Versão portuguesa aqui.

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal and Count of Oeiras (Lisbon, May 13, 1699 – Pombal, May 8, 1782) was a Portuguese nobleman, diplomat and statesman. He was Secretary of State for the Kingdom during the reign of King José I (1750-1777), and is still considered one of the most controversial and charismatic figures in Portuguese history.

Representative of enlightened despotism in Portugal in the 18th century, he lived in a period of history marked by the Enlightenment. To this end, he initiated various administrative, economic and social reforms. It banned the importation of slaves into mainland Portugal on February 12, 1761 and ended discrimination against New Christians, despite not having officially extinguished the Portuguese Inquisition, which was placed under royal authority and was in force "de jure" until 1821 On the other hand, it created the Real Mesa Censória in 1768, with the aim of transferring, in its entirety, to the State the supervision of works intended to be published or disseminated in the Kingdom, which until then was the responsibility of the Tribunal of the Holy Office .

During the reign of King João V, he was ambassador to the courts of the Kingdom of Great Britain, in London, England, and of the Holy Roman Empire, in Vienna, Archduchy of Austria.

His administration was marked by two famous setbacks: the first was the Lisbon earthquake of 1755, a challenge that gave him the historic role of architectural renovator of the city. Shortly after, the Távoras Process, an intrigue with dramatic consequences. He was one of the main responsible for the expulsion of the Jesuits from Portugal and its colonies.

The painting "The Marquis of Pombal illuminating and rebuilding Lisbon", jointly signed by Louis-Michel van Loo (1707-1771) and Claude-Joseph Vernet (1714-1789), two great painters of their time, represents the statesman, in 1759 , at the center of a scene of great political and economic significance.

Birth, family and youth

Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo was born on May 13, 1699 in Lisbon, parish of Mercês, being baptized on June 6 of that year in the Chapel of the same invocation, located in Rua Formosa, which belonged to his family, with his godfather, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo, his paternal grandfather. Son of Manuel de Carvalho and Ataíde (Mercês (Lisbon), June 26, 1676 - Mercês (Lisbon), March 15, 1720), nobleman of the province, with property in the region of Leiria and his wife, D. Teresa Luísa de Mendonça e Melo (Santa Maria dos Olivais (Lisbon), b. October 7, 1684 -?), is a descendant of nobles established in Brazil. Among his mother's ancestors are the Albuquerque, Moura and Cavalcanti families, being descended by two lines, one of them matrilineal, from the Brazilian Indian tabajara Tindarena or Tavira, baptized as Maria do Espírito Santo Arco Verde. His paternal grandparents were Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo (deceased on January 19, 1719 in the parish of Mercês) and D. Leonor Maria de Ataíde (deceased on November 30, 1720 in the parish of Mercês), maternal João de Almada e Melo , Lord of Souto d'El Rei and Olivais and D. Maior Luísa de Mendonça. Sebastião was the eldest of twelve brothers, among whom Paulo António de Carvalho e Mendonça (1702-1770) and Francisco Xavier de Mendonça Furtado (1701-1779) stand out, faithful collaborators of his brother. His mother would marry as a widow on June 30, 1721, with Francisco Luís da Cunha de Ataíde (Mártires (Lisbon), bap. June 4, 1668 -?), widower of D. Josefa Leocádia Coutinho, who died in 1719.

Despite the noble birth, the family did not have large amounts of money. In his youth he studied law at the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Canons of the University of Coimbra, and served in the army for a short period. When he moved to the capital, Sebastião de Carvalho was a turbulent man.

Weddings

When he was still just a nobleman without greatness, at the age of 23, on January 16, 1723, Sebastião José, as the high nobility called him, his enemy, married a childless widow and important aristocratic lady, D. Teresa de Noronha e Bourbon Mendonça e Almada (Santos-o-Velho (Lisbon), September 22, 1687 - Mercês (Lisbon), February 6, 1739), aged 35, widow of António de Mendonça Furtado, her cousin, who died in 1718, daughter of D. Bernardo de Noronha and D. Maria Antónia de Almada, eleven years older, niece of the Count of Arcos, which created problems for Sebastião de Carvalho with his wife's family. She had been married by family arrangement, after a consensual kidnapping. The parents of the newly formed family made the couple's life unsustainable, so they retired to their properties near Pombal.

In 1739 he was sent to London as a plenipotentiary minister, and there he rendered relevant services, showing great energy and unusual intelligence, extracting, above all, from the ministry of the Duke of Newcastle many of the exemptions for Portuguese traders in London, which English traders had in Lisbon, and the recognition of the right that the Portuguese authorities had to punish the excesses practiced by the captains of English ships in Portuguese lands and coasts. Sebastião de Carvalho suffered in England the great grief of the death of his wife, who died in Lisbon on February 6, aged 51, bequeathing him all the assets of his great house. She was buried in an underground tomb of the Parish Church of Nossa Senhora das Mercês.

