. ' Fuelwood •in· Colonial The Economkand Social Consequences of Fuel Depletion for the Bah ian RecOnc:avo,l 549-1820 .

. Shawn'W. Miller

mong the various tasks that con­ contributed to the contest, in which all eyes of the early Portuguese, the fuel stituted the daily routine of . .colonists participated, for one crucial capacity of the Brazilian forest was ABrazil's sugar economy, col­ natural resource: wood. · boundless. · lecting fuel from the colony's plentiful Portuguese, Italian, and Spanish forests was among the most extensive. Discovery of the Forest explorers, the people who initiated In addition to preparing land for the expansion of Europe, carrie from planting, cutting cane at harvest, and At the height of the Bahian sugar an environment that had long been refining it ar.rhe mill, African slaves harvest, a view from the bluffs of the stripped of its trees. In fact the entire through four centuries had the addi­ Bay of All Saints contained a great Mediterranean seaboard, except a · tional burden of gathering the crucial deal of smoke, for all along the north~ few isolated and coveted pockets, energy source that fuelled the sugar ern shoreline, to a few kilometers had been bereft of forests for centu~ mill. This article is in part a study of inland, a considerable array of fires ries. Growing populations and the • - that resource's depletion and of sugar pushed arching columns into the pre­ growing material demands for ships of vailing southeasterly winds. The :-"- production's detrimental effect on discovery, war, and trade continued N - Brazil's Atlantic forest. But it is more simple process of boiling the water to make European wood resources ....8 immediately an examination of the and impurities from sugarcane's v~scid increasingly scarce and costly, thus. impact that· the forest's retreat had on juice, an ei;sential stage in sugar refine­ explaining the general amazement the fortunes of the colonial capital, ment and one requiring large quanti­ European sailors expressed at the , located in northeastern Brazil. 1 ties of wood fuel, was in full swing. sight of the New World's plentiful Fuel's increasing scarcity increased Ashes to ashes, the cooling clouds of forests. When the Portuguese, dur­ labor and capital costs related to fuel smoke came finally to settle on what ing the earliest stage of their quest ·supply, exacerbated elite social con­ remained of Brazil's once primeval. for the African route to the East, flict, multiplied petitions to the forests. With rarely a pause, the fires came acrriss one particularly heavily Crown, and eventually dictated the of the sugar mills burned as many as forested island, the first they would adoption of more efficient firing tech­ nine months of the year, more than colonize, they narried it "Madeira," nology. Moreover, activities that vied twenty hours of the day and six days meaning "wood.", Poet-adventurer with the sugar mill's furnaces for fuel of the week; as long as there was fuel Lufs de Cariloes wrote a century to feed them. And to the smoke-filled and a half later that the island was

Brazilian Sugar Mills 181 0 0 ·.:E :I 0 ~:g_ :::;> 0 3

F"'!J'He 1 (lehJ Colonial Brazil, drawn by author. Figure 2 (right} The Bay of All Saints; 1759. Salvador, the colonial capital, was the point of· embarkation for sugar exported to Europe. Sugar mills clustered (1/ong the bay's northern arms and estuaries. The map in figure 2 was drawn by the author;after a 1759 map by]ose Antonio Caldas, whose original utilized a mushroom of rising smoke to represent each milL

more renowned for its namesake than wood and its by-product, charcoal, purged it, graded it, and then bo_xed it. for any other particular fame. 2 In were the only practical sources of fuel. for transport to the city of Salvador . 1500, en route to the spices of India, Any attempt at sugar production with­ where it awaited the near-annual con­ Pedro Alvares Cabral bumped into the out a ready stockpile of forested land voy arrival for shipment to European South American continent and chris­ would not succeed no matter how markets. The mill also represented a tened it "Land of the Holy Cross." favorable other environmental factors concentration both of capital (in the The name that finally stuck originated such as climate and soil. form of machinery, buildings, and_ in the red dyewood commonly called Despit~ the delight of early arrivals slaves) and political power in the pau-brasil {brazilwood), South Amer­ · to Brazil's tree-blanketed northeast, the hands of the senhor de engenho, a ica's first trade contribution to the · novelty of the bounty quickly receded. proto-capitalist who not only held Portuguese colonial empire. To the Residents ofwood-rich regions often extensive cane plantings, but also held doughty sailors of the fifteenth-century . perceive timber, lumber, and firewoo~. the sugar region's essential mechanical Mediterranean; wood was neither to be as common as oxygenin the air. means of production. In the Reroncavo; unremarkable nor unappreciated.3 . But, inthe way that an oxygen short­ a fertile crescent of land surrounding­ ·. The first important Brazilian export age causes desperate burning in the the Bay of All Saints, life, work, religion, was wood, but the more· important · lungs, rapid destruction of Bahia's vir­ ·trade, planter aspirations, and natural second commodity, cane sugar, could gin forests forced millers and planters, resources centered on the engenho, a not have made its unrivaled contribu­ shipbuilders and carpenters, brick quasi-urban, quasi~industrial·entity tion to colonial development had makers and tanners, even common on the rural, colonial landscape. The_ Cabral encountered a land of fewer folk living in the city, to grasp for their sugar mill fueled Bahia's economic trees. As if to claim parity of worth share of a steadily diminishing resource. and demographic growth, and Brazil's with precious metals, the nature of forests fueled the mill. 4 sugarcane dictated that, it be processed Fuel Requirements Estimates ofthe expense of fuel~ by fire; and unless the purifying flames . Engenllo. wood as a commodity in sugar pro­ were applied soon after harvest, the at the duction vary according to the sources. touch ofthe refined product would be The Bahian sugar mill, known as and periods analyzed. One· study indi­ significantly lessened. To make this the engenho, was simply the combina­ cates that in 1752 firewood amounted rapid procedure possible, large quanti­ tion of apparatus by which planters to 10 percent of finished sugar's sell­ ties of firewood had to be within easy turned cane into varying qualities ing price; as a percentage of cost, the 5 reach of the ~ugar mill's furnaces. ' of crystallized sugar. The engenho figure would probably be greater. · Before the mid-eighteenth century, pressed juice from the cane~ boiled it,

