Managing “as if it were its own”: economic history from below of the Real Estate of Santa Cruz (captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, 1760-1783)

Abstract

The objective of this article is to map and analyse the agency of a part of the Fazenda de Santa Cruz´s inhabitants - slaves, natives, leaseholders and intruders - in relation to the daily use of the natural resources of this estate, after the expulsion of the Jesuit priests, in 1759. Our theoretical discussion mobilizes the concept of moral economy, proposed by Edward Palmer Thompson. Methodologically, we also follow Thompson's orientation and seek to recompose the local contexts, their agents, their histories and their dilemmas, as the only way of discerning, in the effective social practices, the principles that guided the economic behavior of those social groups and, also, their ways to resist the dictates and projects from above. We tried to prove the hypothesis that another project for the administration and appropriation of the resources was created during this period, in clear disobedience to the project of the Portuguese Crown. We used as sources the request (devassa) of the Queen of Portugal opened in 1783, and a series of reports, visits and opinions provided by Portuguese government officials on the administrators of the Santa Cruz Estate in this period.