The call WarFrompeddlers occurred in Pernambuco, between 1710 and 1711, and is part of the 18th century rebellions of colonial Brazil, along with others, such as the Felipe dos Santos Revolt, in 1720, the InconfidenceMinas Gerais and the ConjurationBahia. In order to satisfactorily understand what caused this conflict in Pernambuco, it is necessary to remember the context of the Brazilian Northeast in the second half of the 17th century.
It is known that the Dutch set up in the Pernambuco region, in the 17th century, one of the most sophisticated sugar production centers of the time, which had an impressive infrastructure and a fruitful commercial transit between urban centers and the environment. rural. But in 1645, a nationalist uprising culminated in the expulsion of the Dutch from the Captaincy of Pernambuco. The Dutch companies, in turn, installed themselves in the Antilles islands, in the Caribbean, promoting great competition with sugar produced in Brazil. This fact culminated in the decay of our sugar economy.
As a way to solve the economic crisis generated by the Dutch competition in the Antilles, the planters sought articulate financially with merchants in urban centers, especially those residing in Recife, known pejoratively like peddlers. However, this articulation was done arbitrarily and in collusion with representatives of the political power of Pernambuco, whose headquarters, at the time, was in Olinda.
The center of political power in Olinda thus represented the yearnings of the decadent aristocracy of the planters. One of the measures taken to remedy the situation in the sugar economy was to increase taxes on the urban population. The Recife merchants (peddlers) promptly rebelled against the measure. The historian Capistrano de Abreu recorded this situation in his work “Chapters of colonial history”:
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“The old nobility rebuilt the destroyed houses, which they occupied only on the occasion of the festivities, as most of the year was spent on the plantations. Recife, thanks to the superiority of the port, continued to prosper and acquired a large and permanent population; the merchants preferred it as their home, people who in general sought to get rich quickly in order to go abroad to enjoy their fortunes. The Olinders looked at them with all sovereignty, from their prosapia and their ranks, they called them contemptuously peddlers, and were always in squabbles over accounts complaining some of usury and extortion, others of bad payment and bad faith.” [1]
The Recife's insurgency reached its apex when, in 1709, they elevated Recife to the status of a village, no longer subordinating themselves to the authority of Olinda. This was the pivotal point for the outbreak of war, given that Olinda saw the decision of the peddlers from Recife as an outrage.
The war turned bloody and continued until 1711, when the Portuguese crown appointed the new governor of Pernambuco, Felix de Souza Mendonça.
NOTE
[1] ABREU, C. Colonial History Chapters. Rio de Janeiro: Edelstein Center for Social Research, 2009. p 140.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
FERNANDES, Claudio. "War of the Peddlers"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/guerras/guerra-dos-mascates.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.