182 Forest & Conservation History 38 (October 1994) . ' Another source reveals thaduel costs · sugar. For many miUs, transportition, · expelled the col9nists from many in. Bahian engenhos were ofi:en much livestock, and equipment costs un­ southern areas induding Jaguaribe, . higher {see table 1 ). · . avoidably .included fuelwood-related Gichoeira; Camamu, and . · Although fuel expenses never~domi­ expenses, especiafly in cases where the Author and inventor Juan Lopes nated engenho account books, the cost mill used its slaves and other capitaho Sierra noted the impact ofexpulsion: · of fuel generally stood at about one­ gather wood, making total cost of , · "Everytbmg dealing with provisions fifth of total operating costs. Fuel costs fuelwood acquisition greater than the was missing thloti.ghoutthesquth, were probably .even greater than some -table reflects. and the northern part lacked the neC­ numbers in the table suggest. The mill essary items for the sugar mills such as · could either employ its own slaves, Labor in the Forest· . wood, fotms, bricks, tiles and crates; . ·oxen, and salaried labor in gathering Because of this the mills had to close~ firewood or it could purchase fuel­ Getting fuel to th~ fire was a labor~ With production halted, commerce wood, sometimes more cheaply, from intensive· operation. Initially, mill ceased." 7 Even before the 1670s, those who cutthe forests indepen­ owners found abundant forests at - · many mills at the bay's shoreline dendy. Engenho Sergipe in' 1611 ~rid their front doorstep, ,but the double 'depended on fuel' sources far from. Engenho Sao Caetano recorded little ' onslaught of land clearing for agrkul­ their base of operation. Jose da Silva or no fuel expenses yet both must ture and timber felling for fuel and Lis boa, .the colony's inspeqor of the have used fuel, so fuel-associated costs construction soon pushed this impor­ royal forest:S in the late-eighteenth were not always properly categorized. tant resource far froin the mills' easy century, added as sources of fuelwood These two mills ostensibly paid little reach. The competitive adva!ltage Itaparica and· its neighboring isles to outside fuel suppliers, but they switched from mills having local fuel · located northeast of ]aguaribe in the would still have engaged their own sources to mills located at the water's south~m part of the bay-"a volumi­ capital in the collection of local fire­ edge where firewood from other loca­ nous article ofcommerce" that the wood. The higher transportation and tions could be easily delivered. In islanders sold to sugar mill's as well livestock costs of the mills at Sao many instances fuel traveled long dis­ . as to the citizens of Salvador.8 Caetano and Buranhaem; whose tances over wat~r to the mill. The for-. Fuelwood, ftom its felling to its fiery reported fuel expenditures are about ests of Jagua,ribe, iocated more than 'destructidn, might require as many as half the -average, support this conten­ seventy kilometers south of mj.lls on four modes of transportation, con­ tion. For any given volume of cane the bay's north shoreline, were a pri­ suming significant outlays of labor, refined the mill required at least half mary fuel source. The Jesuit Aridre time, and capital. The first and most as much fuel. Hence, the average Joii.o Antoni! suggested in 1711 that dangerous movement was from verri- oxcart or boat servi~ing mill that did Jaguaribe's forests alone could supply_ . cal to horizontal: the aCtual felling of not purchase fuel from outside sources sufficient fuel for all the mills of the the tree. Male slaves, largely those c:: Reconcavo at water's edge.6 Just how "~- could be expected to haul large quan­ newly arrived from Africa, throughout Ol tities of firewood and to do so over crucia!Jaguaribe's forests were' to much of the year felled by ax centUries­ .,c: sugar production was made evident in c. greater distances than it did either old.hardwoods, under the watchful "'c. 1671 when a general [ndian rebellion fresh-cut cane or finished, boxed .eyes of foremen. [n Jaguaribe the "'C/l :t>•,.., 0 .,"tl Table 1 Distribution of Bahian engenhos' annual expenses, 1611-1822, as percentage of total expenses "0 0

Mill Years Fuel Salaries Slaves Food Medicine Equip. Frans. Uvestock Misc. "~ 0' . 2 Sergipe 1611-12 1.4 . 27.0 4.3 16.0 1.3 30:0 3~0 4.7 ~ Sergipe 1634-35 26.0 33.0 4.1 6.0 24.0 3:0 3.1 Sergipe 164).-52 20.0 26.0 8.2 7.9 35.0 1.1 0.2 Sergipe 1669-70 18:0 t4.o 13.5 ·3.8 17.2 Sergipe 1707-16 20.1 20.5 18.7 13.1 0.8 8.3 8.0 0.8 10.5 Lages 1711-1800 19.0 14.4 14.6 30.0 2.5 13 ..) 1.0 3.2 1.4 S. Caetano 1726-1800 13.4 12.3 30.5 0.6 ~4.7 10.0 15.4 3.1 , Avg. Mill 1751 11.8 20.6 18.9 11.3 3.1 28.0 9.6 1.7 Buranhaem 1796 8.5 12.1 10.7 21.4 3.9 11.6 5.9 18.8 7.2

A dash signifies that account books for particular years do not utilize the category in question and may, or may not; include them under another category. The author carried over to the table any errors in ~he original documents.

Source: Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, _1550-1835 {Ne~ York: Cambridge University Press, 1985), p. 222. Data that SChwanz consulted for Engenho Sergipe are from wider sources than data published as Documentos para a hist6ria do afucar (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: Instiruto do A~ucar e do Alcool, 1956) and to which many researchers have had access .. Schwartz's data include information drawn from the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombci, Lisbon, Portugal, and the Archivum Romanum Societas Iesu, Rome, Italy. Statistics for Engenho Sao Caetano are from the Arquivo Distrital de Braga, Colec;ao Sao Bento, Portugal. Statistics for Engenho Buranhaem are from caixa 46, pacote (1802), Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

