The Portuguese, after so many years of…
1504 CE to 1515 CE
At this time, peppers, spices, and silks are worth more than such exotica, and these products come from India and lands farther east.
With the exception of the New Christian (Jewish converts) investors, Brazil receives little attention from Lisbon for three decades.
The investors scout and defend the coast and share with the crown their monopoly contracts to harvest the brazilwood.
The Portuguese monarchs follow the practice of holding legal title to lands and to certain commodities but issuing to others licenses to profit from these lands and commodities at their own expense, or with the backing of other investors.
The custom is akin to the Castilian practice of adelantado (awarding of conquistador status) that develops during the reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from the Moors, whereby the crown commissions an agent to conquer a certain area at his own expense in return for rights to land, booty, and labor.
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South America
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