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The Lisbon Slave House and African Trade, 1486-1521Author(s): John L. VogtSource: Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol. 117, No. 1 (Feb. 16, 1973), pp.1-16Published by: American Philosophical SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/985944Accessed: 18/06/2009 17:18

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THE LISBON SLAVE HOUSE AND AFRICAN TRADE, 1486-1521 *

JOHN L. VOGT

Assistant Professor of History, University of Georgia

A CONSPICUOUS FEATURE of the cosmopolitanscene which distinguished Manueline Lisbon asan emporium of world commerce was the heavyconcentration of Negroes, both slave and manu-mitted, among the citizenry. Estimates in thesixteenth century placed Lisbon's black popula-tion at about ten per cent of the city's total inhabi-tants.1 This group was the product of an extensiveslave trade which had been flourishing betweenPortugal and West Africa since the mid-fifteenthcentury and long antedated the Portuguese in-terest in transporting slaves to the New World.The

Lisbon scene about the year 1500 includedall types of Negroes. There were sweatingAfrican blacks who bore the litters of their mastersin the streets. In addition, there were Negrowasherwomen and waterbearers busily engaged atthe city's numerous fountains. In contrast to thesewere private servants, more elegantly attired inlivery, attending to the street affairs of theirmasters and mistresses. Also scattered through-out the city were hundreds of free Negroes andmulattoes who had achieved at least a modusvivendi with the Portuguese citizenry.

Thegreat majority

ofthe Negro population wasconcentrated in the dock area along the river front,

where blacks served as laborers and porters forthe burgeoning maritime commerce of the Tejoand its chief port. By Manuel I's time, it wasnot at all uncommon to encounter there dozens ofwork-gangs of Negro slaves, many of whom be-longed to the crown itself. These chattels werechained together and used to transport grain andother commodities among the various royal ships,workshops, and storehouses.

Since slavery was such a well-established in-stitution in

Lisbon,and because of the

increasingdemands for laborers and personal servants forwealthy burgher families, in 1486, the Portuguesecrown had devised a plan to formalize the traffic

* The research for this paper was carried out with theaid of a grant from the American Philosophical Society.

1 Cristovao Rodrigues de Oliveira, Sumario em quebrevemente se contem algumas cousas . . . que ha nacidade de Lisboa [1554], ed. Augusto Vieira da Silva(Lisbon, 1938), p. 95.

and place it within the central overseas administra-tion. Thus, there was created the Casa dosEscravos de Lisboa or the Lisbon Slave House.It served as a subsidiary organization within theRoyal Guinea House and had the task of receivingall incoming slave shipments from Africa and ofexpediting their assessment, taxation, and sale toprivate parties or to royal agencies serving thecrown's varied operations. A brief historical re-construction of this body and a study of the scopeof its management of overseas affairs during theearly years of its existence will throw light upon

two dark aspects of Manueline society-the greatextent of the slave traffic into Lisbon, and anequally important though long neglected result ofthe overseas discoveries, the labyrinthine opera-tions of a portion of the Guinea, Mina, and IndiaHouses.

Many of the records of the Casa dos Escravosfor the early sixteenth century have long sincebeen destroyed or disappeared. Therefore, it isimpossible to render a complete accounting ofeither the operational procedures or the totalreceipts and expenditures of this body. None-

theless, there still remains a large amount of ex-tant material, chiefly economic records and sum-maries of accounts, which deal to varying degreeswith this unit of royal government. By a carefulsifting of such documents the outlines of the SlaveHouse begin to emerge. In general, it appearsthat the duties of the house can be grouped intothree major areas of supervision: (1) administra-tion of the slave traffic coming to Lisbon fromWest Africa and Guinea; (2) collection of anumber of royal import duties, centering chieflyaround that of the vintena or twentieth part

imposed on the African trade in general; and (3)the letting out and direction of royal contactsto private consortiums which undertook to ex-ploit farmed-out areas or taxes in return for afixed annual rent.

Pedro A. d'Azevedo and Charles Verlindenhave both shown that while the institution ofslavery in Portugal was as ancient as the nationitself, a formalized slave trade and the introduc-

PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, VOL. 117, NO. 1, FEBRUARY 1973

1



[PROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

tion of blacks into the country was of more recentorigin.2 In his invaluable recounting of the lifeand deeds of Prince Henry, Gomes Eanes deAzurara tells the lamentable story of one of thefirst landings of Negro captives from West Africaon the beach at

Lagosin August, 1444, by

Lankarote de Freitas. Division was made of theproceeds of that expedition, including the 240captives, and the latter were apportioned amongthe ships' captains, the armadores, and the Navi-gator Prince himself.3 Although the records forthis period and those of the ensuing three decadesare sparse, they indicate that the return in slavesto Portugal was considerable, numbering at leastseveral hundred every year. During PrinceHenry's lifetime, the majority of this human trafficwas absorbed by the nation's first black slavemarket founded at the port of Lagos in the Al-garve. Once the proper duties owed to the princehad been assessed, slaves were placed on the auc-tion block there and sold to private individuals.4

While the slave trade continued to grow andflourish during the 1460's, the Portuguese crownwas actively engaged in supplanting the rathercasual overseas administration of the late PrinceHenry with a closer royal supervision. The firstevidence of this alteration dates from the lastyears of Henry the Navigator's lifetime. Thevolume of the crown's participation in the African

trade, includingthe slave traffic, had become so

considerable that in 1456 Afonso V felt justifiedin selecting the wealthy Lisbon contractor FernaoGomes as receiver of all Moors, both male andfemale, and of goods which come from the Guineatrade [to Lisbon] as well as specie, and of thegoods sent there [to expedite] the trade. 5 Theimportant fact was that the port of Lisbon was

2For medieval aspects of this institution, cf. Pedro A.d'Azevedo, Os escravos, Archivo historico portuguez[hereinafter cited as AHP], ed. d'Azevedo, BraamcampFreire et al., 1 (1903): pp. 289-307; and Charles Verlin-

den, L'Esclavagedans l'Europe medievale, I: Peninsule

Iberique-France (Bruges, 1955), esp. pp. 129, 139-147,546-632.

3Henrique da Gama Barros, Historia da administradaopiiblica em Portugal nos seculos XII d XIV (5 v., 2nded., Lisbon, 1945) 5: p. 333.

4 Antonio Jose Saraiva, Historia da cultura em Portu-gal (3 v., Lisbon, 1950-1962) 1 (1950): pp. 594-597,points out that, despite the remarks of Eannes deAzurara and a few others against slavery, by the latterpart of the fifteenth century, the slavery question hadceased to be a moral topic for discussion.

5 Joao Martins da Silva Marques, Descobrimentosportugueses: documentos para a sua historia (2 v., Lisbon,1944) 1 (supplement) : p. 347.

rapidly becoming the major embarkation pointfor expeditions of the type cited above.