. Brazilian Sugar Mills 183 work commenced in July, for August small pieces for efficient firing. From acc~~t for the 86-day duterenc~) .15 was the bc;:ginning of the anhual care there the fuel sailed straight to the SiXty year8 later Antoni! reported tha:t harvest, which often stretched into mill, provided the mill ~as at bayside. engenh.os teais like Sergipe de Conde May of thefollqwing year .9 It is pos­ U qoi, there was at least one more consumed in their six fiery furnaces· . sible that fuelwood harveSters in the transportation break. 2,500 cartloads of firewood per har­ North practiced the same mass felling Antonil d~cribed a number of vest.16 This means the mill consumed technique that future coffee ·planters in i!tdependent pe~ons who divided-this eleven carts per dayY Lay planters did the South employed. A large number immense labor among themselves. 12 not observe Catholic holidays as rigor­ of trees on the side of a hill, all stand­ Professional woodcutters worked tlierr ously as did the Jesuits, meaning that ing in close proximity and often teth­ own shives, but may not have owned their average nwnber ofmilling days : ered to one another by limbs and oxe~ and carts for tra~sportip.g their and total consumption may have. been lianas,"would each be cut to within goods. and instead hired independent · higher. Even if the mills observed by · . inches of feJ4ng and then, finishing off teamsters for that purpose. Men called these contemporaries were somewhat . · the largest, aU felled together with a arrais often privately owned and man­ larger than the average, a reasonable domino effect: "It was the foreman's aged the sailing vessels, but millers figure for the colonial period would be task to decide which was the master also employed s·ailors, slaves, and their eight to ten carts of firewood per day tree, the giant that would be cut all ~he .own boatS in order to buy fuel direct · per mill. Since employers expected · way through, bringing down all the from the woodcutters and avoid' pay­ every ax-wielding laborer to stock others with it. If he succeeded, the ing, freight charges, which escalated· one full cartfoad of fuel per <;lay, this entire hillsid~ collapsed with a tremen­ as the forests receded. Antoni! recom- · would suggest that every operating. dous explosion, raising a cloud of mended that the senhor de engenho mill employed between eight and ten debris, swarms of parrots, toucans, have at least two vessels so one could laborers in cutting, dragging, and songbirds, and,. froiD the woodsmen, return while the other set sail, testi­ stacking firewood. It required forty · a shout of joy and relief. " 10 If the fore­ mony to the distances traveled. Mills oxcart trips from theJorest edge to fill man failed, the woodcutters entered that still had locally accessible firewood · the hold of a large sailirig ba.rk, which · a precarious and unsettled environ­ probably worked their own human had a capacity of five i:arefas. What­ ment to topple what remained of the capital, when available; to feed the ever the number of cartS making those wavering widow-makers. furnaces. · trips, tW-o skilled teamsters manned If the trees fell any distance from a Both cane and fuel were measured each. As many as ·f61lf sailors a~d a . waiting oxcart they were moved in by the tarefa, a unit of volume equal master m.anned the boats themselves, their entirety by any of several meth­ to thai necessary for a day's produc­ which "follow one right after the ods, depending upon the terrain. On tion at the mill. The tarefa of firewood other, without halt." 18 The number of relatively level ground the limbed logs equalled eight cart!oads, and the tarefa hands required for 36 Bahian mills in were rolled on poles or skidded behind of harvested cane was twenty-four 1583, 63 mills in, 1610, 146 mills in oxen; however, in most-other cases, . cartloads.B While initially each mill 1710, and 180 mills in 1758 illustrates whether it was uphill or down, slaves probably consumed only one tarefa Vilhena's simple statement that "[iln dragged the heavy timber with ropes (eight carts) of fuelper day, by 1583 the woods significant numbers-are and chains to points where oxen could Fernao Cardim reported that Bahia's required to cut [and haul] firewood." 1 ~ be hitched to the logs. During the increasingly powerful mills required as Based on these estimates, in 1758 rainy season the slippery mud made many as twelve carts for a sixteen­ Bahia's mills consumed more than for easier pulling, but once the trees hour day of milling; in 1710, Antoni! 3,300 cubic meters of fuel per day were at roadside, bucked, into manage­ explained that between twenty-five (183 cubic meters per mill per day), able lengths, and loaded into oxcarts, and thirty carts of cane were milled ' involving close to 4,000 men in its • · the mired roads threatened the life per day, requiring twelve.to fiftee~ harvest and transport during much of 'expectancy both of t~e oxen and the cari:s of fuel;, the academic Vilhena, the year. This labor force drew from carts. One of the colony's English resi­ writing in 1802, calCulated that a a total population of 72,833 iri the dents, Henry Koster, maligned the mill converted to an efficient furnace sugar-producing Reconcavo. During oxcarts, which he asserted too fre­ would consume between twelve and ·one year's harvest, the Reconcavo's quently turned over due to their nar­ sixteen carts of fuel" each twenty-four ' mills consumed approximately row wheel gauge; some planters hours. Vilhena complained that igno­ 750,000 cubic meters of fuel. None worked their tongue-dragging oxen rant and obstinate senhores de engen­ of these calculations include fuel c~n­ literally to death in the harsh task of ho nevertheless still used antiquated sumption for firing clay, distilling hauling firewood. 11 furnaceS that consumed. no less than rum, cooking meals, tanning leather At land's end workers removed the .one cartload per ho.ur.14 and furs, or producing charcoaL Sugar firewood from oxcarts and carefully In the harvest of 1650-51, the production alone pushed the forest stacked small boats with the proper Jesuit-owned mill Sergipe de COnde back at a breakneck pace. proportion of large, medium, imd milled suga'r 224 days out of the total 310-day harvest (stoppages and the observance of religious holidays ..

