Abstract
This article is a study of the allocation of public offices in the Americas, which aims to shed light on more general aspects of Portuguese administration during the period when the court was based in Brazil. As a royal prerogative, appointments to office were subject to various considerations, from the quality of the nominees to the state of the royal treasury. In a context marked by major upheavals, appointments to offices remained an important tool for the reinforcement of existing political loyalties or the creation of new ones.
Keywords:
venality of office; patrimonialization; bureaucracy; Ancien Régime; early modern