The movement away from the Algarve ports tothe capital took over two decades before it wascomplete. A major step in the alteration of portscame in

July,1463, when Afonso V published a

decree transferring the administrative offices ofthe Arguim trade from Lagos, where it had origi-nated in Henry's time, to new quarters in Lisbonnear the Ceuta House. The crown alleged badadministration by the factor and his staff in Lagos,and stated that payments had been made with littlediscretion along with other matters which con-vinced the crown of the necessity of putting atighter rein on the traffic.6 In 1461 the king haddispatched Soeiro Mendes to Arguim with ordersto construct a new trading post there to replacethe smaller station erected during Prince Henry'slifetime, since, in the words of Joao de Barros,

As traffic in gold and Negroes from Guinea wasactive in the islands of Arguim, the king orderedthe building of the Castle of Arguim. . . . Afew years before this, in 1455, Alvise da Cia daMosto visited this West African post, and heestimated that about six to eight hundred slavesper year were being transported from there toPortugal as part of the traffic.8

The 1480's ushered in a new era in the slavetraffic between West Africa and Portugal, broughton

primarily bynew discoveries made in Guinea

at this time. As the captains of King John IIpassed beyond the Mina coast of modern Ghana,they discovered that the rich coastal gold tradetapered off; and in its place, the region of theBight of Benin yielded wealth in the form ofNegro slaves. Even before the erection of thetrading fortress of Sao Jorge da Mina in 1482,Portuguese caravels were sailing to the region ofBenin's port called by the pilots the Rios dosEscravos or Slave Rivers for cargoes of theseblack captives.9 Subsequent to the creation of a

permanentPortuguese post in Guinea at Sao

Jorge da Mina, the slave traffic became an indis-

6 Jaime Cortesao, Os descobrimentos portugueses (2 v.,Lisbon, n.d.) 1: pp. 407-409.

7Joao de Barros, Da Asia de Joao de Barros e deDiogo de Couto (13 v., Lisbon, 1778-1788) 1 (1778): p.263.

s Rinaldo Caddeo (ed.), Le navigazioni atlantiche diAlizse da Ca da Mosto, Antonietto Usodimare e Niccolosoda Recco (Milan, 1928), p. 188.

9 From west to east, these Rios dos escravos arethe Rio Primeiro, Fermoso, Escravos, Forcados, andRamos. Cf. Alan Ryder, Benin and the Europeans, 1485-1897 (London, 1969), pp. 26-27.

2 JOHN L. VOGT



THE LISBON SLAVE HOUSE

pensable part of the Lusitanian regional tradewithin Guinea. Slave shipments furnished portersto native merchants trafficking in the Portuguesecoastal stations so that these African traderscould return upcountry with their bulky cargoes

of trade goods, chiefly brass and cloth. Anotherarea which absorbed shipments of slaves was theislands of Sao Tome and Principe, where blackchattel labor aided measurably in establishing theinfant Portuguese colonies there. Finally, a con-siderable number of these slaves found their wayto Portugal itself and to the new slave markets inLisbon, where by the 1480's it was becomingfashionable among wealthy burgher families topurchase blacks for domestic servants. Whilethe number of slaves shipped to Portugal con-stituted only a small proportion of the total traffic

coming out of Benin and other African ports,nevertheless, the number of slaves entering thecapital and handled by the Royal Guinea Housemust have constituted a strain on the physicalfacilities of that administrative body. The averagecargo of slaves from a returning caravel was be-tween one and two hundred pieces, or pefas, asslaves were called in the account books at thattime.10 Even allowing for a high rate of attritionfrom the long sea voyage, a hundred or moreblacks entering the capital at one time createdmore of a logistics problem to royal receivers than

did the largest cargo of gold, ivory, or malaguetapepper. In addition, smaller numbers of slaves

10The term peqa n its broadest definition signifiesa single unit or any object which forms an entity initself. During the late medieval period the Portuguesehad developed a number of usages for this term; amongother items, peqa denoted a type of gold coinage; cf.Fernao Lopes de Castanheda, Hist6ria do descobrimento& conquista da India pelos portugueses 4 v., 3rd ed.,Coimbra, 1924-1933) 1: p. 57; it was also utilized as aterm for a cannon; cf. Jacinto Freire de Andrade, Vidade D. Jodo de Castro (Paris, 1848), p. 10. Survivingquittances ssued by royal officials during the fifteenth andsixteenth centuries show that the word was used at timesto list any individual tems of trade, such as brass manil-las, units of cloth, slaves, and other items. In the idiomof this period, peqa used in the description of a personmeant of another sort, i.e., different, having perhapsbad qualities or disposition. At an undetermined atertime, perhaps about 1550-1650, peqa came to be usednot only to denote a single item, but also a lot ofslaves equal in value to one single prime adult male.However, ifL eems clear from random samplings of docu-mentation pertaining to slaves in the period up to about1540 that the singular nature of the term was still inexclusive usage. Inter alia, cf. Arquivo Nacional daT6rre do Tombo [hereinafter cited as ATT], NucleoAntigo, no. 722 [1529-1531], fols. 70-72; no 867 [1499],fols. lv.-2.

were continuing to come into the city fromlonger-established trading stations farther northof Guinea, such as that at Arguim.

By right, this slave traffic entering Lisbonbelonged to the crown and came under the author-

ity of the Guinea House. 1 A royal ordinance ofAugust 31, 1474, firmly enunciated the crown'sprerogatives in this area by prohibiting contracts,wars, trade, and enslavement of Moors (Negroes)without royal license in the seas of Guinea, theOcean islands, etc. The penalty for disregardingthis injunction was death and forfeiture of allproperty to the crown.12

As mentioned above, there was considerablelogistical justification for separating the slavetrade into its own offices and placing it under anew official. Royal slaves had to be quartered,

fed, in some cases nursed back to health from thevicissitudes of the ocean trip, and at all times,they had to be carefully guarded. Captives broughtinto the country by contractors under royal licenseor by ship's crew members had to be registered bythe factor of the Guinea House and his treasurerand the appropriate royal duties imposed or ex-emptions from excises must be noted. At thistime in the 1480's, a considerable workload wasalready imposed on the factor, since in additionto his normal duties of coordinating the monthlysailings and arrival of the all-important Mina

caravel, he also held the joint office of treasurerand receiver of the entire Guinea House. As yet,the overseas administration had not begun todivide the administrative and financial responsi-bilities of the factor into the charge of two separateroyal officials. In the face of the growing physicaland administrative demands of the normal Africantraffic as well as the increasing slave trade withBenin, in 1486, the crown elected to create a royalposition and entitle it the almoxarifado dosescravos.13 It delegated the holder of this post as

11 Luiz Fernando de Carvalho Dias, as ordena6coes daIndia, Garcia de Orta, special number (Lisbon, 1956), p.244.

12 This ordinance has been reproduced in various basicsources collections on the subject of royal authority,inter alia Antonio Duarte Brasio (ed.), Monumentamissionaria africana (10 v., Lisbon, 1952- ) 4 (1954):pp. 9-12; Henrique da Gama Barros, Histdria da ad-ministrafdo publica em Portugal nos seculos XII a XIV10: p. 167.