During his career abroad and now a widower, he found the woman who would bear him seven children.

It was in Vienna that on December 18, 1745 he married Eleonore Ernestine Eva Wolfganga Gräfin von und zu Daun auf Sassenheim und Callaborn (Vienna, Austria, November 2, 1721 - Mercês, Lisbon, January 3, 1789), or simply Countess de Daun, daughter of Heinrich Reichard Lorenz, Count of Daun (1673-1729) and Maria Violante Josepha von Boymont, Countess of Payrsberg (1692-1758).

They had the following children:

D. Teresa Violante Josefa Maria Eva Judite de Daun (Vienna, Austria, 10 December 1746 - Lisbon, 26 October 1823), married D. António de São Paio Melo e Castro Moniz Torres de Lusignan, 1st Count of São Paio (1720-1803), with whom he had five children;
D. Henrique José Maria Adão Crisóstomo de Carvalho e Melo, 2nd Marquis of Pombal (Vienna, Austria, January 28, 1748 - Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, May 26, 1812), married D. Maria Antónia de Menezes Rappach, leaving only illegitimate offspring, the title passes to the younger brother; died in Brazil, as a result of the French Invasions, was buried in the Convent of Santo António;
D. Leonor Joana Maria Eva de Daun (Vienna, Austria, May 7, 1749 - Mercês, Lisbon, April 28, 1754), was buried in the Parish Church of Nossa Sr.ª das Mercês, in Lisbon, in the family tomb;
D. Maria Francisca Xavier Eva Anselma de Carvalho e Daun (Mercês, Lisbon, 21 April 1751 - São Jorge de Arroios, Lisbon, 7 September 1815), married Dom Cristóvão Manoel de Vilhena, Lieutenant General, Senhor da Zibreira , Mayor of Alegrete, Morgado of Tapada da Cubeira and Alcaparinha, Commander of Pernes (1720-1797), with whom he had a daughter; she was buried in a vault belonging to her husband's family, in the Convent of Santo António dos Capuchos do Sobral (extinct), near Cachoeiras, Vila Franca de Xira;
D. Mariana Xavier Ema Manuel de Daun (Mercês, Lisbon, January 1, 1753 - Ajuda, Lisbon, October 27, 1754), was buried in the Parish Church of Nossa Sr.ª das Mercês, in Lisbon, in the family tomb;
D . José Francisco Xavier Maria Adão Macário de Carvalho Melo e Daun, 3rd Marquis of Pombal (Mercês, Lisbon, 1 April 1754 - Santos-o-Velho, Lisbon, 2 January 1821), married to D. Isabel Juliana Basilisa José de Sousa Monteiro Paim (1753-1793), whose marriage was annulled (D. Isabel would be the lover of D. Alexandre José de Sousa Holstein, whom she wanted to marry, these being the parents of the 1st Duke of Palmela) and with D. Francisca Maria de Paula do Pópulo Albuquerque da Silveira e Lorena (1754-1837), with whom she had three children; he was buried in the Parish Church of Nossa Sr.ª das Mercês, in Lisbon, in the family tomb;
D. Maria Amália Eva de Carvalho e Daun (Ajuda, Lisbon, 15 August 1757 - Colares, Sintra, 16 September 1812), married D. João Vicente de Saldanha Oliveira e Sousa Juzarte Figueira, 1st Count of Rio Maior, 16 .° Administrator of Morgado de Oliveira, Val de Sobrados and Barcarena, and Quinta da Azinhaga (1746-1804), with whom he had twelve children; she was buried in the Convent of São Pedro de Alcântara, in Bairro Alto.

The London Embassy

From his paternal uncle, Paulo de Carvalho, he inherited the morgado consisting of assets in Oeiras and Sintra. In 1733 he was appointed member of the Royal Portuguese Academy of History. Also through his uncle he met Cardinal D. João da Mota, prime minister, who sent him to London to replace, as ambassador, Marco António de Azevedo Coutinho, whom he affectionately addressed as uncle in the letters they exchanged (but it seems that they would be cousins ​​only). There he arrived in October 1738 at the age of 39. This was the phase that most helped to form his reforming spirit. Great Britain was a cultured, progressive and liberal society, the opposite of obscure Portugal. At the time, the language used in European diplomacy was French, so the ambassador never learned English, relying on interpreters, as usual. In 1739, with the War of the Ear of Jenkins between English and Spaniards, soon followed, in 1742, by the War of the Austrian Succession. In both Portugal remained neutral and England an active participant. This neutrality did not give the English the right to use Portuguese waters, but England abused and disrespected the Portuguese kingdom by attacking Spanish ships there. The Portuguese ambassador presented the complaints in vain. Carvalho's first function in London was to obtain help for the Portuguese forces in India, where they had lost the island of Salsette. England did not help.

In 1740, Great Britain banned all wheat exports. Portugal was affected by this cut in supply and the Portuguese ambassador, once again, achieved nothing in favor of Portugal.

