The objective of this article is to analyze the tributary politics in Portugal in relation to Brazil along the first half of the XVIII century. In that period, the monarchy power was stronger in Portuguese America. Such growth can be explained, on one hand, starting from the largest complexity that the monarchy acquires along the modern time, and, on the other hand, because of the development of colony's productive activities. In Brazil, the most visible aspect related to the State's presence growth is linked to the tributary politics and, in which Alexandre de Gusmão had a distinctive role proposing a tax reformation that could substitute the multiplicity of existent taxes for a "capitation".
Colonial institutions; mining; tributary reformations