A administração dos contratos da capitania de Minas: o contratador João Rodrigues de Macedo, 1775-1807

Abstract

Tax farming and tax farmers during colonial times is a subject comparatively little studied in Brazilian historiography. Due to the quality of the available sources, the majority of the scholarly publications corresponds to the captaincy of Minas Gerais, which in the XVIIIth century produced almost all the gold received from Brazil. This paper aims at presenting the working of the tax farming systems by means of the analysis of the correspondence of one of the most prominents tax farmers in Minas Gerais, João Rodrigues de Macedo. Exception made for the royal fifths, this system constituted the way tax receipts were collected by the portuguese Crown in Brazil three centuries long.