One of the great pretensions of Portugal was the Colony of Sacramento. Carvalho presented to Robert Walpole the request that the British king, as guarantor of the treaty of Utrecht, recognize Portugal's right to the colony and that he help to expel the Spanish intruders. The constant denials and delays in responding to their requests and complaints show the consideration that Great Britain had for Portugal: a dependency and not an ally.

Faced with this, Carvalho's opinion was that "the Englishman imagines (...) that he was born to be master of the world's assets". He also had a negative opinion of British parliamentarism, preferring to model himself on French statesmen, notably Richelieu. Yet he recognized the British entrepreneurial spirit, its insatiable greed and its tenacity in the East. The negative opinion he had of the English also applied to the many British people who lived in Portugal. He considered that the British dominated trade in Portugal, namely wine, and that they falsified it, destroying the reputation of the national product. Here are the foundations of the future idea of ​​Companhia dos Vinhos. And also his preference for trade with the Portuguese colonies, as he considered that Portugal obtained little profit from trade with foreign countries.

It was in London that he met a former employee of the East India Company named Cleland. From their conversations came the idea of ​​an identical company for the Portuguese domains. But a company that would need a lot of capital, that would have a shaky return, could not succeed without some protection or privilege. This is the emergence of the idea of ​​monopoly that he would later use in different situations.

Carvalho was highly prejudiced against Jews. He considered that they used ruses to extort money, passing it through England on their way to Holland (where many Jews fled when they were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula). He also considered that these had a great conspiracy against all the countries in which they had been persecuted and in favor of those who received them.

In conclusion, Carvalho's function in London was a failure: he did not get help for Salsette, he did not get recognition in Sacramento, Portuguese sailors were mistreated in British ports, Portugal was not exempt from the ban on exporting wheat and there was no commercial equality. But it was in London that the ideas and economic plans that were later implemented germinated.

Mission to vienna

In conclusion, Carvalho's function in London was a failure: he did not get help for Salsette, he did not get recognition in Sacramento, Portuguese sailors were mistreated in British ports, Portugal was not exempt from the ban on exporting wheat and there was no commercial equality. But it was in London that the ideas and economic plans that were later implemented germinated.

In 1745 he was transferred to Vienna, Austria. At that time Vienna was experiencing the War of the Austrian Succession in which the future of the Holy Roman Empire was being discussed. She was Archduchess of Austria D. Maria Teresa and Pope Benedict XIV. In Rome the parties were divided but the majority was against the queen's intentions. Hence, the latter wanted to place a supporter in the College of Cardinals, which had already been arranged before the death of her father, Charles VI. Now the Holy See was going back on its word, creating a diplomatic problem. The Portuguese ambassador in Rome, Manuel Pereira de Sampaio, suggested to the Pope the mediation of the Portuguese kings, uncles of the Austrian archduchess (the Portuguese queen D. Maria Ana of Austria was the sister of Carlos VI). Since there was no Portuguese ambassador in Vienna at the time, Sebastião José de Carvalho was chosen, despite maintaining his position in London.

Carvalho would come to consider this attribution a banishment and a poisoned gift. He considered that negotiation was impossible and that his sending had the sole purpose of excluding him from the creation of the Company for India, which he had planned in London. This Company project had immediate opponents and the Prime Minister, D. João da Mota, rejected it for lack of financial means.

In December 1744, Carvalho left Lisbon. But first he landed again in London. I had to take care of embassy business but also to follow the plan of the Company of India that insisted on going ahead.

It was not until May 1745 that he left for Vienna. This delay made the Portuguese kings impatient. He passed first through The Hague, then through Hanover and only reached Vienna in July. Shortly afterwards, on September 13, 1743, the husband of the Austrian queen, Francisco Estêvão, was elected as Holy Emperor. The question of the place in the College of Cardinals remained, aggravated by roguery. In Vienna, the opinion was that in fact it was not the Pope who proposed Portuguese mediation and that the Portuguese envoy would not be impartial. To make matters worse for Carvalho, the letter from the Portuguese king to his niece presented him not as a minister (ambassador) but as an emissary. With this, the envoy did not have any diplomatic qualifications.

At the age of 46, he married for the second time, as already mentioned, this time with Leonor de Daun, court lady and daughter of an illustrious Austrian family.

If Maria Theresa seemed to yield, Rome seemed inflexible. Carvalho was convinced that his mission was impossible and informed the Austrian queen of his departure for London. The Portuguese government showed dissatisfaction with this option and forced him to remain in Vienna.

During his stay in Vienna, Carvalho had financial problems. His banker there was Baron Diogo de Aguilar (Jakob, Freiherr von Aguilar), a Portuguese Jew who fled to Germany for fear of the stake. The help that this Jew gave him, and others already in London, is capable of justifying Carvalho's change of opinion about them and the attitudes he had in the future for their benefit.