184 Forest & Conservalioa History 38 (October 1994) Labor at-the Engenho Using a long pole cilled atr~foguejm; workers placed large logs crossways The life of the sugar mill stemnied on top of ~ch other, supporting gradu- from its CO!l$wning center. Fire was so .ally Smaller pieces _up to the top. In the· integral tQ the workings. of the eng:n- early stage of boiling, the more fire the .ho that Brazilians employed the epi­ better, but the process becamemore taph "fogo morton (~'the. fire is out~) .. delicate as the semi-purified juice to identify inoperative mills, no matter ' moved to new receptacles, and the fire the reason for their expiration. One tender had to pay strict attention to colonial cartographer mdicated Bahiai:I • his superiors. Too little heat and the mills on his map with the mushroom­ juice would not boil; too much and ·. _ like symbQI of rising smoke. Antoni! the kettleman had to throw cool water described the sugar mills' multiple fur­ in the vesselto keep the precious fluid nac~ as "truly devouring inouths of . from boiling over. If the foreman woodl~nd, a prison o,f perperual fire above and the slave below maintained POOOC 00 and smoke, a Jiving image of the vol­ proper temperatures,_ the resulting canoes Vesuvius and Etna, and almost ' . . d H II h I ,zo sugar was. of higher quality and could of Purgatory an · e t emse ves. be finished more quickly.11 Hell it was for the poor African . Some smaller fires were apparently . souls allotted the task of keeping the designated to burn softer hardwoods, fires stoked; tending fire frequently including white mangrove and cashew_ ca~e as an assignment for medical and among others, for although these · penal reasons. The sick, who might woods had lower heat potential they benefit from a good swt;at, and the rendered ashes that were essential in chained, intractable slave were both making lye (decoada} to further purify sent to the mouths of the furnaces in the cane juice. Important enough to hope that the heat of _the flames and be saved frorri one ruirvest to arioth!'!r, the humid Bahian summer would workers raked ash from the furnace remove from their constitutions what­ floor and placed it in a heated brick ever it was that adversely affected recess from which ·it could •. be taken as· their productivity. One contemporary necessary. Once the ashes had been Figure 3 Plan of a flueless eighteenth­ believed that stoking the fires along shoveled into smaller, perforated ·tubs, with hydrating clay constituted the century {14rnace house drawn in three boiling water was filtered through the elevations: front, side, and top. All worst jobs at a mill because these were ashes and then mixed with the juice drawings by the author. the only individuals who could not bOiling in the cauldronsY The ashes of secretly dip into rhe sweet product of Top Front viewof the furnace house; particular tree species were regarded . showing the grated fire door ofeach furnace their labors as a way to fend off hun­ as essential to the processing of sugar and the open terrace ahov.e. Note the great ger. A fire tender likely had m~ch · for they were key to its purity and distance befween fUrnace floor and kettles. more with which to concern himself; whiteness, the qualities that fetched MiJdle Top view demonstrating the Besides the skin burns that radiant die highest prices. Senhores de engen­ arrangement ofthe large copper kett_les over heat and ballistic embers caused there ho included this fact in arguments for each furnace. lArge~· mills utilized six kettles, was the possibility of falling into the preservation ofth e forest. 23 ' the juice passing from the largest to the · furnace, although the construction of smallest during processing. some mills minimized this danger. An Co~petition for a Dwindling Bottom Cut-away side view of the fur­ insubordirlate slave at the fire door nace house, showing 'the internal dimen­ was chained as much•to keep him Resource ·- sions of the furnace, the absence of a flue, from running, off as to deny him even As an essential, expensive, and and the working floor. · the freedom of taking his life in the incre~ingly scarce commodity, com­ flames, an event that occurred on at peting mill owners frequently argued added responsibility of defending both - least one occasion. over fuel wood.' Although blood ties . crops and fuel from sneaking neighbors. Building the fires was a job that often connected these lords of agricul­ A 1690 altercation in which familial required some architectural skills. The ture, such links did not include the ties had ,no ,mollifying influence took average six furnaces, one per kettle, bonds of charity. The removal of one place w,hen two Jesuit priests of the were arrayed along the boiling house's . length of timber orthe trespassing of Engenho Pitanga discovered a group outer, basement walls. Since the floor one wayward, cane-trampling ox of men from Antonio da Rocha's mill of the furnace could be a significant could throw cousins into sometimes in Jesuit woodlands. When the priests distance from the bottom of the kettle bloody dispute.24 Foremen who over­ attempted to obstruct the depreda­ on the floor above, a structure of fire­ saw plantings and cuttings on the tions the mob verbally insulted them 25 wood spanned the gap (see figure 3). fringes of the mills' property had the and beat them with the stolen goods.

Brazman Sugar Ml1s _185 ~ ..

.As pocke~ of forested land dimin-·_ exploitation of firewood within one . proliferation might-have promoted a ished in size and increased in distance full league of their furnaces, for '\t is more equal distribution of income . . from the mills, the scale of the fue1- more useful...to conserve one [engenho] among the landed elite and ostensibly . wood conflict escalated. By the mid- · for many years than to lose two in a expanded productive capacity, acti.ial 27 seventeenth century, however, mill .brief rime. " , . production stagnated. Fud scarcity · · owners turned to more formal means . On 3 November l681 the regent, was not necessarily a limiting facrcit than theft to acquire what remained of paraphrasing much of the council's in Brazilian sugar production at this an increasingly costly natural resource. lener as justification, prohibited con- point, but fuel shortages were signifi- In 1679 Pedro Garcia Pimental received . struction of new inills. within one-half cant enough th;~t senhores de engenho special attention from the Crown con­ league ofexisting mills.28 That he cut somewhat suc:cessfully invoked this cerning'his.exdusive right to exploit · in half the suggested one-league law .· concern as a weapon in defending their the woodlands that encircled his mill is evidence that the king received co.n- mterests. Planters during 1650-70 _ ~t Cahicabo. The pr1nc~-regent; soon flicting' pressure. Less than three years irivestedin processii:tg capacity rather to become Dom PedroJI, learned that '·t:iter the Salvador city council, for rea- . than in expanding cane plantings. certain heirs to those lands were plan~ · sons unexplained, reversed its posi- Statistics from the 1650-51 harvest ning to construct a mill not far from . tion. Their letter dated 5 August 1684 at the Jesuit-ru~ Engenho Sergipe de · Pimental's, ''which would· be greatly claimed that the woodlands of the . Conde; however, shed light on fuelwood 0 prejudicial to both as it is not possible Reconcavo were such that mills could - scarcity's inipa'cton sugar refining. ~ 0" thafthe site has enough firewood for often be established closer even than ' , Refining was interrupted on eighty- "'c. "'c. the~, and from which act damage 'to half a league without the slightest - three days of the 31 0-day harvest :::;>. 0 the conservation of that state. would. damage to production. Th~ opposite period from August to May. Sixty of 3 ensue." Reminding his royal officials was the case; they argued, for if one those interruptions were due to Sabbaths . about related legislation his predeces­ · mill owner could hciard many acres of and religious holidays; the remaining · 'sors had passed, the regent forbade unused forests, less sugar would be twenty-three: days of inactivity were construction of any mill within a Ol).e­ produced and at greater cost.29 divided among various causes,: bad league circle of Pimental's mill and The desire ofthe planter class to weather a~ounted for three days, ordered that no tree could be removed escape their dependence on the sen- five days were devoted to mechanical from the woods of that prescribed area hares de engenho, \¥hose monopoly ·repairs, a lack of cane stopped the mill fcir any reason, unless those doing the over milling services promoted occa- once. Fuel shortage was the reported dearing sold the wood as fuel tothe sion!ll high-handedness, was a primary cauf;e for shutriilg down on fourteen Pimental mill at the current market stimulus to sugar mill proliferation. separate days. 31 Insufficient firewood, price. This order insured that the sur­ Despite the huge initial outlay· in capi- in this particular mill and during this rounding forests would be used only tal (slaves, waged employees, milling particular year, accounted for 61 per- for fuelingthe rilllJ.26 machinery, and transport vehicles) cent of unwanted, reportedproduc- In July 1680 the regent received and the difficulties inherent in mill tion stoppages. There is no way to a formal list of grievances from the ownership, many plantru-s had both discern what caused the fuelwood municipal council at Salvador concern­ the wealth or credit and the ambition shortages. Potential causes included ing the deleterious effects the large to pursue milling operations on their bad weather, insufficient labor, lack of number of mills had on the sugar own land. Hence the ongoing battle foresight on the part of the sugar mas- industry as a whole. The council con­ over how many mills could be built in ter, and inadequate carts and boats f01: firmed thatthere was not enough fir~­ a limited area was in part a contest transportation. But as the distance of wood. Once cut, forests could not be between rival classes; senhores de the forest from the mill increased, as a replenished in less than twenty years, engenho attempted to bar planters from growing population demanded more· and trees required considerably more acquiring ~ny'means.of producti.ori wood for construction material, cook- growing time :than th~t if mills were to beyond the land's inherent fertility. . ing, and shipbuilding, the com plica- condnue burning fuelwood in the sizes Declaring a dearth of fin::wood when tions in keeping sufficient amounts of and quantities they were accustomed new mills were to b~ built too clqse to fuel wood at the mill increa~d. Fuel to using. Although the council and their own vvas a means to that end. . supply became far less reliable than residents were aware of royal decrees· cane supply. setting minimum distances for new The Impact of Fuel Scarcity The firewood shortage at the mill mills from neighboring mills, argu­ had less to do with overall forest reserves ments over what that distance was Producti~n figures seem to support than with inability to move sufficient and whether the space had to be the mill owners' appeals. Brazil'sthrec · amounts of fuel to areas of sugarcane wooded caused serious quarrels and hundred working mills squeezed two production. As late as 1807 the author lawsuits. The council's recommenda­ million arrobas of finished sugar from Rodrigo de Brito commented thattalk tions to the Crown fell firmly behin'd the 1650 harvest. Nevertheless, in of wood being in short supply was the senhores de engenho. Existing 1670, even with an increase of two fiction. Cutting wood was just part of sugar m:ills, they said, should have pre­ hundred milis, the colony produced plantation expansion. Yet he concedeq cedence over upstart neighbors in the about the same volume. 30 While mill tb.e bigger reality: the price of wood

