Abstract

FRAGOSO, João. The nobility of the republic: notes regarding the formation of Rio de Janeiro's first noble elite (16^th and 17^th centuries).Translated byThaddeus Gregory Blanchette. Topoi [online]. 2006, vol.1Selected edition, pp. 0-0. ISSN 1518-3319.

The article analyses the making of the early noble elite in Rio de Janeiro as well as its main economic characteristics during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Both centuries were difficult times for Portugal and it's overseas territories. In this scenario, the conquerors used old but efficient strategies rooted in ancine regime Portuguese society: conquest (of men and lands), control of the municipal senate and of the system of boons. This process resulted in a social and economic hierarchy that excluded part of the colonists and gave birth to the plantation economy.

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