In 1747 he was appointed successor in London. Dissatisfied with the news, which put a brake on his plans for the India Company, he did not help his successor in the least. In 1749 he arrived in Portugal, but while D. João V was alive, he did not get a new job. Some authors believe it was during this period that he joined Freemasonry.

Carvalho's task was complicated. Vienna considered Portuguese mediation an intrusion and Carvalho a defender of Rome. Rome considered him incapable of impartiality, even more so now that he was married to an Austrian, and the cardinals felt resentful of the Pope's decision to accept Portuguese intermediation without consulting them. In other words, none of the courts yearned for Carvalho's success. In May 1746, Carvalho resigned from his position, which was not accepted.

In July 1746 it seemed that Portuguese mediation was no longer necessary since Rome and Vienna had begun direct negotiations. But behold, Philip V of Spain died and his son Fernando VI, son-in-law of D. João V, ascended to the throne. The hypothesis of Portuguese intermediation arose again, this time for the war in general. For such Oak is summoned to the presence of the empress. This was an opportunity for Portugal to stand out and improve relations with Spain. Finally, the parties reached an agreement and peace was reached.

Only when Philip V of Spain died was Carvalho truly entrusted (on October 18, 1746) with powers to negotiate and sign agreements relating to mediation, which was only now recognized by Vienna. A new problem arose however, this time relating to the Prince-Elector of Mainz. These issues between Vienna and Rome dragged on for another two years until 1748. The dispute came to an end with Carvalho's help and, as there was no more dispute between the two crowns, his role in Vienna ended.

While the diplomatic battle between Vienna and Rome lasted, another, of a personal nature, took place between the Portuguese ministers (ambassadors) from the same cities: Carvalho and Manuel Pereira de Sampaio. Carvalho wrote a lot about his colleague. He accused him of wanting a prominent role in the mediation and of wanting Carvalho as a mere subordinate. This enmity may have disadvantaged Carvalho with King D. João V.

The king died the following year and, following a recommendation from the queen mother, the new king D. José I appointed Sebastião José as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Unlike his father, D. José was very benevolent to him and gradually entrusted him with control of the State.

Kingdom Secretary of State (Prime Minister)

In 1755, Sebastião de Melo was already Secretary of State for Interior Affairs of the Kingdom, a similar position to the current Prime Minister.

General features

He ruled with an iron fist, imposing the law on all classes, from the poorest to the high nobility. Impressed by the English economic success, he tried to implement measures that would instil a similar sense to the Portuguese economy. It sought to strengthen royal power in order to actually make it the executor of a policy capable of capitalizing the productive sectors, and fostering manufacturing development, ending with the fragmentation and subdivision of the State apparatus.

He believed that his power actions would be guided by human reason, capable of ordering everything, including the organization of the State and society. For this reason, he believed that any element that was an obstacle to the "power of enlightened reason" would be disruptive and, therefore, devoid of any and all legitimacy. In this context, rationally understood “national interests” should guide all political action and, consequently, also economic and social action.

This type of thinking generated tensions and discontent, especially in the more traditional sectors of Portuguese society, both lay and religious. When he encountered resistance, the Marquês de Pombal did not hesitate to act firmly, and even with the use of violence, against the more traditional sectors of Portuguese society in order to eradicate any political force that could hinder the achievement of his reforming objectives.

Achievements

The region demarcated for the production of Port wine, the first region to ensure the quality of its wines, date of its governance. In his administration, Pombal put into practice a vast program of reforms, whose objective was to rationalize the administration without weakening the royal power. To achieve this goal, the minister incorporated the new ideas spread in Europe by the Enlightenment, but at the same time preserved aspects of absolutism and mercantilist politics.

The Marquis of Pombal was the key figure in the Portuguese government between 1750 and 1777. His management was a perfect example of enlightened despotism, a form of government that combined absolutist monarchy with Enlightenment rationalism.

A notable achievement by Pombal was the foundation, in 1774, of Vila Real de Santo António, near the mouth of the Guadiana River, in southern Portugal.

In February 1761, during the reign of D.José I, he prohibited the importation of slaves into mainland Portugal and India, not for humanitarian reasons, which were foreign to their nature, but because they were necessary labor in Brazil. At the same time, he stimulated the trade of black slaves ("the pieces", in the terms of that time) for that colony, having been founded, with the support and direct involvement of the Marquês de Pombal, two companies - the Companhia do Grão-Pará and Maranhão and the Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraíba - whose main activity was precisely the slave trade, mostly Africans, to Brazilian lands. In addition to the Marquis, the list of shareholders of the two companies included many nobles and clergymen. Between 1757 and 1777, a total of 25,365 black slaves were imported into Pará and Maranhão from West African ports.

He reorganized the army and navy, restructured the University of Coimbra, ending discrimination against "new Christians" (at least in part), hiring prestigious foreign professors and equipping it with modern scientific equipment. Despite this restructuring of the University of Coimbra, the number of university students dropped from 4,500 to just 500 due to the educational disaster that resulted from the Marquês' reforms in non-university education. But one of the most important reforms was in the fields of economics and finance, with the creation of companies and corporate associations that regulated commercial activity, as well as the reform of the tax system.

