THE CONCEPT of slave-mercantile capital is proposed in this article as a way to understand in greater depth the Brazilian economic formation during the colonial and imperial periods. It consists of a specific form of existence of capital, different from commercial, industrial and usury capital, whose formula and main properties are presented here. Moreover, in this paper is tried to appraise the major consequences of the existence of this particular form of capital for Brazilian economy and society, from theoretical and empirical points of view, establishing a debate with the relevant historical literature.
