Missionação e negócios jesuíticos: acumulação de bens na capitania do Grão-Pará. (1653-1759)

Abstract

The work of the Society of Jesus in the catechesis of native populations in colonial areas has always provoked controversy with other religious orders, with colonial authorities and with residents, generating conflicts that at times reached high levels of radicalization. Aware of their evangelizing mission, the Jesuits soon realized that they could not depend on the resources of the Padroado and on the alms of their benefactors for the success of their salvationist policy. In this sense, they became involved in colonial business, developing the most diverse economic activities, such as cattle raising, collection and production of drugs from the sertão, mortgaging, renting of lands and real estate, etc., constituting an expressive material patrimony. In colonial Pará it was no different. The Society of Jesus became a serious economic competitor of the residents, and this was aggravated by the privilege it received from the Portuguese Crown for exemption from the payment of tithes. In addition, the Portuguese indigenist legislation granted the Company of Jesus the exclusivity of the distribution of indigenous labor among the residents and the colonial authorities, which generated a fierce dispute over the control of the labor force. This dissertation intends to analyze the practice of the mission developed by the Order and its relation with Jesuit business, starting from the assumption that they constituted a contradictory unity, which cost the Jesuits numerous conflicts with the other segments of the colonial society of Paraense, fed and sharpened the anti-Jesuitical sentiment, culminating in the expulsion of the Order, first of Pará and after Portugal and all its dominions.