All these reforms earned him the enmity of the upper social classes, especially the nobility, calling him the "new rich".

The earthquake of 1755

Disaster struck Portugal on the morning of November 1 (All Saints' Day) 1755. On that date, Lisbon was shaken by a violent earthquake, with an amplitude that in current times is estimated at around nine points on the Richter scale. The city was devastated by the earthquake, the seaquake and the fires that followed.

Sebastião de Carvalho luckily survived, but was unimpressed. He immediately dealt with the reconstruction of the city, in accordance with the famous phrase: "And now? The dead are buried and the living are cared for". Despite the calamity, Lisbon was not affected by epidemics and less than a year later it was already partially rebuilt.

The downtown area was redesigned by a group of architects and engineers, with the express aim of resisting subsequent earthquakes. Models were built for testing, in which earthquakes were simulated by marching troops. At this time, and under the guidance of the Marquês do Pombal, the model of construction of buildings in a system called "cage" began, in which all works were built from a wooden structure, similar to a cage. From this period, all buildings were required to respect this standard, in order to make constructions resistant to earthquakes, due to their flexibility.

The first buildings equipped with their own sanitation also appeared, through pipes connected directly to the river, and the streets acquired dimensions of around 20 meters in width - for the main roads - a feature never seen before.

The buildings and squares of Lisbon's Baixa Pombalina still prevail, being one of Lisbon's tourist attractions, built under the signature of the Marquês de Pombal.

Sebastião de Melo also made an important contribution to seismology: he prepared a survey sent to all parishes in the country. Examples of questions included there: were the dogs and other animals behaving strangely before the event?; Has the water level in the wells gone up or down?; How many buildings were destroyed? These questions allowed Portuguese scientists to reconstruct the event and marked the birth of seismology as a science.

The Tavoras process

Following the earthquake, he stayed for less than two years as Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and War. King José I gave his Prime Minister increased powers, turning him into a kind of dictator, and made him Councilor of State and Commander of Santa Marinha da Mata de Lobos and São Miguel das Três Minas, both in the Portuguese Order. of Christ. As his power grew, his enemies increased and disputes with the high nobility became frequent.

The attack

In September 1758, the king's carriage was shot at as he was returning from the house of his mistress, D. Teresa de Lorena e Távora, wife of the 4th Marquis of Távora. The latter, in addition to being the sister and daughter-in-law of D. Francisco de Assis de Távora, 2nd Marquis of Távora, was the sister-in-law and daughter-in-law of his wife, the famous D. Leonor Tomásia de Távora, a great opponent of the Marquis of Pombal. The monarch was injured and the queen took over as regent. The investigations, during the month of December, accused members of the high nobility, who were immediately arrested; among them members of the Távoras family (the total number of prisoners reached more than a thousand, most of whom were never formally tried). The defendants' confessions were obtained under torture, and the prosecution's own witnesses were also tortured. On January 12, 1759, José de Mascarenhas da Silva e Lencastre, then Duke of Aveiro, and several members of the Távora family were condemned to death, being, the following day, barbarously tortured and executed on a public scaffold in Belém, in the presence of of the king and the court.

Consequences

Sebastião de Melo showed no mercy, having pursued each of those allegedly involved.

With this final blow, the power of the nobility was decisively broken, scoring a victory over their enemies, those who had the strength to oppose themselves and the king. Due to his quick action, D. José I attributed to his loyal minister the title of Senhor Donatário of the villages of Oeiras and its term and of Pombal, with the title of Count of Oeiras, in 1759.

After the execution of the Távoras, the persecution of the nobility never stopped. When Despot Pombal relinquished power, around eight hundred political prisoners were released, but in the meantime around two thousand four hundred had died in prison.

On the 3rd of September 1759, a year after the attempted regicide of D. José, he expelled the Jesuits from the metropolis and the colonies, confiscating their assets, under the allegation that the Society of Jesus acted as an autonomous power within the Portuguese State and his international connections were an obstacle to the strengthening of royal power. The Jesuits had also been considered implicated in the attempt on the King.

Following the Távora case, the new Count of Oeiras did not meet any new opposition. Acquiring the title of Marquis of Pombal in 1770, he almost exclusively had the power to govern Portugal until the death of King José I in 1777.

Reforms

State apparatus reforms

Marquês de Pombal introduced important changes in the Portuguese state apparatus.

The core of his reforms in the political field was to strengthen the figure of the king, inspired by the enlightened absolutism of Louis XIV (King of France between 1643 and 1715), and for this he sought to: strengthen mercantilism and, on the other hand, weaken the nobility and clergy (regalism).