13 The Almoxarifado dos escravos was designed toserve as a receiving house for the collection, assessing,and distribution of slaves imported into Portugal. Thefirst term is derived from the Portuguese administrativeagents who held various royal receiverships or Al-moxarifes throughout the kingdom. It was the function

VOL. 117, NO. 1, 1973] 3




sole receiver of the Benin, Arguim, and Guineaslaves. For the new post, John II selected Joaodo Porto, a member of the royal court, to be hisalmoxarife for the projected Casa dos Escravos.

Administratively, the Casa dos Escravos con-

stituted oneof the basic units of

Portuguese royalcentral authority in the late fifteenth century. Thiswas the almoxarifado, an agency of the exchequercharged with the receiving of specific royal duties,with discharging the handling of certain commodi-ties claimed as royal prerogatives, and with supply-ing goods and services required to meet the needsof other royal agencies. Several score of thesealmoxarifados were scattered throughout thelength and breadth of Portugal, and dozens morewere located overseas where the almoxarifes incharge of them functioned as royal representatives.

They were concentrated particularlyin the

portcities, and especially in Lisbon where the com-mercial traffic was heaviest. The Guinea Houseitself was a vast collection of almoxarifados, eachdelegated to administer one particular segment ofthe African and insular trade, and all operatingunder the general overlordship of a factor and hisclerical staff who coordinated the total operations.The Slave House was now part of this organiza-tion, which included the King's Storehouses,14 theRoyal Armory,15 the Royal Shipyards,'6 andseveral other almoxarifados frequently involved in

overseas affairs.In the light of subsequent events, it seemsclear that the Portuguese crown anticipated asharp increase in the Benin-Lisbon trade and alsoa rise in the number of slaves entering Lisbonafter 1486. Hence the crown must have felt apressing need to single out a person and a bodyspecifically charged with administering royal in-terests in this area. It is known, for example,that along with the Benin-Lisbon traffic, in 1485,the crown made extensive grants to the settlers ofSao Tome, permitting them to trade in the slave

rivers region. Then, in 1486, the king dis-patched Joao Afonso d'Aveiro into the hinterlandbehind the slave rivers in search of the rumoredOba and Benin City. In the same year asd'Aveiro's mission, and coinciding closely with

Joao do Porto's appointment, the entire trade ofthese slave rivers was leased as a monopoly to the

of the Almoxarife to collect the royal duties owed onany product, e.g., grains, wines, olive oil, gold, slaves, etc.,within the area of his jurisdiction.

14 Armazen dos Mantimentos.15 Casa das Armas.16Armazen da Ribeira.

wealthy Florentine merchant then resident in Lis-bon, Bartolomeo Marchioni. In return for thecontract, the crown was to receive an annual fixedpayment slightly in excess of one million reis.John II envisioned Marchioni's new contract as

forming partof the economic raison d'etre for do

Porto's new post. The latter was charged withadministering the terms of the crown's contractwith Marchioni in addition to receiving and assess-ing the duties on slave shipments to Lisbon byroyal slaving expeditions licensed to traffic inareas not farmed out.17 The focus of this tradewas to be in Lisbon, where a careful check oncontractors and Guinea shipments was already inoperation within the Guinea House.

The Slave House in Lisbon was several hun-dred yards west of the Guinea House and just

beyond the royal chapel which servedthe

kingand

his immediate staff. It fronted on the bustlingopen space or largo known as Tanoaria, or theCooperage, so named from the dozens of smallworkshops of that industry which were situatedthere.18 Here the offices of the alnoxarife dosescravos and his small staff lay adjacent to theRoyal Armory and the cannon foundry.'9 Fromthis site also, the officials of the house had readyaccess to the shipyards, landing docks, and theoffices of the Guinea House proper via severalarches and gateways that cut the older city walls.

Essentially, the Slave House comprisedthree

distinct physical units. There was a prison forthe safekeeping of the captives off the slave vesselspending their sale. Sometimes a hundred or more

17J. W. Blake, Europeans in West Africa, 1450-1560(2 v., London, 1942) 1: p. 106; Ryder, Benin and theEuropeans, p. 34; Anselmo Braamcamp Freire, Cartasde quitaqao del rei D. Manuel, AHP 3 (1905): pp.477-478. Braamcamp Freire's complete article appearsat irregular intervals from volume 1 to volume 10.

1s na cidade de Lixboa, na praca da tanoarja, diantedas cassas do trauto das Jlhas que te Ruy Penteado,feitor das Jlhas e escrauos de Gujnee, . . . , (Brasio,

Monumenta 1 (1952): p. 201. The area ofTanoaria is

mentioned frequently in fifteenth- and sixteenth-centurydocuments including various tombos of the city. Itcorresponded with part of the modern Praca doMunicipio, although the present square has not the sameconfiguration and orientation as its predecessor.

19From scattered sources regarding the shops andoffices located on the edges of Tanoaria, it would appearthat the Slave House occupied a position just north ofthe Porta dos Armazens. It was constructed againstthe remains of the medieval wall of D. Denis, and frontedon Tanoaria plaza. One of the best accounts of this areacan be found in A. Vieira da Silva, As muralhas daribeira de Lisboa (2 v., 2nd ed., Lisbon, 1940-1941) 2:pp. 56-70.

4 JOHN L. VOGT




slaves would have to be kept in one or two largerooms set aside in the rear of the Slave House forthis purpose. Next there were the administrativeoffices for the almoxarife dos escravos and hisclerical staff of one secretary or scrivener. This

was probably located in a scriptorium in front ofthe slave quarters and fronting on Tanoaria. Herecontracts for the sale of slaves were drawn up,various ledger books kept, and the royal leasesand contracts belonging to the house administered.In keeping with the other such offices of thealmoxarifes of the king, it would have beenfurnished with a great table where the two ledgerbooks, one for receipts and the other for expendi-tures, were managed jointly by the almoxarife andhis assistant.20 In addition to these, there wasa third registry book in which was recorded the

receiptof all

slaves, their valuation and sale, andif they died on the voyage or while in the custodyof the Slave House, the circumstances of theirdemise. Several small arcas or boxes sufficed tostore the loose receipts and current correspondenceof the house, while the money received from theaccounts was kept in a chest with multiple locks.The keys of the money chest were distributed be-tween the head and the clerk of accounts, andboth had to be present to open the coffer. Finally,the third element within the jurisdiction of theSlave House was the Royal Cooperage, wherethe hundreds of casks were cut and

shapedfor

royal vessels sailing to Africa and beyond. At thetime of Joao do Porto's appointment in 1486 asthe first almoxarife dos escravos, John II alsocharged him with the responsibility of setting upcooper's shops in the Tanoaria so that the growingrequirements of the king's vessels could be met.This cooperage continued under the supervisionof Joao do Porto and his successors in thatoffice.21