186 Forest & Conservation History 38 (October 1994} would continue to increase as the dis­ · forced millers to take note. Bahian · was accomplished by adding more tance between mill and forest grew · millers then benefitecHrom the experi­ slaves, more acreage, and by squeezing ... more' quickly than the forests could be,. ence of-their competitors in the. West mo~e cane juice with _more powerful · 32 replenished. . , Indies, who suffered from a far earlier mill_s. Although ftrewood amounted to Despite senhores de engenho;s state­ and more severe depletion of fuel . a-considerable portion of mills' total ments suggesqng the contraty, the resources and therefore devised more costs; little was done to use it prudently debate among planters, millers, and efficient.imd alternative means of fuel- until the early-nineteenth-century . other interested parties over fuel reserves· .ing their mills. . was not about the availability of fuel ·Parr.ofhuman existence and survival The Roots of Fuel Scqrcity but its accessibility. Bahia's forests involves predation on the surrounding stretched for miles into the interior'; environment by the economic system The most extensive firewood there was theoretically e~ough wood hunter, gatherer, or capitalist. And · destruction oecuired even before the for everyone many times over. The · despite the importance of certain· first cane cuttings were pla~ted, when problem was getting access to that far­ · cultUral and religious factors in con­ ·· ·planters/cleared the .land. Jose da Silva flung wealth: Tr'ees any discince inland ditioning the intensity and. extent of Lis boa explained that the massapi, _ were as good as nonexistent. Unlike. hiUilan impact; the major determin;mt the black, unctuous soil that rumed to some areas, such as the United States · is population density. Even before a quagmire in.rain, also produi:ed the where relatively light conifers could' - the expansion of its culture, Europe's best cane yields, attracted the highest ·float down even unnavigable rivers, economic philosophy-whether. land prices, and had the best quality Bahia's predominantly non-floating in farming, mining; irrigation; or of trees. This exceptionally fertile soil hardwood trees had to be shipped from­ logging-had been to exploit natural 'was bOth the origin and result of the the river bank, thus limiting woods- resources to the ends that technology· trees it anchored.Theaccumulation . · . men to the distances they could navic permitted. Native American cultures and decomposition over many centu­ gate. Even if there had been more al~o exploited nature; the difference ries of leaves, downed timber, and conifers in the forests of northeast resided first in numbers, but also in other organic material on- top of a Brazil to float downriv.er, these would •· the exploiter's intentions. Where - layer of clay formed a coveted soil not have served as well for fuel. · Brazil's indigenous peoples were type .for the perennial sugarcane. Silva Nature produced a wealth of forest unanimously satisfied with daily sub­ Lis boa claimed that in some places this resources, and generally the only cost sistence, Europeans imported the idea . ground had been planted profitably to those who needed those resources that economic growth was a worthy for over sixty years without lying fallow was labor. The double benefit from end in its own right. Colonists could or adding fertilizer; but he also observed minimizing labor and using the cheap­ not, with satisfaction, simply produce that orice the fertility diminished, a . est modes of transportation suggests for themselves what was meet for the planter had to wait years for the land to that forests receded from the edges of day at hand. Bahia's sugar mills, like recover.~~ Most planters simply moved navigable water more quickly than . those of the West Indies or other Bra­ to virgin, fertile forest instead. they receded from the mills them­ zilian provinces such as Pernambuco Land clearing and fuelwood gather­ selves. Hence, most mills at water's and Rio de Janeiro, would single­ ing wer::e not complementary jobs. As edge, even before they exhausted the handedly attempt to satisfy the world: Lis boa noted, "The planting of cane· woods on their own lands, bought - - But the growth of sugar production commences with the cutting and fell~ wood more cheaply from those who could not be sustained without tech­ ing of the trees, if the plantation i-s '.cur and hauled it from the banks of. nological progress. As has happened made on new ground. When the forest the bay and rivers. Attempts to limit many times since in Bahia, technology is virgin, composed of woods that are the construction of new milfs to a dis­ ran up against scarcity, and either enormously thick and large, if there. tance of one league may have had the . new technology had to be developed is the possibility for them to be sawn, additional intent of barring aspiring to leap scarcity's recurring obstacles they are made into planks for sugar planters' access to water. Mills inthe or sugar interests would have to face crates; otherwise all is reduced to interior~ however, while relying the agony of economic stagnation. ash ... ;The smaller, remaining firewood heavily on expensive oxen and man~ Na~ure's limitations had the final is piled into mounds taHed covairas power to inove their cane, wood, and word: her many gifts were finite. and fire is set to them until all the 35 finished sugar, also had advantages. Colonial Brazil's sugar producers wood rsconsumed~" Forested larid­ Interior, untouched lands were report­ faced only one option, to use what was burned over so that it would pro­ edly more productive, an:d 'distances to remained more efficiently. duce to planter expectations, although fuel sources were invariably shorte('Y In the bounteous land. of colonial the practice wasted expensive firewood_ Even when true scarcity threatened Bahia efficiency was a concept almost Nevertheless, -because of this burning the the viability of the sugar trade from· unheard of when it came to using mills' fuelwood resot.irces disappeared as time to time, senhores de engenho natural resources. Planters and millers cane plantings expanded into new areas. were loatQ to invent, adapt, or adopt alike were inq:n:sted in improved The condition and form in which new milling methods. It took centuries technology, but improvement mea'nt· firewood was prepared for the furnace before a critical shortage of fuelwood expanding sugar ~reduction, and this also contributed to the inefficient use