In this context, compilations of civil law were created, which replaced canon law, representing the first step towards the affirmation of Pombal as a statesman and the state as a superior and autonomous entity vis-à-vis the rest of society, including even the Catholic Church itself. In fact, the Portuguese state pronounced itself several times in disagreement with the Holy See, establishing a court of diplomatic relations until the death of D. José and subsequent accession to the throne of D. Maria I.

He introduced censorship of books and publications of a political nature in Portugal, establishing the Real Mesa Censoria (1768), an instrument to defend the theory of the divine right of kings and to persecute the theory of the pact of subjection of the king to the sovereignty of the community (defended by the Jesuits).

Pombal made a new concept flourish in Portuguese history, the so-called pombalism. Pombalism was a political doctrine according to which all governance was aimed at rationalizing the state and Portugal overcoming various delays in its economy.

Economic reforms

Despite the problems, Sebastião de Melo carried out an ambitious program of reforms. Among other achievements, his government sought to increase national production in relation to foreign competition, develop colonial trade and encourage the development of manufactures.

Among the objectives of Pombal's economic reforms was to increase tax collection, and, in this context, the difficulties to combat the embezzlement practiced by small traders, was one of the causes of the creation of monopolies.

Therefore, he did not hesitate to impose monopolies by crushing internal competition. Thus, in 1753 the Companhia do Comércio da Asia Portuguesa was founded (of short duration) and, in 1756, the Companhia para a Agricultura das Vinhas do Alto Douro, to which the minister granted exemption from taxes on trade and exports, thus establishing the first demarcated region of wine production in the world, placing the famous Pombaline landmarks on the borders of the region. In 1773, the Companhia Geral das Reais Pescarias do Reino do Algarve was created, destined to control fishing in the south of Portugal.

At the same time, the Marquis created tax incentives for the installation of small manufactures aimed at the Portuguese domestic market, which also included the colonies. This protectionist policy included measures that favored the importation of raw materials and made imported products similar to those manufactured in Portugal more expensive. As a result, hundreds of small manufacturers of the most diverse goods appeared in the kingdom.

The minister also founded the Banco Real in 1751 and established a new structure to administer the collection of taxes, centralized by the Real Fazenda de Lisboa, under his direct control.

In general and in line with the Enlightenment mentality, he considered economic development and the absolute exercise of power as two aspects of the same reality: it is difficult to say whether, for Pombal, power served development or development affirmed power.

Religious reforms

Pombal's reforming action also extended to the scope of religious policy. Also in this field, the Prime Minister committed himself to strengthening royal absolutism and combating sectors and institutions that could weaken it.

On September 3, 1759, curiously one year after the attempted regicide of D. José, he expelled the Jesuits from the metropolis and the colonies, confiscating their assets, under the allegation that the Society of Jesus acted as an autonomous power within of the Portuguese State; He appointed his brother Paulo António de Carvalho e Mendonça President of the Council of the Holy Office (Inquisition). Thus, despite the fact that the Inquisition was not officially dismantled, it suffered from the Pombal government a profound impact on its autonomy, being used as an instrument of political power by the Marques, with the creation of measures that led to its progressive subordination to the royal authority; Pombal used it to execute Father Malagrida, for heresy, in 1761.

The Tribunal of the Holy Office became little more than a government agency: on October 1, 1774, it published a decree that made the verdicts of the Holy Office dependent on royal sanction. Autos de fe continued to be carried out - sixty-one in the period from 1750 to 1773, with the judgment of more than two thousand individuals.

On October 5, 1768, he forced by decree the "first nobility of the court" (main holders of the kingdom of Portugal, at the time called "puritans", i.e., those who, in favor of blood cleanliness, practiced strict endogamy, in order to prevent the "stain of an impure nation" (Jews or Moors) from entering their lineages from marrying outside their social group or with lineages with lesser guarantees of purity; On May 25, 1773, he enacted a law that extinguished the differences between Old Christians (Catholics with no suspicion of Jewish ancestors) and New Christians, rendering invalid all previous decrees and laws that discriminated against New Christians and imposed criteria of " blood cleansing". It became forbidden to use the word "new Christian", either in writing or orally. The penalties were heavy: for the people - whipping in the public square and exile in Angola; for nobles - loss of titles, offices, pensions or decorations; for the clergy - expulsion from Portugal.

Education reforms

Until then, education in Portugal had been dominated almost exclusively by the Society of Jesus and other congregations. In 1759, with the Pombaline reform, the Jesuits were expelled from all over Portuguese territory, and Pombal had a charter published, which would be the solution to the situation in which education in Portugal found itself.

The expulsion of the Jesuits represented an unparalleled disaster in education in Portugal. The Jesuits provided free education to nearly 20,000 students, having a virtual monopoly on non-higher education. Portugal will only have this number of students again at the beginning of the 20th century, when the population is twice that of that time.

Pombal, created for the first time the position of General Director of Studies, within the Aulas Régias system, whose function was to monitor the progress of studies and draw up an annual report on the situation of teaching.