The operations of the Slave House centeredaround the head, or almoxarife who, by virtue of

his official title, was considered part of the royalPortuguese household along with other royaladministrators. The post carried a stipend of40,000 reis per year in addition to 1,000 reis permonth for maintenance. Together with a salaryof 8,000 reis which he secured in the receivershipof the vintena, the almoxarife dos escravos earned

20 Virginia Rau, A casa dos contos (Coimbra, 1951),pp. 399-417, and esp. p. 412.

21 As part of Joao do Porto's carta de quitaqao(Freire, AHP 3 (1905): p. 477), mention was made oftudo o que recebeo e despendeo nas casas da tenoaria que

mandou azer.

a total of almost 60,000 reis.22 Along with hisscrivener and one or two assistants, he was en-trusted with overseeing the multiplicity of dutiesattendant upon maintaining the slaves and theirquarters, expediting the sale of these pecas, and

receiving royal duties on slaves imported intoPortugal through private channels. The soleresponsibility for the financial affairs of the housefell upon the shoulders of the almoxarife himself.He was answerable to the accountants of the royalexchequer and to the auditing of the Casa dosContos for all transactions during his term ofoffice.23

The records of the Casa dos Contos are in-valuable as a source for the economic functioningof the Slave House in the absence of other directevidence. Of especial note are the quittancesissued to the various almoxarifes at the termina-tion of their office or to their heirs at their death,to relieve them from financial obligations. Thesesame accountings also reveal that the Slave Housefrom its inception undertook a myriad of dutiesfor the crown, and by no means was concernedsolely with the Lisbon slave traffic. In the surviv-ing documents, the official who headed this bodywas cited frequently by various titles to denotehis functions: almoxarife dos nossos escravos;feitor das Ilhas; and finally, recebedor da vintenada Guine e Indias. Each of the activities repre-

sented by these titles was under the direction ofthe head of the Slave House. Nonetheless, forall-important accounting purposes, the positionswere separate and distinct from one another, andindividual quittances were issued for each post.24

The duties coming under the first of these titles,the almoxarife dos escravos, have already beenoutlined. He met the incoming slave ships andmaintained the records of the slave traffic. How-ever, as the factor of the islands, the head of thehouse had an entirely different charge-that ofrenting out the monopolistic farms in parts of

Guinea and the Atlantic islands. These leasesranged from territorial grants such as the contractfor Sierra Leon and Cantor, to mention only two,to the leasing of royal revenues such as thequartos and vintenas of the islands of Sao Tome

22Freire, AHP 2(1904) p. 440.23Rau, A casa dos contos, p. 28.24This is clearly evident at least as early as 1506,

when the rendering of the account of Gonqalo Lopez bythe contador evealed 182,080 reis que Ihe nesta contaforam carregados em recepta per os ficar devendo nascontas que deu dos espravos e vintena os ditos tres annos.Freire, AHP 2 (1904): p. 440.

VOL. 117, NO. 1, 1973] 5



[I'ROC. AMER. PHIL. SOC.

or Principe. These contracts were let out in ex-change for lump-sum payments, usually annual orsemi-annual, made to the Slave House.

Finally, documents frequently cite the head ofthe Slave House as Receiver of the twentieth of

Guinea and India. This royal excise was im-posed on all imports, both slave or otherwise, intoPortugal from overseas holdings. At that time itwas usually paid in cash by the individuals im-porting the item, but sometimes the vintena wasassessed and, received in kind. Such was the casewhen Gonqalo Lopez, the almoxarife, factor, andreceiver for 1513, reported receiving among otheritems, 25 quintals, 2 arrobas, 191 arrates of dye-wood during the previous three years from thecontractors of Sierra Leon, as the twentieth partof 513 quintals of this commodity imported into

the country.25 When the Portuguese trade withthe Orient commenced in the sixteenth century,the Slave House's jurisdiction over this royalexcise of the vintena was extended temporarily toinclude products off the ships returning from theEast. It was not until shortly after the completereorganization of -the Guinea, Mina, and IndiaHouses in 1509-1510 that a separate receiver forthe vintena due from the eastern commerce wasappointed. At that time the vintena from Indiawas handed over to a receiver for the money fromspices, an official who headed one of the two

treasurerships in the now separate India House.26Because of the many duties of the director ofthe Slave House, and the considerable businesshe dispatched, it seems apparent that the SlaveHouse was more than merely a peripheral agencyattached to the Guinea House. As the wealth ingold from the Mina Coast continued to pour inwith increasing volume during the last decades ofthe fifteenth century, the officials of the GuineaHouse became enmeshed in the careful, oftenminute, regulation of this royal monopoly in theAfrican trade. Other revenues now paled in com-

parison with the gold trade, and the GuineaHouse by degrees began to divest itself of thenumerous other African contracts. Goods im-ported into Portugal from Africa and the Atlanticislands still were required to pass over the deskof the factor of Guinea and his clerks so that theymight be recorded, but these commodities werequickly turned over to other royal agencies, no-

25Freire, AHP 2(1904): pp. 440-441. This amountof vintena collected represents, in modern terms, about1.5 metric tons of dyewood imported.

26 Freire, AHP 1 (1903): p. 284.

tably the Slave House, for expediting. The greaterportion of the contractual system previously inoperation for parts of Africa other than the GoldCoast was then shifted to the new Casa dosEscravos. In authority, the head of the Slave

House stood only slightly below the receivers ortreasurers of the Mina gold trade and, later, thetwo receivers for the Indian traffic. Therefore,the selection of the proper person for this postwas a matter for careful consideration by thecrown. The position demanded a working knowl-edge of accounting procedures and an intimatefamiliarity with the total operation of the Guineaand India Houses. John II and Manuel I choseto select the head of this agency from among royalbureaucrats who already had demonstrated theircapabilities in lesser posts.27 For example, Joao

de Figueiredo, who headed the Casa dos Escravosfor two years in 1509-1510, entered this postafter a five-year tour of service (1503-1508) asreceiver of the almoxarifado and alfdndega of thePortuguese post of Arzilla in North Africa.28 Forhim, the Slave House appointment was one morestep in a series of rapid promotions during hiscareer. From there he moved upwards into thetreasurership of the spice trade in the India Houseduring 1515-1516.29 Finally, on the basis of hisperformance in the Slave House and the IndiaHouse, in 1519, Figueiredo was advanced to the

factorship of Sao Jorge da Mina, perhapsthe most

important post in all of West Africa.30Similarly, Gonqalo Lopez, who headed the Slave

27Freire, AHP 8(1910): p. 408. As yet the availabledocumentation has failed to reveal any pertinent data re-garding the background of the first almoxarife dosescravos, Joao do Porto, or that of his successors untilthe beginning of the sixteenth century. Two persons, inaddition to Joao do Porto, held this post before 1499.Pero Pessoa apparently succeeded do Porto. He diedprior to November 2, 1498, for on that date an acquittalwas issued to Pessoa's widow and heirs for the serviceshe had rendered. It appears that prior to serving as

almoxarifedos escravot, Pessoa had acted as the customs

officer who received the duty payments made by CastilianJews who chose to enter Portugal following the Spanishexpulsion edict of March 30, 1492. Cf. ATT, Chancelariade D. Manuel, book 27, fol. 97v.; H. V. Livermore, ANew History of Portugal (Cambridge, 1966), p. 127.The other official cited as a member of the Slave Houseand possibly its almoxarife was Lionardo Alvarez, whoserved as the recebedor da vintena de Guine, a postusually held in conjunction with the headship of thehouse, sometime between 1495 and 1499. ATT, Chan-celaria de D. Manuel, book 16, fol. 46.

