Santo (446). In th_: Canar!_~~-th.ere were both_r2l'~~i~land.sJC,ran ~anaria, La Palma, and Tenefire)' ana-those under lordly or seigniorial control (Fuerte­ ventiira;'t:anzarote, La Gomera, and El i;·u.e·· Canarian Hier~~ )'~- M~r~~~~-;~·· CHAPTER THREE archipelago, an indigenolis'·population existed, not only slowing the process of occupation but also confronting the colonists with rival claimants to the dis­ Sugar Islands tribution of lands among those autochthonous people who accepted Castilian 1 The Sugar Economy of Madeira and the Canaries, 1450-1650 sove~~ignty. • Alberto Vieira An understanding of the syst;.m of eroee[!y requires an in-depth study, based on documentary sources, of relations based on the ownership and production of the limited arable land. For Madeira, some tax registers f9!..~ugar gro~~xist, but for the.Canaries such information can only be found in land distribution (repartimiento) and notarial..tcc.aok2 The system of property in both archi­ Europe was always quick to name its islands according to the prod­ pelagos was defined by the distribution of land to the settlers and later by sale, ucts that they supplied to its markets. Thus some were called the exchange, or redistribution. Although there were many similarities, the process islands of pastel (dyestuff), and others the islands of wine. Madeira of settlement on each island varied due to their unique features. The Crown and some of the Canary Islands, given the role that sugar played in granted the captains and governors the power to distribute lands to settlers and "'""'"- ¥m - • ' ~--" - ----.............--·~· -'~·· ~-.,. their economies and in the life of their people, became known as COJ!~?!s .. ~c_<:>r~ing to their participation in the process and to their social sugar islands. These island groups played an essential role in the rank. 3 All these donations or grants were made according to norms established '\f.'.~?~ transfer of sugar from the Mediterranean to the Caribbean along by the Crown, based on the model established during the resettlement of the what could be called the "sugar route." Iberian peninsula. These grants also included information, which was not al­ This chapter traces the parallel evolution of sugar agriculture on the islands of ways accurate, concerning the social status of the recipient, area of cultivation, Madeira, Gran Canaria, Tenerife, La Palma, and Gomera from the fifteenth to improvements to be made, and a time table for cultivation. the seventeenth century. The focus is on the productive and commercial cycles On the Portug~£ Wands, the Crown and later the lord of the island, Prince , ....... -~ --..,_, ..... ~ of this product as well as on the essential questions of land, water, and slavery Henry (Infante Dom Henrique ), regulated the distribution of lands from tl1e ~"''"·""->·..-. .,_,.~ ... --->< ... ~ ... that determined much of the history of sugar in its Atlantic island stage. Madeira very beginning. At first, the monarch, Dom Joiio I, instructed the captains that is the point of departure for this study for a couple of reasons: sugar agriculture the lands should be "conveyed unencumbered and without any rent to~~--..-- those of was first introduced in Madeira, from where the industry spread to other areas, 3~!ty and others who possess the means to use them well and stripping including the Canaries; and the surviving documentation from Madeira en­ timber and in breeding livestock."4 Later, Joao Gonr;alves Zarco, using the ables us to better understand the impact of sugar on society and economy in prerogatives bestowed upon him and his descendants, held a significant portion ways that could eventually fill in gaps in the documentary record of the Canary of tll.e land in Funchal and Ribeira Brava. Other grants were made under the Islands as well. Alfonsine regulations to those who had the capacity to develop them; failure to do so resulted in losing their right of possession. In the Canaries too the social distinction between the grantees was apparent. Followi~~ th~~dula ~~£~;, The System of Landed Property and Water Rights -~_,_~- ............ ,~."'~-'""'··--· ..... ..., ..... 5 Pedro de V~x.a made grants to the conquistadors "according to their merits." It is The process of the occupation and settlement of Madeira and the Canaries was imp~rta~t to note that not all the Canary Islands had an ecosystem that was ideal not identical. Between ~and 1497 the two islands of the Madeiran archi­ for sugar cultivation, unlike Madeira where the chroniclers noted the abun­ pelago were a dominion (se;ho~f_!be Ord~tC11rist;-"".h'7stablished dance of water and wood. as its representatives three capt;ins, namely Joiio Gonr;alves Zarco at Funchal In Madeira, from the second half of the fifteenth century, leases of aforamento (1450), Tristiio Vaz at Machico (440), and Bartolomeu Perestrelo at Porto and meias beca~-common and they evolved in the sixteenth--~~;;~;y--i~ ....