Censorship was in great prominence during Pombal's government, expressed by the destruction and prohibition of books by authors such as Diderot, Rousseau, Voltaire, La Fontaine, who were considered "corruptors of Religion and Morals" (CARVALHO 2001:468 Insufficient reference ) and content "offensive of public peace and quiet".

Pombal introduced important changes in the (higher) education system of the kingdom and the colonies - which until that time had been under the responsibility of the Church -, passing it under the control of the State. The University of Évora, for example, which had been founded in the 16th century by Cardinal D. Henrique, belonging to the Jesuits, was extinguished, and the University of Coimbra underwent profound reform, being modernized. Due to the expulsion of the Jesuits and the consequent end of their schools, the number of students arriving at the university dropped enormously in the times of the Marquis of Pombal, from 3 thousand at the University of Coimbra plus 1.5 thousand at the University of Évora in a few years the remaining university , the one in Coimbra has only 500 students.

The Aula do Comércio was also created, implemented in Lisbon in 1759, the first official teaching establishment in the world to teach Accounting in a technical-professional way.

In December 1770, the Board of Literary Welfare was created, with the aim of investigating the causes of the decay of the University of Coimbra. Less than a year later, the Board presented the conclusions and those responsible: the Jesuits.

The Marquis of Pombal and Brazil

There is dissonance between the perception of the Marquis between some sectors of basic education in Portugal and some Brazilians, mainly from the southern region - who see him as a tyrant and oppressor.

In the view of the Portuguese government, the administration of the colony should always have as its goal the generation of wealth for the metropolis. This principle did not change under the Marquis' administration. The commercial monopoly regime, for example, not only remained, but was accentuated in order to obtain greater efficiency in colonial administration. The discovery of gold in Brazil is associated with the emergence of the parallel economy in Portugal, from the beginning of the smuggling activities promoted following the Gold Cycle.

In 1755 and 1759, the General Company of Commerce of Grão-Pará and Maranhão and the General Company of Commerce of Pernambuco and Paraíba were created, respectively, monopoly companies destined to boost economic activities in the North and Northeast of the colony. This should not be confused with the Companhia de Comércio do Maranhão, created in 1682, and associated with the Beckman Revolt - against the abusively high prices practiced by the Company in all consumer goods of the population, and the low prices in the purchase of tropical foodstuffs produced by the same colonists.

However, in the mining region, he instituted the spill in 1765, with the purpose of forcing miners to pay back taxes. The spill was one of the facts that later motivated the Inconfidência Mineira.

The biggest changes, however, occurred in the political-administrative sphere and in education. In 1759, the regime of hereditary captaincies was definitively extinguished, with its incorporation into the domains of the Portuguese Crown. Four years later, in 1763, the seat of the general government of the colony was transferred from Salvador da Bahia to Rio de Janeiro, whose growth signaled the displacement of the economic axis from the Northeast to the Center-South region.

With the violent expulsion of the Jesuits from the Portuguese Empire, the Marquis determined that education in the colony would be transmitted by lay people in the so-called Royal Classes. Until then, formal teaching had been the responsibility of the Church. The minister also regulated the functioning of the missions, removing the priests from their administration, and created, in 1757, the Directory, a body composed of trusted men of the Portuguese government, whose function was to manage the old settlements.

Complementing this "package" of measures, the marquis sought to give greater cultural uniformity to the colony, prohibiting the use of Nheengatu, the general language (a mixture of native languages ​​and Portuguese, spoken by the bandeirantes) and making the use of the Portuguese language mandatory. Some scholars of history claim that it was with this measure that Brazil left the path of being a bilingual country.

In the Amazon region, indigenous labor was used in almost everything. However, unlike the colonists, the Jesuits obtained the voluntary cooperation of the Indians. Thus, while the missions prospered, the settlers' villages faced numerous difficulties. The expulsion of the Jesuits led to the disintegration of the drug-collecting economy of the hinterland, causing a long phase of economic stagnation in various regions of the Amazon, only overcome at the end of the 19th century with the rubber boom.

He also encouraged miscegenation with indigenous people in the country, prohibiting their enslavement as one of the measures, since he realized that the only way to maintain such a large colony without losing it to other European countries was to populate it with subjects of the Portuguese crown. .

Even today, there is a life-size marble statue of the Marquês de Pombal in the Santa Casa de Misericórdia da Bahia located in the historic center of Salvador.

The Brazilian author José Joaquim de Sousa Nunes traveled to Portugal in 1758 to publish "Politico-Moral Discourses", dedicated to the Marquis of Pombal. But when he became aware of the work, Pombal had all the printed editions burned, as he had not authorized the dedication and had not agreed with certain contents. Only three editions were saved, owned by the poet Alberto de Oliveira, delivered to the National Library of Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian Academy of Letters published a new edition in 1931.

