Contratos de Tributos e Poder Regional: A Contribuição dos Meios Direitos para a Formação da Elite Mercantil Paulista na Segunda Metade do Século XVIII

Abstract

The article aims to investigate the relevance of the tax farming contracts (half duties) charged on the cattle brought from the Portuguese America’s Southern prairies for the process of external differentiation of the merchant elite of Sao Paulo in the second half of the Eighteenth century, specially its relations concerning alliances and rivalries with other merchant elite’s fractions in the Portuguese colony.