Um patrimônio em contendas: os bens jesuíticos e a magna questão dos dízimos no estado do Maranhão e Grão Pará (1650-1750)

Abstract

This thesis examines the Society of Jesus estate properties in the colonial State of Maranhão and Grão-Pará, a northern province of Portuguese America, throughout the second half of the seventeenth and first half of the eighteenth centuries. It addresses three main issues. First, the various ways by which this religious order acquired its many properties. Second, the maximization of the Jesuits‟ profits from the direct management of their properties and trade. Third, the problems that derived from the recurrent denial of the Society to pay the royal tithes. These were the main problems which originated the strong opposition the Society of Jesus had to deal with, especially from the Portuguese settlers, during the colonial period.