Other critical aspects of its governance

Trafaria and Monte Gordo fires

In addition to the events already mentioned, other facts shed a different light on his image as an enlightened despot, leading Camilo Castelo Branco, almost a century later, to name him "Nero da Trafaria".

Fire at Trafaria, a sad episode in which the village of Trafaria was deliberately and completely set on fire, with the purpose of capturing firefighters who were refugees there, with many people dying, either by the fire, or by the troops of Pina Manique who surrounded the exits .
The burning of the huts in Monte Gordo, which he ordered, with a view to transferring these fishermen to Vila Real de Santo António, where many who escaped preferred to settle later in Spain, in Higuerita (Isla Cristina). Encouragement of anonymous denouncements, with payment to denouncers, through titles to maintain anonymity. (Law of August 2, 1771, §31).
In 1757, a popular revolt against the Companhia Geral de Agricultura dos Vinhos do Alto Douro, which had raised the price of wines in the taverns it had the monopoly, was fiercely repressed by the Marquis. In his words, "the entire Portuguese nation is horrified by the slightest movement that might seem to be unfaithful to its sovereign". Thus, Porto was occupied by thousands of soldiers, more than summary processes were carried out and about thirty people were hanged, among them several women. The gallows with their corpses were placed in various places in the city, and later, the heads of the executed would be skewered on sticks at the entrance to the city.

Fantastic war

The Fantastic War was part of the Seven Years' War, and where Portugal, an ally of England, faced an invasion by Spain, an ally of France. In 1754, the policy of the Marquis had dismissed half of the military personnel, and the poorly equipped army was ineffective in stopping a Spanish invasion, which even took Miranda do Douro, Castelo de Segura and later other cities such as Bragança and Chaves, threatening to arrive. to Lisbon. Help was also asked from the Count of Lippe to reorganize the army for the defense of Lisbon, but the invasion ended up not taking place due to peace negotiations. The Colony of Sacramento was taken, and this later determined the end of the Portuguese presence in Uruguay, after long disputes and negotiations that ended in the Treaty of Santo Ildefonso (1777) formally signed by the newly sworn-in D. Maria I.

Decline and death

On February 24, 1777, with the death of Dom José I, Dona Maria I, aka Pia, and her husband Dom Pedro III, who detested the Marquis, assumed the throne. D. Maria I allegedly suffered from fits of rage just hearing the name of her father's former prime minister.

The power of the Marquis was enormous, but he always depended on the king's support. As soon as he died, the Queen, who never forgave the impiety shown towards the Távora family, stripped him of all his offices. More ordered the Marquis to always take shelter at a distance of at least 32 kilometers from her. If the Queen was traveling through one of her properties, the Marquis was obliged by decree to leave the house.

Pombal's dismissal was the reason for much joy and disorder in the streets. The Marquis took refuge first in Oeiras and then in his property near Pombal. The mob tried to burn down his house in Lisbon, which had to be protected by troops. Nearly all of his former allies have abandoned him.

Pombal had accumulated many enemies: a good part of the Portuguese nobility, and a large part of the clergy, did not like his reforms because they had their power and privileges reduced, and there was also the case of the Távoras. Maria I, who went down in history as D. Maria I, A Pia, hated him. When King Joseph died and the Queen ascended the throne in 1777, the Marquis was removed from government and ostracized, accused of corruption.

The queen, in August 1781, had a decree published declaring Pombal "a defendant and deserving of an exemplary punishment" but, remembering "more clemency than justice", and because the Marquis had asked him "forgiveness, detesting the reckless excess that he had committed" revoked "the corporal penalties that should have been imposed on him", in consideration of the Marquis' state of health, only confirming the banishment.

The Marquis of Pombal died peacefully on his property on May 8, 1782. His last days were spent in Pombal and at Quinta da Gramela, a property he had inherited from his uncle, Archpriest Paulo de Carvalho e Ataíde, in 1713.

After his death, on the night of May 11, 1782, his corpse was taken in a carriage pulled by three teams to the church of the convent of Santo António in the town of Pombal. His wife, D. Leonor Ernestina de Daun, died seven years later, on January 3, 1789, at the age of 67, and was buried in the family vault, in the Parish Church of Nossa Sr.ª das Mercês, in Lisbon.

With the advent of the French invasions, his grave was desecrated by the soldiers of Marshal André Masséna, and his bones, costume and sword were removed. In 1856/7, Marechal Saldanha, his maternal grandson, transferred the mortal remains to Lisbon, which were deposited in the hermitage of Mercês, where the Marquês de Pombal had been baptized and even belonged to the brotherhood. In 1923, the mortal remains were definitively transferred to the Igreja da Memória, Lisbon, where they are to this day.

He was honored with a statue in one of the most important squares in Lisbon, which bears his name, inaugurated on May 13, 1934 by the Minister of Public Works Duarte Pacheco, but without the presence of either the Prime Minister Oliveira Salazar or the President of the Republic Óscar Carmona. Marquês de Pombal is also the name of the busiest metro station in Lisbon.