Brazilian Sugar Mi~ 187 of wood resources. Contemporaries other furnaces consumed and offered his · cavo ha,j fe'w rivals with such profit­ obserVed that it wa~ common-to bi.un patented plans for a price of 1.00 mil­ able conditions for growing sugar, and . gr~n or rinseasoned wood. It is gener­ reis. He reminded millers of the costs · for this reason Brazil was late to adopt ally recommended that timber cu't involved in gathering firewood, specific impr in the past twenty years in this region; to fuel the fur-naces during the early He thought the operations. slovenly, and if we do not imitate the industry part of the harvest, but such stockpiles with owners paying little attention to of the inhabitants of Barbarlos and would have been exceptional. the "minutiae of business. "40 Martinique, our sugar will not be able In addition to burning green wood, During the first half of the nine­ to compete in price with theirs in mills burned wood in largepieces. teenth century millers showed greater Europe. 41 Vilhena estimated that many logs put interest in furnace innovations, sug­ on the fire wholly intact were as large gesting that the costs of fuel finally Through much of the colonial perio.d, as .66 meters in diameter; this cor­ had a recognizable impact on prodigal nature's abundance was the strongest roborates Sampaio e Melo's claim practices at inills. The Bahian Recon- . argument against attempts at conservation.. that some fire logs were so.enormous that a man could not put his arms around themY A piece of wood burns more efficiently as the ratio of oxygen-· exposed surface area to .volume increases. The circumference of a large round log exposes the smallest surface area possible, thereby impeding the critical_ 38 processes of drying and pyrolysis. ' Split firewood would obtain better heating and fuel-use efficiencies. How­ ever, mill operators likely considered splitting an operation too labor inten­ sive due to the daily volumes involved . . The inefficient construction of the furnaces themselves added con~ider­ ably to resource waste. Until the late­ eighteenth century, mill operators largely.ignored the fuel-saving claims offurnace inventors. In ] 656,Juan Figure 4 · Large team of oximhauling a cartload of logs, not necessarily for fuel. Note the Lopes Sierra claimed his new furnace smoke rising on the horizon. Drawing by Percy Lau reproduced with permission from the would save one-third the fuel that lnstituto Brasileiro de Geogra{;.:z e Estatistica, Rio de janeiro, Brazil.

188 ·· forest & Conservatioa History 38 (October 1994) . Buying into the Engenho da. Ponta annual fuel -consuinptio!l was approxi- · Other sectors of Bahi~'s economy . in 1806, Manoel Ferreira da Camara; mately two cubic meterS, and it is also relied upon the forests for fuel. · well-educated, Uberal, anC:I a colleague likely thanhis consumption rate haa Even before the arrival of the first of Braziljs leading politician Jose Boni­ changed little since the late-Colonial royal governor in 1549 there was a f.kio de Andrada e Silva, revamped. period;•s · liine kiln at Bahia. In 1550 Manso • his furnaces in such a way that he .

BrazUian Sugar MiOs 189 hide~. Soiinporta~t were trees to the made ofsucupird-and _had to be fre­ Table 2 bpcNf$ of timber, contain­ leather industry that in 1760 cutting quently repaired and replaced. Herice en, and fuehllood-depencl~nt gocids . mangroves for fuel was pro~ibited by shipbuilding competed for fir~wood from Bahia to Portugal, 19 Novem· law in many provinces because such .. indirectly by competing for the materi-' ~ 1757 mercllant convoy · activity caused harm to hide pr~­ ,a[s required to builc! sinall boats and sors who relied on the tree's bark for carts that transported fuel to the mills. _nln~p~d•ds tannic acid; 'Anyone who cut those · Planters and millers also often hauled Urimilled flitches (dozens) 680 trees that had not been peeled of their timber to the shipyard, which lacked . .. Planking (dozens) 130 bark faced a large fine and t~ree _· its own means of transporting primary Beams 235 months of imprisonment. Cattle hides, . materials. In 1704 Salvador's munici­ ~hip timbers ; 1,000 · which like cut sugarcane decayed if pal council inform~d the king that the. · · Ciuriag~ switches 37 left imtreated, were turned into durable .. practice of building large ships. in Vine trellis poles . 1,897 Bahia (six galleons in the past seventeeb. leather by boiling'them·~n a tank of Billets of firewood . 14~;200 water with the mangrove bark; In years) had caused millers, sugar plant­ Planks of vinbatico 180~ 1746, Pernambuco had twenty-seven ers, and tobacco planters ·"general· PI~ of piguia · 28 separate tanning operations empioying iuin. ~As they had ·done previously, Roof tiinbers 615 more than three·hundred slaves, many they petitioned the king to move the of the'm undoubtedly peeli~g bark ~nd royal shipyards south to Il~eus, _Cama- Logs of cabinet wood · ·cutting firewood .. Alt.hough there are mu, or Rio das Contas where wood jacaranda 356 no siffiilar records for Bahia; fhe num­ was ·still abundant arid there was less - _ Sebastiao de Arruda 3,068 bers could be even greater since Salva­ danger of damaging the local sugar dor annually exported more leather .economyY · · Wooden con~in.!,s (varyi~g sizes) 53 than imy other port. . . · Bahia also exported a significant · Barrels 1,171 In the early-seventeenth century, amount of lumber and a variety of 12,756 Bahia established the colony's first wood products. Although most of whaling industry, and although over- .. · these were species specific, wood in Fuelwood-dependent produds fishing of the bay and local coasts the holds of Portuguese ships bound · U~its of sugar 12,751 quickly removed the captaincy from for Europe, the West Indies, or other Bales oftobacco 143 parts ~f Brazil co1,1ld not be used to its preeminent position, the processing Units ofleather 89,177 of whale oil remained a significant fuel the fires of sugar mills. Little is Furs 5,058. employ~ent until about 1825: Even known about the extent and value of in 1802, Vilhena recorded at least two the Brazilian lumber trade outside Note: Quantities not otherwise designated large whale oil refiners in Bahia, one of brazilwood, but the inventories ~f are counted in units of "each." at the·Ponta da Arma~ao das Baleias •goods shipped out on fleets bound on the northern tip ofthe island of for Lisbon provide some indication. ltaparica, and another on the beach Of the twenty-nine items that Jose Conclusion at Itapoan on the Atlantic coast. The Ant§nio Caldas listed as cargo on th~ . In the- Bahian Reconcavo, as in all German scientist Karl Friedrich Philipp fleet of 19 November 1757, twelve ofBJ:azil's sugar producing regions, von Martius gave the impression there were wood products, ten were pack­ the extraction of firewood was an· were smaller operations in the vicinity' . aged in wood (crates and barrels of operation extensive in seal~ and of 4 as well. 5 The fuel necessary for reduc" varying sizes), and four were pro- - widespread concern. Even in a tropical ing wale blubber, at least in the case of cessed by the application of heat from climate where domestic heating had the ltaparica arma~ao, relied on the wood fires. Whatever the total com~ almost no impaCt:, fuelwood was . • 5 same SOUrCeS aS did sugar mills. 5 mercia! value ofthe lumber trade, the among the colony's most crucial eco­ Shipbuilding, although never· .. . volume was substantial. trees left nomic products. Through most of the requiring large amounts of firewood, . Braiil in significant numbers as sawn colonial period, fuel acquisition for elicited complaints from colonists who lumber, protective p~cka:ging, and Brazil's fuel-dependent enterprises was 58 saw Salvador's royally administered spent heat (see table.2). · -generally n~ver more thart a nuisance. shipyard as .a detrimental competitor-. Even Portugal used wood from But by the end of the eighteenth cen­ for highly valued hardwood species Bahia's forests to fuel her fires, adeast tury senhores de engenho, tanners, sua.tpir..a (Bowdichia virgilioid~s , by the lateceighteenth century. The whalers, and distillers alike began to H.B.K). By 1587 Soares de Souza· same fleet in 1757 carried 146,200 bil- · experience the crisis West Indian·colo- · counted more than fourteen hundred lets of firewood to Lisbon, and. in nies had suffered ~ century before. watercraft on the bay, one hundnid of 1796 Bahia exported at least 14,875 Although Brazil's sugar industry com­ them more than ten meters long, a pieces to Lisbon at the price of two. menced a fu.ll century before its West number that still insufficiently served reis each. Much of the latter shipment Indian competitors, the sheer extent 56 the needs of commerce. Most of seems to have been destined for rhe of Brazil's Atlantic forests averted these boats and the best oxcarts, millL royal kitchens and probably served as the exigency for two and a half centu­ 59 ing machinery, and bushings were ballast on the voyage. ries. Firewood's increasing scarcity