28Freire, AHP 3(1905): pp. 391-392.29 Freire, AHP 2(1904) : p. 353.30oreire, AHP 8(1910): p. 408.

6 JOHN L. VOGT




House longer than any other person during thetwo reigns under consideration, had a long recordof royal service before he became almoxarife dosescravos for the first time in 1506. In 1500Lopez had been a squire in the royal household of

King Manuel I and had served his sovereign onseveral economic missions in Avis and Fronteira.31His first known association with the Guinea Houseand overseas administration occurred in 1501,when he supplied provisions to the almoxarife dosmantimentos de Guine in Lisbon for the impendingreturn of Vasco de Gama to India the followingyear.32 Because of his successful completion ofthese and subsequent tasks, in 1506 the kingelevated him to membership of the royal courtand chose him as the new almoxarife dos escravos.He was to distinguish himself in this office with

only brief interruptions for over two decades. Latein 1508, in anticipation of the construction of new,more spacious quarters for the India House,Manuel appointed Lopez to oversee this archi-tectural project, temporarily relieving him of hisduties in the Slave House. Following partialcompletion and the opening of the House's newoffices sometime in 1510, Lopez reassumed hisduties at his old post.33

From the quittance issued to Lopez for thecompletion of his special task in the constructionof the new India House, he appears to have been

the head of the project, personally collecting thetens of thousands of pieces of building materials.Presumably his services in the Slave House andhis experience with the slave gangs who trans-ported much of these construction materials ex-plain the king's singling him out.

Despite the lack of a consistent year-by-yearseries of documentation on the affairs of the SlaveHouse and its almoxarife, it appears that theactivities of this body remained centered aroundLopez's headship for the remainder of DomManuel's rule and also well into the reign of his

successor, JohnIII.

Lopezserved from 1510

until 1514, when he underwent a mandatory ac-counting of his office and turned the receivership

31 Freire, AHP 2(1904): p. 438; ATT, Chancelariade D. Manuel, book 9, fol. 32; book 41, fol. 48v.

32 Freire, AHP 2 (1904): p. 439.33Freire, AHP 2(1904): p. 438. In December, 1508,

while not officially head of the Royal Slave House, Lopezmanaged to- remain active in the slave trade while pursu-ing his new assignment to provide the Guinea and IndiaHouse with new quarters. Antonio Carneiro, donatdrioof Principe, used him to assist in preparing at least twoships to transport slaves to Lisbon from Principe. ATT,Corpo Cronologico, part 1, maco 7, doc. 67.

of the Slave House over to a temporary head,Antonio do Porto, for the year 1514.34 When hisaccounting was cleared in the Casa dos Contos, hereturned to his post late in 1514 and served until1516, when another complete accounting was

rendered.35 Various registry ledgers of otherroyal almoxarifados cite Gongalo Lopez as stillholding that post in 1524, 1525, 1526, and againin 1531.36 It seems that Lopez also served duringmost of the other intervening years, at least until1531, although no direct evidence has as yetemerged to confirm this assumption.

Once separate quarters had been made availablefor the Casa dos Escravos in 1486, little time waslost in organizing the existing incoming slavetraffic. During the seven and a half years ofoperation under Joao do Porto's guidance from

1486 to 1493, 3,589 slaves were registered on theroyal account books as having entered Portugal.This number varied from year to year, but itrepresented an average importation of slightlyunder five hundred blacks per annum. Includedin this total number of slaves imported were 918Negroes who belonged to the Portuguese crownand were sold directly by the almoxarife dosescravos.37 The remaining 2,671 apparentlyfound their way into the corps of royal slaveswhich the crown maintained to facilitate theoperation of the various agencies, or else they

were brought to Portugal as private slaves, pur-chased by individual crew members. These piecesalso had to pass through the Slave House whereappropriate duties were assigned before they werereleased to their owners.

In the absence of more detailed records for theSlave House during this early period, it is dif-ficult to acquire a clear indication of the volumeof traffic handled during the years between 1486and 1521. The most often quoted sources for thenumber of slaves are the accounts of Joao Brandaoand Rodrigues de Oliveira in the middle of the

sixteenth century.38 However, these authorsmerely reflect the result of the slave trade up to

34ATT, Corpo Cronologico, part 1, ma;o 14, doc. 43.35Freire, AHP 2(1904): pp. 441-442.36ATT, Corpo Cronologico, part 1, maco 31, doc. 43;

maco 32, docs. 6, 65; maqo 47, doc. 115; Chancelaria deD. Joao III, livro 51, fol. 18.

37The sale of the royal slaves by the almoxarife dosescravos realized 4,644,895 reis, or, 28 per cent of thetotal receipts for the Slave House during these years.Freire, AHP 3(1905): pp. 477-478.

38Joao Brandao, Majestade e grandezas de Lisboaem 1552, AHP 11(1916): p. 44; Rodigues de Oliveira,Sumdrio, .95.

7OL. 117, NO. 1, 1973]




their time, and their accounts are not fully ac-curate indicators of the earlier reigns and specificnumbers of importations. Nevertheless, there areseveral approaches to this problem which yield atleast an approximate estimate of the traffic. The

figure encountered most frequently in the docu-ments of the almoxarifes dos escravos pertained tothe exaction of the royal duty of the vintena dosescravos upon all captives, private and royal, whowere important into Portugal. As the name im-plies, this impost amounted to one-twentieth ofthe assessed value of the slave. By a process ofmultiplication one seemingly could arrive at afigure which represents the total value of slavesimported in a given year or term of office. Bydividing this amount by the known average saleprice of the slaves, an approximate figure for the

number imported would be obtained. Any esti-mate thus obtained is, however, subject to con-siderable refinement. The various accountingsgiven in royal acquittals often add the cryptic re-mark that outras cousas are to be included in thefigure for the vintena dos escravos, without anyspecification of the other items or their quantity.Still, the computation of the vintena dos escravosreceived during any given period does afford atleast an upper limit to possible importations.

