Paper short abstract:

Besides all colonial attempts to control the slave trade in the eighteenth century, private merchants operated beyond the grasp of the Portuguese administration. Slave traders such as the Barros based their negotiations on self organizing networks that operated on both margins of the Atlantic.

Paper long abstract:

During the second half of the eighteenth century approximately 1.5 million slaves left West Central Africa, most of them heading to Brazil, especially to Rio de Janeiro. The Portuguese Crown attempted to control such valuable trade with several reforms implemented by the Marquis of Pombal (1750-1777). He strengthened colonial business by creating monopolistic commercial companies and by reestablishing the Junta do Comércio, demanding the enrolment of all merchants involved with the Atlantic trade.

Besides all attempts to control the slave trade, private merchants constituted strong communities that operated beyond the grasp of the colonial administration. Though many of them were part of the Portuguese colonial apparatus as royal officials and military officers they regularly used their positions to reinforce private slaving activities. These slave traders based their negotiations on self organizing networks that operated on both margins of the Atlantic.

The Barros family consolidated its mercantile power in the second half of the eighteenth century and became a slaving enterprise with Atlantic-wide connections, which allowed them a huge social ascension in less than two generations. They reinforced personal ties with their associates through marriages and godparenting (compadrio), stretching their influence and diminishing the high risks involved in slaving negotiations, thus guaranteeing the return of investments made. The trajectory of the Barros rises from the Portuguese archives (ANTT and AHU) as a great example of private merchant network that operated beyond the control of the Crown and positioned its agents on the most important ports of the Portuguese Atlantic.