Golden Cycle is the name by which the mining period during the colonization Portuguese. This economic phase extended throughout the 18th century and existed while gold extraction was the main economic activity practiced in Brazil. Gold was discovered by bandeirantes from São Paulo who traveled through Minas Gerais in 1695.
The Gold Cycle attracted thousands of people to Minas Gerais, interested in getting rich through mining. During this phase, the Southeast became the economically hegemonic region of the country. The Portuguese established a strict tax policy in the mining region, charging taxes such as fifth, capitation and pour.
Read more: Phases of the colonization of Brazil
Summary about the Gold Cycle
Gold Cycle is the name of the economic cycle that developed based on mining in Brazil during the 18th century.
The three regions that concentrated gold were Minas Gerais, Mato Grosso and Goiás.
Gold was discovered in 1695, near Sabará, by bandeirantes paulistas.
The Portuguese charged many taxes on the gold extracted from Minas Gerais, and the fifth was the main one.
A series of revolts and disputes took place in the mining region, such as the Inconfidência Mineira.
What was the Gold Cycle?
The Gold Cycle was one of the cycles of the Brazilian economy throughout the period of colonization, this being the moment corresponding to the discovery of gold and diamonds in Minas Gerais and the beginning of mining as an economic activity during the colonial period. The mining cycle lasted throughout the 18th century, but in the last decades of that century, the activity was already in decline.
The mining cycle ended nO sugar cycle, with sugar production already in decline in Brazil due to competition from sugar produced by the Dutch in the Caribbean. With this, the center of the colonial economy was transferred from the Northeast to the Southeast.
Like this, the capital of Brazil he was transferred from Salvador to Rio de Janeiro, in the middle of the 18th century. This is because Rio de Janeiro was closer to the mining centers, therefore, it was easier to maintain control over this economic activity in Rio de Janeiro than in Salvador.
Furthermore, the Gold Cycle made Minas Gerais receive thousands of inhabitants, made up of people interested in working in mining and getting rich from this activity, as well as by a large number of enslaved Africans, brought to carry out all types of work in the region.
The arrival of thousands of people in Minas Gerais caused several cities to emerge in the region, transforming that captaincy into one of the most urbanized places in Colonial Brazil. Several cities, such as Ouro Preto, Sabará, Diamantina, São João del Rei, Tiradentes, among others, emerged during the mining period.
Furthermore, news of the discovery of gold attracted thousands of people from Portugal to Brazil, and historian Boris Fausto states that, in the first 60 In the 18th century, around 600 thousand people came from Portugal to Brazil, representing an average of up to 10 thousand people who moved here every year. year.|1|
Read more: Vila Rica and the internal market in Colonial Brazil
How the Gold Cycle worked
During the mining period, there were people who dedicated their own effort to searching for precious metals, and the method of exploration carried out by them was called spark. Sparking was carried out when a free person turned over the ground looking for gold. Wealthier colonists bought slaves and put them to work extracting gold. The exploration method they carried out was more complex and was called mines.
The development of the mining nucleus in Minas Gerais led Portugal to establish mechanisms to control what was extracted and implement a strict fiscal policy in the region. The most traditional tax charged by Portugal was the fifth, which established that the fifth part of all gold extracted (that is, 20%) should be collected as tax.
Initially, a significant part of the gold extracted was smuggled, thus evading Portuguese supervision. One way Portugal found to prevent smuggling was to create wwings of fanointing, where the fifth was charged and the rest of the gold was returned to whoever it belonged to in bars with a stamp indicating that the charge had been made.
Subsequently, Portugal established the capitation, a tax by which a certain amount of gold was charged from all those who owned African slaves. Those who worked in mining and did not use slaves paid this tax individually.
Finally, if the amount of gold collected did not reach the target established by Portugal, the Crown could initiate a spills. The pour was a compulsory tax levied on everyone to ensure that the annual gold target (1500 kilos of gold) was reached.
Conflicts during the Gold Cycle
This strict tax policy charged by the Portuguese Crown generated great dissatisfaction among the colonists, and revolts were organized in Minas Gerais as a demonstration that Portugal's fiscal policy did not I liked it. This dissatisfaction resulted in the Vila Rica revolt, in 1720, and in Inconfidência Mineira, routed in 1789.
Another important conflict that took place in the region was the War of the EmboaBto the, from 1707 to 1709. It was motivated by the interest of São Paulo residents in controlling mining activity in Minas Gerais. The Paulistas, who found the gold there, did not agree to share the mines with the Emboabas, the name by which they referred to outsiders who were not from São Paulo.
The Paulistas were defeated, and Portugal determined that they would not control mining activity. Forced to abandon Minas Gerais, many São Paulo residents went looking for gold in other regions of Brazil, finding it in Cuiabá, in 1722, and in Minas de Vila Boa, in 1727.
Know more: Beckman's Revolt — took place in Maranhão and Grão-Pará, between 1684 and 1685
Discovery of gold in Colonial Brazil
Gold was always an intention of the Portuguese in relation to Brazil, and this desire became even more compelling when large quantities of gold and silver were discovered in the Spanish colonies in America. Here, however, the gold only was discovered in the 1690s by bandeirantes who were passing through the Minas Gerais region.
The bandeirantes found gold near where Sabará is currently located, and the material found was placer gold, found in riverbeds, making it necessary to stir up the riverbeds and sift the earth to then find the small gold stones. At this early time, gold was found in large quantities.
The news that gold had been found in Minas Gerais reached the capital, Salvador, in 1697, and attracted thousands of people interested in getting rich quickly. As early as 1711, the first villages were created in the region: Nossa Senhora do Carmo (currently Mariana), Vila Rica (currently Ouro Preto) and Nossa Senhora da Conceição do Sabará (Sabará).
It is attributed that gold in Minas Gerais was discovered by Borba Gato in 1695, and, throughout the 18th century, gold was also discovered in Mato Grosso and Goiás, bringing the Gold Cycle to these locations. In 1730, diamonds were also found in the Serro Frio region, also in Minas Gerais.
Note
|1| FAUSTO, Boris. History woncisa from Brazil. São Paulo: Edusp, 2018. P. 52.