A much more reliable indicator than thevintena dos escravos in estimating the extent of

the slave traffic to Lisbon can be obtained byexamining the extent of the total African trade inthe period of about 1480 to 1520. Taken together,the three major areas which supplied the bulk ofthe slave trade at this time-Arguim, Benin, andthe Congo-represented at most an output ofabout 1,000 to 1,200 captives per annum.39 AsAlan Ryder notes in his Benin and the Europeans,the greatest portion of the Guinea slave traffic atthis time was interregional, and the number ofslaves making the long voyage to Portugal wasonly a fraction of the total obtained from that

region.40 A large number of the slaves enteringPortugal and the Slave House continued to comefrom the long-established post at Arguim. DuringManuel's reign the situation in Guinea had notyet reached the state where this traffic had to bediverted southward to help supply the Mina posts.Most of the captives collected at Arguim foundtheir way into the Lisbon market.

Notwithstanding Ca da Mosto's observations onthe extent of the slave trade out of Arguim in the

39Cf.Ryder, Beninand the Europeans, p.36-37.40 Ibid., pp. 36-37.

mid-fifteenth century, it appears that this traffichad begun to diminish somewhat by the end ofthat century. Between 1499 and 1501, forexample, about 230 slaves per year were collectedfor shipment by the officials at that post.41 By

1505-1508, this figure had been reduced to only135 slaves per year, or about the equivalent of onefull slave ship.42 This setback in the trade wasnot reversed until the end of the decade. Duringthe captaincy of Francisco de Almada from 1508to 1511, some 1,540 slaves, yearly averaging 540pieces, were secured.43

When the above figures and estimates are addedto the number of royal slaves sold by the variousalmoxarifes dos escravos, the estimated trade outof Benin and the Congo, and the few solid refer-ences on slave disembarkations in Lisbon, they

reveal two important facts: (1) The slave trafficwas very irregular, at least during the yearsmentioned above; and (2) although the numbervaried considerably from year to year, it averagedbetween about 300 and 700 pieces per year passingthrough the offices of the Slave House. Thesetwo figures represent the limits within which theslave trade operated, at least during the perioddown through Manuel's reign.

Included in these figures were a small numberof Negro slaves who continued to enter thecountry through the southern port of Lagos. On

the average, eighty per year were registered in theaccount books of the almoxarife of that townduring the 1490's, and during the first decade ofthe sixteenth century this average figure remainedfairly constant until about 1512.44 In the latteryear, as part of Manuel's designs to restructureand to centralize the royal overseas administration,the king ordered that henceforth all slaves enter-ing Portugal should disembark in Lisbon. Asimilar injunction restricting the slave traffic tothe port of Lisbon was issued four years later in1516. It appears that some difficulties had arisen

in the interim over the implementation of theprevious order and that slaves continued to trickleinto the country through other ports where proper

41ATT, Chancelaria eD. Manuel, ook44,fol. 48v.42Freire, AHP 8(1910): pp. 400-401. During these

three years the captain at Arguim, Gonqalo a Fonseca,reported nly 406 slaves as the total bartered uring histerm of office. This reductionwas no doubt due in partto the diverting of Portuguese nterests and physicalresources way from West Africa and the crown's con-centration n securing position n the East.

43Freire, AHP 2(1904): p. 354.44Freire, AHP 3(1905): p. 474; ATT, Corpo Crono-

logico,part 1,maco7, doc.57.

8 JOHN L. VOGT




duties and procedures for handling the trade werenot rigidly enforced. The alvard of October 17,1516, came as part of the Regimento da FazendaReal, and it spelled out heavy penalties for thosewho continued to disregard the earlier structures.

Persons importing slaves into the country througha port other than the capital itself were subject toa fine of three times the normal duty in additionto further penalties provided for in the GuineaHouse Ordinances.45 Only slaves imported underspecial royal license or privilege were exemptfrom this rule. Furthermore, the capital wasgranted the sole privilege of maintaining a slavemarket.46 In this way, the proper registration ofslaves and assessment of royal duties could beeffected through the offices of the Casa dosEscravos.47

Furthermore, this centralization would aid ineliminating the long delays in litigation overslave ownership which sometimes arose. Theadjudication of such affairs belonged by right tothe judge of Guinea, a royal official who servedboth branches of the Guinea and India Houses andwho maintained his offices in Lisbon. Alongwith questions of actual ownership of slaves, casesfrequently were brought before him concerning theright of the Slave House to receive the duties forpieces imported. Like so many Manueline govern-mental agencies, the Slave House exercised func-

tions which overlapped similar offices elsewherein the royal and municipal administrative struc-ture. For example, while all slaves, regardless oftheir African provenance or who imported them,were processed by the Guinea House and turnedover bodily to the Slave House, only a portionof the duties on some of the pieces was receivedby the almoxarifes dos escravos. Generally, slavespurchased in the Slave Rivers or Sao Tome orunder royal licensed expeditions, and brought toLisbon, were subject to duties assessed entirelywithin the Slave House. On the other hand, on

slaves transported to the Canaries, Azores, orMadeira, sold, and then carried to Lisbon, themunicipal customs house of the capital could im-pose an import excise. Occasionally, jurisdictionaldisputes of this nature were laid before the Guineajudge for a ruling. Since a portion of the officials'salary came from the volume of business trans-actions completed in their offices, they were under-

45 Instituto do Aiucar e do Alcool. Documentos paraa histdria do acicar: Legislafio (Rio de Janeiro, 1954)1: pp. 149-150.

46Ibid. 1: pp. 149-150.47 Ibid. 1: pp. 149-150.

standably reluctant to relinquish these pieces ortheir duty to the supervision of some otheragency.48

One of the most important duties of the head ofthe Slave House was to meet returning caravels

from Guinea and ascertain whether they werecarrying slaves which came under the ordinancesof his house. Whenever a Guinea caravel an-chored in the Tejo, the almoxarife accompaniedan official group from the Guinea House whichwent out to clear the ship's cargo and crew beforeany disembarkation could proceed.49 When thecargo had been tabulated against the ship's clerk'sbill of lading, and the vessel and crew had beensearched for contraband, any slaves on boardwere then collected on deck and checked againstthe clerk's record of purchase. A careful log had

been kept during the voyage showing the purchaseprice for each piece, their cost, whether male orfemale, and for whom they were bought (i.e., forthe crown or by an individual crew member).5?

When all was in order aboard ship-a processwhich required several hours on the average-the slaves were brought ashore, still bound one toanother by the iron collars and fetters which theircaptors had placed on them in Africa. From thedock it was only a short walk through the Portado Armazen or the Porta do Oura to the SlaveHouse in the Cooperage, where they were placed

under lock and key.51 Since it was desirable toturn the slaves over to private consignees as soonas possible in order to obtain the best prices, theprocess of sorting and cataloging the variouspieces commenced at once. Depending upon theother business in the Guinea House, on the day

48 In 1510, just such a jurisdictional dispute arose be-tween Lisbon's municipal customs house and the GuineaHouse regarding the rights to issue export licenses forshipment of slaves outside the country. In his letter ofcomplaint to the crown, Estevao Vaz, the Guinea factor,set forth the claims of the Guinea House and its subor-dinate officials to this trade: E fazer vosa merce palauraa sualteza que mande aos oficiaaes da alfamdega e porta-gem desta cidade que nam despachem escrauos que ouue-rem dhir per mar sem o dito alvara de saca deles, por quehe seu servjco e cousa deujda, escrauos e todo o que vierde Guyne na sajrem do Reyno sem se fazer saber nestaCasa, e levarem della recadaca como sa pagos os direitosdelles a sualteza. Brasio, Monumenta 4(1954): pp. 68-69.