190 Forest &Conservation History 38 (October 1994) impinged upon the scale and direction Notes 6. Andre Joiio Anronil[pseudonyin of Giovanni Antonio Andreoni, S.J.J, Cultura of sugar inill proliferation~ multiplied 1. The official name of the city is Salvador e opulencia do Brasil, por suas drogas e the costs and complexities of produc­ (Saviour), bur iri their correspondence ininas , .. (Sao Pa!ilo, Brazil: Compaithia tion for all fuel~ependent entrepreneurs, . . kings and viceroys referred to the city .Melhoramentos, 1976), bk. 2, chap. 8. and even dictated the articulation of as Bahia (Bay), also a common practice 7. Juan LOpes Sierra, A Governor and his Image the tenns in which social conflict ·today. I refer to Bahia in this article, except in Baioque &aw: The Funeral Eulogy of. where there is ambiguity as to whether I Afonso Furtado de Castro do Rio de played out. . · . . mean the city or the pi'9'i

Brazilian Silgar Mills 191 21. For d~scriprlons of fire h~dling at the mill 36. See Fuelwood and Charcoal Preparation: . 48. Gabriel Soares de Souza, Tratado see Antoni!, Cultura e opulencia, bk. 2, An Illustrated Training Manual on Simple descriptivo do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro; .Brae chap. 8; imd Vilhena, Recopila¢o de Tools and Teclmiques /or Small-scale zil: Typographia Universal de laemineri, . . naticiOs; 1:184, 186-87. . . Enterprises (Geneva, "SwitZerland: huerna- 1851) in ReviSta do lnitituto HisMrico e 22. ·See Antoni~ Cultura e opulencia, bk. 2, . tion~l Labor Office, 1985), p. 47, for the Geogrti{ico do Brazil (Rio de Janeiro, Bra­ map. 8; and Koster, Travels in Brazil, p; lli6. suggested rime to allow wood to dry before zil: lrriprc:nsa NaCional, 1853); 14:356; 23. J~o Rodrigues de Brito, Girtas econiimico­ ·burning. Percentage of moisture content is . Antoni!, Omura e opuleni::ia, bk. 3, chap. 4. po/iticaS sobre a agricu/tura e wmmercio derermined by comparing· the timber's 49. Edson C3rneiro, A cidade do Salvador da Bahia (Bahia; Brazil: Imprensa Official overi dry weight (0 percent moisture) with. )Rio deJaneiro, Brazil: Organiza~ao do ~tado, 1924), p. 97. Brito quotes its initial g~een weight. The equation is SimOes, 1954 ), p: 108. . . .Manod' F~rreira da Camara's. statement · [I -(oven dry weight+ initial green 50. SoareS de Souza, Tratado deseriptivo do that when die proper woods could not be weight)). For this equation and average Brasil, 14:296, 3.1.5-56. · secured for making lye the fabiicarion of percent moisture in fresh cu.t timber, see 51 .• There is no record of the size of these bags sugar suffered immeasurably. ·. Fue/woodand Charcoal Preparation, p. 46. of chim::oal. · t 24. Anronil, CUitura e opulencia, bk. 1, chap, 3. 37. Viihena, R~copila¢o de noticias, 1:196; 52. Docum~tos Hist6ri.cos; vols. 37 and38. 25. Royal Order to Antonio LuiS Gon~alves ¥imuel Jacinto de Sampaio e Melo, !dade 53. See Francisco Augusto Pereira da Costa,_ . da Camara Coutinho, Lisbon, 7 December de Ouro do Brasil, no: 76 (22 September Anais Pemambucanos, 2d ed. (Recife, Bra­ 1690, vol. 1, Royal order #92, Ordens · 1812), cited in Pinho, Hist6ria de um zil: Governo d~ Pernambuco, 1983-87), RegiaS, Arquivo Publico do Estado da engenho, p. 241; and Aritonil, Cultura ~, pp. 203-205; C3ldas, Noticia geral, follow- Bahia, Sal~ador, Brazil. · · opulencia, p.l16, all describe the excessive. ingp: 442. · _ t::r 26; Documentos Hist6ricos, 110 vols. (Rio de size of firewood: · 54. Vilhena, Recoplla¢o de noticias, 1:238. ~ janeiro, Brazil: Biblioteci Nacional do Rio 38. See David A. Tillman, Wood Combustion: Johann Baptist von Spix and Karl Friedrich de Janeiro, 1928-55),,27:260-61. The Por- . Principles, Processes, aniEconomii:s (New Philipp vonMartius, Viagem Pelo Brazil [ "'"- tuguese colonies, like those of Spain, were York: Academic Press; 1981), pp. 17~33; (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: lniprenSa. Nadonal, ::;> 0 · ruled and administered in every brarich of Tillman aiso discuSses wood's moisture i938), pp. 2.73-76. 3 colonial iife by the crown and its inulti'tu­ conrenr. 55. Documentos Hist6ricos, 27:209. See also dinous appointed official~. Affairs from the 39. Ata5 da Cania~a: Docurnentos Hist6ricos Myriam Ellis Aspectos da pesca da baleia · momentous to the trivial merited their atten­ do Arquivo Mlmicipal do Salvador Bahia, no Brasil coloniizl (Sao Paulo,· Brazil: n.p., tion. Duri~g this period Pedro ruled as reienr, · 1625-1700 (Bahia, Brazil: Prefeitura 1958), pp. 55-70. . . after deposing by signed agreement his Municipal do Salvador, 1944), 3:311. 