The Harpsichord and the Whales: The Trajectory of Francisco Peres de Sousa, Music Teacher and Businessman (ca. 1740-1782)

During the Portuguese Old Regime, contracts of royal rights and tributes were an important instrument of government and a means of enrichment and social ascension for businessmen. The entry into the small circle of major contractors demanded not only the possibility of financial capital but also a solid social capital on both sides of the Atlantic. This work, based on several primary sources, examines the Francisco Peres de Sousa’s case, a music teacher at the Marquis of Pombal’s house, who managed to establish himself as a businessman and to participate in important gatherings from the ­second half of the eighteenth century. Peres de Sousa was both an official leader of certain enterprises and a partner of the company of Inácio Pedro Quintela, which dominated the whale fishing and the salt monopoly in Brazil for decades. Peres de Sousa stayed afloat in this market, albeit as a stooge to other characters, proves the importance of network relations and royal protection for contractors.

Keywords:
Portuguese America; whale fishing; salt contracts; Pombaline period