Government, wars and trade networks: the city of Bahia in the tangle of the Iberian Empires (17th century)
Connected History. History of Colonial America. History of Colonial Brazil. Business man. Merchants. New Christians.
In this work we investigate the circulation and integration of the overseas spaces of the Iberian
Empires, carried out by commercial agents, seafarers, governance and military agents, during and
after the Union of Crowns. One of the hypotheses defended is that the war against the Dutch
brought the Caribbean closer to Northeast Brazil, which had become a common threat to the
Catholic world, a Protestant base in the Atlantic. The Castilian authorities soon became aware of
the potential threat that this represented to the Caribbean squares, put their prisons on alert, and
awaited news from Dutch Brazil. Furthermore, we point out the inseparability of the occupations
of agents who could simultaneously participate in military campaigns, political-administrative
life and also commerce. We also demonstrate how the commercial networks spread across the
main squares of the 17th century operated. In the case of slave traders, a period of experience in
the African kingdoms was essential, where they acquired knowledge about the functioning of
trade and entered Sephardic networks. Finally, we highlight these aspects in the trajectory of the
second conde de Castelo Melhor, a man of noble origin, who fought in the companies of
Pernambuco, ending up in Cartagena das Indias, where he starred in one of the main political
episodes used in the campaign for the Restoration of Portugal. It was up to us to highlight his
presence in the sugar business, during the period in which he governed the State of Brazil
(1650-54), in order to demonstrate that these agents found themselves inexorably in the tangle of
the Iberian Empires.