49Damiao Peres, Regimento das Cazas das Indias eMina (Coimbra, 1947), pp. 23, 117.

50 Each piece purchased on the king's account wasbranded with the royal mark, consisting of the designof a cross placed on the upper right arm. Brasio,Monumenta (1954): p. 126.

51Peres, Regimento, p. 117.

VOL. 117, NO. 1, 1973] 9




of arrival or the following day the Slave Housewas visited by the Guinea factor, his treasurer andclerks, to begin the valuations. Together with thealmoxarife dos escravos and his own scrivener, thegroup determined the quality of the Negroes and

sorted them into lots for sale.52 They were guidedin their judgments by several criteria. Most im-portant, aside from the slave's sex, was his or herage. The prime prices were paid for youngblacks, preferably between their twelfth and eigh-teenth years. Persons in their twenties or earlythirties were sometimes included in slave ship-ments, but this was the exception; and prices forpieces of this sort were considerably lower.

The second major concern of the officials wasthe general health of the slave. The long, con-fined imprisonment aboard crowded slaving vessels

and limited rations of yams often had a tellingeffect on the slaves by the time of their arrival inLisbon. Disease frequently killed a number of theslaves and lessened the values of others. So thealmoxarife examined the slaves' teeth and limbsand forced them to perform physical movementslike stooping, running, jumping, and anything elsethat might indicate the pieces' state of health.Any deformities or unusual markings were notedat this point and recorded for possible identifica-tion purposes later. After careful scrutiny byevery official present the quality of each slave was

assessed and valuation in reis was written on apiece of parchment with a small hole punched in it.A string was attached and the price tag wassecured around the slave's neck.53 This price wasthen recorded by the almoxarife's clerk. A copywas also made as a receipt for the treasurer of theGuinea House, since this official had recorded thearrival of these slaves and carried them on hisreceipt books.54 The number of pieces deliveredto the almoxarife was noted, along with the shipin which they came, and finally the total assessedvalue of the shipment. The receipt was signed by

the almoxarife dos escravos and his clerk. Finally,to complete the financial and administrative trans-action, it was necessary for the almoxarife dosescravos to pay the royal duty of the vintena.

52 bid.,pp.29, 117.53 y escreveram s precos que ihe forem postos em

escriptos de porgaminho ue se lancaram nos pescossosdos ditos escravos . . , Peres, Regimento, . 117.

54The treasurer of the Guinea House required hisreceipt from the almoxarife dos escravos, because theslaves were recorded n his ledger as goods importedby sea. When the treasurer ave his accounting o theroyal contadores, his receipt was needed to clear his

books.

This was little more than a formality, since as hasbeen noted, the head of the Slave House also heldthe post of receivership of the twentieth part fromthe slave traffic. When this was finished theassessors departed. Any private individuals who

now desired could come to the Slave House andjudge the slaves for themselves. Any crewmember who had purchased a slave on his ownbehalf and had turned his captive over to theSlave House for the general assessment, could nowcome to claim his property. Upon payment of thevintena and the quarto, or one-fourth part of thevalue of the piece (the latter was assessed onlyupon private importations), the slave was re-leased to his permanent owner.

The price of the slaves varied considerably, butthe average value of the prime, well-seasoned

Negro who was sold by the Slave House in Lis-bon during the period of John II's reign fluctuatedbetween 5,000 and 5,500 reis. Through the initialyears of Manuel I's reign, this figure climbedsteadily until by 1509-1510 the price stood at be-tween 6,000 and 7,200 reis per piece. Toward theend of Manuel's rule, prime slaves continued to risein value to about 8,000 reis each.55 Female slavesgenerally fetched slightly less than these figures,and very old or very young slaves sold for aboutsixty per cent of the price paid for young males.The price obtained from the sale of a slave in

Lisbon was only about half that for a similarpiece sold to native gold merchants trading withthe Portuguese along the Mina Coast.56 Still,

55These figures are obtained from various referencesto slave prices during this period. For example, theletter of acquittal for Joao do Porto reveals that asidefrom sick slaves who were noted separately, two mainlots of slaves were sold by this official: 196 pieces at anaverage price slightly over 4,800 reis each; and 92 piecesfor an average of 5,150 reis each. Cf. Freire, AHP3(1905): p. 477. Charles Verlinden, L'Esclavage 1: p.627, utilizes the accounts of Joao Gonqalvez Batevias,almoxarife of Lagos from 1490 to 1498, and arrives at afigure of 4,830 reis as the average price of a prime male

slave landed there. In 1509, a lot of 13 prime slaveswas sold by the Lisbon Slave House, 12 at 6,000 reiseach and one for 5,000 reis. Cf. Brasio, Monumenta1(1952): p. 208. In 1510 the almoxarife, GoncaloLopez, turned over seven prime slaves to the treasurer ofthe Royal Mint valued at a total of 50,000 reis, or ap-proximately 7,150 reis each. In 1513 a slave from theregion of the Congo was bringing a price in Lisbon ofaround 8,000 reis. Cf. Br/asio, Monumenta 1(1952):pp. 278-279.

56 For example, 43 slaves, both male and female, soldat Sao Jorge da Mina by Antonio Carneiro n September,1515, fetched 531,351 reis, for an average price each of12,357 reis. ATT (Corpo Cronologico, part 1, maqo 4,doc. 102.

10 JOHN L. VOGT




the profit thus acquired was quite respectableconsidering the low purchase price of the Guineaslave. Slaves could be bought in Guinea at thevarious coastal stations for a variety of cheaptrade goods; linen, cloth, glass beads, cowries,

and copper and brass manillas all served at vary-ing times as a means of exchange with the Negromerchants for the purchase of slaves. Althoughthe prices demanded by Negro traders continuallyincreased and the crown tried in vain to imposearbitrary limits on this price, by the end of ManuelI's reign a prime slave could be obtained inBenin or the Congo for 45 to 50 brass manillas orseveral dozen yards of linen.57 Allowing fordeaths among the slaves, the cost of feeding themduring the voyage (this consisted primarily ofyams and palm oil amounting to 300-400 reis

worth per slave), and other miscellaneous ex-penses, the Slave House was able to realize a sub-stantial profit on the pieces imported into Portu-gal.58 Slightly higher profits could be gainedfrom the slave traffic out of Arguim on the WestAfrican coast, where the logistic problem of trans-porting the captives to Portugal was somewhatless. The only fixed expense incurred by theSlave House to maintain the pieces once they werein Lisbon was the cheap daily ration of rice, hard-tack, and olive oil.59

As mentioned previously, anyone who desired to

purchase a slave or slaves from the Casa dosEscravos could do so. However, the bulk of thishouse's slave transactions was carried on by salesof large numbers of blacks to various corretors,or private contractors, licensed by the municipal

57In the regimento given to the factor of the slavecontract on Sao Tome in 1519, the crown sought to im-pose a ceiling price of 40 manillas per piece. Briasio,Monumenta 4(1954): p. 130. However, this apparentlywas never closely adhered to.

