The government of sugar mills in the Recôncavo da Guanabara (18th Century)
Government, sugar mill Families, Hierarchy.
This work analyzes the stately families that governed mills established in the “traditional sugar production areas”, in the surroundings of the Recôncavo of Guanabara Bay, Rio de Janeiro, and the district of Guaratiba was chosen for this research, which includes the following parishes : Campo Grande, Guaratiba, Jacarepaguá, Jacutinga, Marapicu and Piedade do Iguaçu. It examines and monitors the trajectories of these families and the strategies they used in the good governance of their mills, throughout the eighteenth century, a period of growth in the production of sugar and foodstuffs. For that, it identifies, locates and monitors the functioning of the sugar mills, which allowed the quantification of those that broke (dead fire), those that started to produce (new ones) and those that remained in activity throughout the seventeenth period (traditional). As well as analyzing the people who held the title of senhores de engenho, their characteristic profile, the time of their respective governments and the privileges arising from that title. Therefore, it was essential to examine the strategies used by this manorial group to remain at the top of the hierarchy in the face of various transformations, the relationships woven with subordinate groups, the alliances and conflicts between the most distinct families in Rio de Janeiro. Thus, the research fits in long-term analysis. We seek to contribute to the study of local lords in territories not located in the centers of the political and commercial circuits of the Portuguese empire, despite the increasing importance that the city of Rio de Janeiro gained in the seven hundred.