___ ..........--..__.~ UAnJ.'IRA ANn THF (;ANARIF.S A:1 sharecropping contracts. This was a specific situation in Madeira, which had the ever they went, first to the Canaries and then to America.9 The skill and inge­ --....: . -· characteristic of consuetudinary law. We should note that the various contracts nuity of the Madeirans in this occupation was reflected in the request of Afonso oflease (arrendamento) that have survived are not uniform in the arrangements de Albuquerque, who asked that the king send Madeirans to cut the wood to between the contracting parties. In some, the lord contributed to improvements; make the levadas with which sugarcane was irrigated, "in order to change the in others this was left to the colono or renter, reserving possession at the end with course of the River Nile." 10 no penalties. The norm was a contract oflimited duration obliging the renter to In t!l;_~cs, c,xcept ~or the j~<:l_pds. of GOill_~J;a and La-~rna, water was .•.· pay an annual fee or one half of the product. In the Cauar!$ there were several less accessibl'e:lfwas tlie patrimony of the king or lord who then distributed it to 1 differ~~lt~.2~1tract arran2ements (J<j~sc;s,,shar~pi~, ·~ortia:~"fo'ftile use of ~ :!ffi'e'?Th; "dulas" w~l~~tablished "according to the measurement of the \ the land .to those of Madeira;6 it is important to· mention the contract simi!~! said Ian~ an~ ~!-~~S.~~e," and above all, according to the agriculture for / " · of vUmP4u!YMtigu..,iFcording to ~hkh the proprietor of the land, in order to which they were destined, sugar having a preferential status. In this way, the begin cultivation, ceded the land for a fixed period and only after that period was grants (datas) of land shed light on the cultures to be initiated and the system rent paid. that controlled the distribution of woodland and water. Thus we have "grants of Given the importance of water for the sugar crop, its possession and distribu- irrigation" (regadio) and of "dryland" (secano). Those who sought t~'ln l · __... tion were essential elements- of the organization of the economL In, Madeira this infras'tfucture ~ybu\!2~~!l.£L~!!8enho were ~!~[::'i}_ltee~ttl.irtl:{~1le£a1.~[irr!&!ted ~ ~ not a problem at first because of the abundance of water, but in tlieca- _land. In Tenenfe, for the first decade of the sixteenth century we have twenty- t ............. ~-... - naries, scarci!Y immediate!}: ~enerated ~~: Thus there were land grants ~f()ill ca';~hich the building of a water or animal powered mill was ordered \ ' with andwithout water. Water ran in the streams (ribeiras) abundantly in the to be done within two or three years. In the Canaries, the most important 1 north. In the south during the summer, the stre~~re-almost all diverted to element was the rights to water, since they defined ·th~ifity t;; exploit the land, .:_~( the (water-course) or irrigation and aqueduct systems.? It was, in fact, in levadas andthUS"its-{i'iiiiiY.f~s ·g;a~ted for cane fields were made with the ob- _ ( ·theS~trea;;I;;~;;r th~ir marginsth-;t-th~-hi~tory. of the island was played ligatio!!.!? ~-~s~ w~ter-powered .mill. In this context, the lands r;t~ar the out. The principal parishes contained the headwaters of one or more streams. stream beds·?.i: barrancos_were greafly sougnrand were reserved for the principal I Funsb..<!!: ~ principal settlement of the island, is traversS,.bi: three..1treams. settlers. 11 I Streams and their sources were considered public domain in the earliest docu­ According to Virginia Rau and Jorge de Macedo, "the production of sugar ments about the island. In the areas of greatest population concentration and of benefited broad sectors or--the population, including among the producers not intensive land use, such as Funchal, the water of the stream beds was not only small and medium farmers, but also shoemakers, carpenters, barbers, mer- ~ sufficient to meet the requirements of the residents. Thus in 1485, Duke Dom chants, surgeons, and millers as well as noble functionaries, municipal officers, ! f Manuel recommended that the waters of the Ribeira of Santa Luzia be used and others who lived on the margins of this rich production. All these small J only for sugar mills, flour mills, and their associated activities and for no other producers took advantage of the system on the island to make their tiny produc- { reason. It was with Dom Joao II that water rights were definitely defined in a way tion profitable." 12 Historian Vitorino Magalhaes Godinho reinforced this char­ that lasted until century. In th'e t~eleefitli lettersof'7aiid8M~3i...he acterization of Madeiran social reality by noting tli~ricentration of cane fields established once and for all that waters were comw..<2£...E::t_rimony to be dis- in the hands of a small number of islanders.