Mining Tax Lists: economic activities, mining and slavery in Vila Rica, Minas Gerais (1715-31)

Abstract

This article analyzes the remaining tax lists in Vila Rica, the capital of Minas Gerais, between 1715 and 1731. Taking as reference the paying taxpayer who made the largest contribution to the royal coffers in this period and ostensibly comparing their situation to those of other taxpayers in Vila Rica, the work identified socioeconomic groups and explicit social hierarchies in the different ranges of property and in the different productive activities that the fiscal lists indicate. The results allow us to re-discuss the importance of mining activity, the dimension of which has been put in check in current historiography. The article showed that exclusively miners came to boast extensive slavery and to develop large-scale economic enterprises.

Keywords: Mining, Vila Rica, Tax Lists, Slavery, 18th Century,
Colonial Brazil