56. Soares de SouZa., Tratado d~scriptivo do brother Mfonso VI, becoming Pedro U after 40. Koster, Travels in Bra~il, p. 165. Brasil; 14:,151. Diego de Campos Moreno · Affonso's death in i683. The best evidence 41. Sampaio e Melo; !dade de Ouro, in Pinho, . claimed in 1612 there were more boats in suggests that the one-league law commenced Hist6ria;de urn engenho, pp. 236-37. Bahia than in the rest of Brazil combined; in 1609 (see Brito, Cartas econiimico­ 42. Brito, Cartas econiirnicc-politicas, pp. 81, 96. see Diego de Campos Moreno, Livro que politicas, p. 96). It met with little success .. 43. For a comprehensive account of the · da razao do estado do Brasil, published in 27. Cartas do Senado: Documentos hist6ricos numerous furnacdnnovations at Bahian Hispanic American Historical RevieU? 29 do Arquivo Municipal do Salvador Bahia, mills in the ninetee~th century see Pinho, (August 1947): 533. . 5 vols. (Salvador, Brazil: Prefeitura do Hist6ria de um engenha, pp. 227-41. 57.. For a sample of the munic:ipal.council's Municipio, 1951-62), 2:88-89. 44. Atas da Camara, 5:81. The king granted correspondence concerning the royal ship­ 28. Pinho, Hist6ria de urn engenho, p. 220. lands (sesmarias) ·to the citizens of Salva­ yard and its effects.on the sugar economy, 29. Cartas do Senado, 2:128-29. dor on which pasruiing and wood gather­ see Ciirtas do Senado, 3:4-5, 38-39, 42-43; 30. Stuart B. Schwartz, "Free Labor in a Slave ing were permitted; but they were inconve­ and 5:98-1 OJ. Economy: The Lavradores de Cana of niently located in relation to the city. 58. Caldas, Noticia geral, pp. 442-4J. Millers Colonial Ba~ia, ~ The Colonial Roots of 45. An incident in Rio de Janeiro in 1800 pro­ reported sugar crates, made of softwoods Modem Brazil, ed. Daniel Alden (Berkeley: vides some evidence. The Brazilian viceroy thai would. not alter sugar's taste or color, · University of california Press, 1973 ), charged the English 25$800 n!is for the as increasingly expensive. Am6r6sio p.!89. An arrobaequals 14.7 kilograms. fuel needs of four hundred fifty French Fernandes Brandao, Dialogos dos · 31. Schwartz, "Colonial Brazilt 2:434-35. . prisoners that the English captured on the grandezas do Brasil, ed. Jose A. Gon~alvcs Although nor critical to my argument, high seas. This charge was for 3,775 billets de Mello, 2d ed. {Recife, Brazil: n.p., there is a small discrepancy between the and 256 bundles of firewood for thirty·two 1966), p. 159, was acquainted with indi­ data provided in the text of" Colonial days. Based on this example, the prisoners' viduals who with slave labor built and sold Brazil" and that suggested by the graphic consumption was approximately 120 up to two thousand chests per year representation on the facing page. I have wood pieces per capita per year, keeping in (Dialogos, p. 159). Sacks did not replace relied on·the latter. mind the greater efficiency likely exhibited crates until the mid-nineteenth··Cenl\ley. 32. Brito, Canas econamic>J·Politicas, pp.31-32". ·due to the institutional nature of keeping 59." BalanfQ Geral do Comercio de Portugal, 33. Borh Antoni!, Cultura e opulencia, prisoners. See Viceroy Conde de Reyerde 1796, 11, 4, 8, folha 43, Biblioreci Nacional . pp. 101-102, and Vilhena, Recopila¢o to C3ptain Bulteel of the English Navy, do Rio de janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and de noticias, 1:174, discuss the pros and c6digo 68, vol. 16, f. 280, pp·. 307"308, C31das, Noticia geral, following p. 442 cons of waterside mills and those inland. Arquivo Nacional do Rio de Jan~iro, Rio 60. Philip Currin, The Atlantic Slave. Trade: A The waterside mills' soils were exhaust~, de Janeiro, Brazil. · Cen5us (Madison: University of Wisconsin forests we~e depleted, and suhsistence agri­ 46. Caldas, Noticia gera/, p. 445.' Antoni!, Press; 1969), table 34, p. 119. culture was ·inadequate. · · Cultura e opulencia, appendix, stated the 61. Adriao Caminha Filho, A cana de afUcar · 34•. Silva Lisboa, "Carta muito interessante," trade value of Reciincavo rum as 30,000 na Bahia (Bahia, Brazil: Tipografia Naval, p. 499. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations, cruzados in 1710, a .significant portion of 1944), pp. 5, 36. p. 107, discussessoil and climate. ·, · Bahia.'s total exports, A cruzado was a 62. Gilberro Freyre, Nordeste: Aspectos da 35. Silva Lis boa, "Carta muito interessante,~ gold 'coin worth 480 n!is at the time. influencia da ·cana sobre a vida e paisagem p.499. , 47. The jesuit Anronil, among orhers, makes do Nordeste do Brasil, 3rd ed.lRio de frequent mention to the con.sequences of. Janeiro, Brazil: joSe Olympio, 1961 ), p. 54_ permitting slaves to drink. See Anronil, Cultura e opulencia.

192 Forest & Conservation History 38 (October 1994)