the in Rio de Janeiro imperial market by the ends of XVIII century and the first years of XIX century. He participated in the deals in commercial trades, as well, as external commercial ones, in royal contracts and in slave trade. The commercial relationships amongst the national traders, international ones and with traders from Porto contributed to enhance his reputation and projection in the mercantile trades. In addition, it is important to highlight that his family acted out in the same type of commerce. His father, for instance, contributed to his son in acquiring knowledge of commercial deals in Brasil. On this paper, the main sort of data is the information gathered from Lopes’ inventory, archived in ‘Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro’(ANRJ). This will help to identify the data of his arrival in Rio de Janeiro and the maintenance of his exchanges to his family placed in Porto city.