58 In Lisbon during the last decade of Manuel I's reign,the price of copper used in the manufacture of manillasfor the Guinea trade fluctuated between 1,900 and 2,000reis per quintal. Cf. Vitorino Magalhaes-Godinho,L'economie de l'empire portugais aux XV? et XVIesiecles (Paris, 1969), p. 373; Anselmo BraamcampFreire, A feitoria de Flandres, AHP 6(1908): p. 410.Allowing about 1,000 reis for these tradegoods, another2,000 to 2,500 reis for the ships, crews, and outfittingexpenses, and at the most 1,000 reis for freight chargesand the maintenance of slaves in Lisbon and aboard ship,the profits to be had from the sale of a prime slave couldstill have exceeded several thousand reis. Of course,these estimates are very general indicators at best. E.g.,vide, ATT, Corpo Cronologico, part 1, maqo 2, doc. 130;ma;o 4, doc. 102; part 2, maco 129, doc. 134; maqo 173,doc. 136.

$9Freire, AHP 3(1905): p. 392.

government, who either specialized in this trafficor combined it with the sale of livestock.60 Thesemen, experienced in the vagaries of the slavetraffic, were commissioned frequently by individ-uals to handle the purchase of pieces from the

Slave House. In return for his service, the slavecontractor received a small commission, about 300to 500 reis per slave. For the most part, thegreat bulk of the royal slaves who were landedand sold outright were processed quickly throughthe Slave House in this manner. Occasionally,these contractors acted as brokers and disposed ofslaves at various public markets scattered through-out the city. One such outlet was the slave auc-tion conducted regularly in the open squareknown as the Pelourinho Velho. Here sales ofrecently arrived African blacks as well as regular

resales of slaves already in the city were made.6'There was always a small number of slaves whocould not be expedited in the normal mannerdescribed above. Owing either to a death wish,the long ocean journey, native diseases, or simplymaltreatment, these pieces had failed to seasonproperly, had fallen ill, and would certainly havedied unless promptly treated. Several provisionswere made in the ordenanfa of the Slave Housefor such afflicted royal slaves. On the one hand,if the malady was such that it could be treatedwithin the Slave House by methods like force-

feeding, purging, or the like, the almoxarife andhis clerk undertook these cures and registeredtheir expenses as part of the operating overheadof the house.62 However, if it became obviousthat even should the slave survive, he could not besold at the price for which he had been originallyassessed, or if it appeared that his recovery wasdoubtful, the almoxarife then took him to thefactor of Guinea and his staff who had made theoriginal evaluation. A physician would then besummoned, and after consultation, a new assess-ment would be made, usually much lower thanthe first one.63 For example, included in thisgrouping were five slaves disposed of by Joao doPorto in a single lot in 1489 or 1490 for 8,005reis, little more than the sale value of a singleprime male.64 Similar cut-rate disposals of sicklyslaves were noted in later accounts of other

60Brandao, Majestade e grandezas de Lisboa, AHP11(1916): pp. 102-103.

61 Ibid., p. 94.62 Peres, Regimento, p. 118.63Ibid., p. 118.

4 Freire, AHP 3(1905) : p. 477.

VOL. 117, NO. 1, 1973] 11




almoxarifes.65 If anyone wished to try to curesuch slaves, he could buy them generally for halfprice, on the condition that the expense of treat-ment lay with the purchasing party.

Likewise, slaves who had undergone the purg-

ing process within the Slave House were soldat

considerably reduced prices, generally about halfof their original assessed value. Sometimes, how-ever, the efforts of the almoxarife to treat thepieces failed, and the slave died. If death occurredon the voyage before reaching port, it was custo-mary to cast the corpse into the sea and simplycorrect the ship's books. If the slave died inLisbon, whether in the Slave House or amongprivate hands, it was the usual practice to carrythe body to the edge of the city or out into thesurrounding countryside a short way and sum-

marily dump it. An especially popular site forsuch disposals was just outside the Gate of SaintCatherine which led toward Santos. By 1515 theabandonment of dead slaves around St. Catherine'sas well as at other points throughout the cityconstituted a serious health problem. Dead slaveswere being left wherever they had fallen. In 1515Manuel I moved to correct this abuse as well asimprove the sanitary conditions of the capital.On November 31 of that year, the king orderedthat henceforth the dumping or private inter-ment of dead slaves was forbidden, and that all

such corpses were to be carried to a site hard bySt. Catherine's Gate and placed in a deep pit(polo) which he ordered city officials to dig thereas a mass grave. At intervals, quicklime was tobe added as required to facilitate decomposition.Severe penalties were imposed on anyone, eitherroyal officials or private individuals, who disre-garded this ordinance.66

Not every slave who entered into the Casa dosEscravos was disposed of as described above (i.e.,by public sale or interment). Another importantfacet of the Slave House's functions was to furnish

the slaves for the crown's frequent requisitions ofcaptive blacks for favored individuals or groups.King Manuel was especially noted for this pro-clivity, more so than his predecessors. His grantsfrom the royal supply of slaves included donationsto court favorites such as the royal chaplain, and

65 For example, in 1511-1513, Goncalo Lopez recordsthe sale of ten such slaves escravos e escravas whichbrought only 32,200 reis at desvairados prefos. Freire,AHP 2(1904): p. 441.

66Eduardo Freire de Oliveira, Elmenentos para ahistoria do municipio de Lisboa (17 v., Lisbon, 1882-1911) 1: pp. 509-510.

even an occasional grant of a piece to an entirevillage.67 In addition to this, contractors of theoverseas areas were required oftentimes to supplyroyal slaves as donations to certain officials withinthe area of their leases. In almost every case of a

royal grant in Portugal, the slaves werefurnished

from prime pieces who were in stock or wouldarrive that year in the Slave House. The almo-xarife was instructed to carry the piece on hisaccount books as a credit. Scores of slaves peryear were sidetracked from the public sales of thecasa in this way. For example, in 1515, Manuelgranted to the Hospital of All Saints one slave orthe equivalent from every caravel from Guineaunloading its cargo with the almoxarife dosescravos and the Slave House.68 Numerous mem-bers of the king's court enjoyed similar crown

favors, all of which drained therevenues of the

Slave House. Persons surrounding the king,down to the king's musicians, were granted giftsof prime slaves or an equivalent money paymentto be issued by the almoxarife dos escravos andcarried on his books.69

The royal grants were only a portion of theslave traffic diverted from public sales. