BRAZILIAN TOBACCO AND THE “SPANISH NATION” IN LISBON, C.1700-C.1740

Abstract

This article examines the opportunities provided by the Portuguese tobacco monopoly to foreign businessmen established in Lisbon. Against the backdrop of political and economic constraints that influenced trade between the two Iberian monarchies, it takes the House of Gómez as a case study, to show that tax farming could be an important source of wealth accumulation and a path to reaching the top of the mercantile hierarchy.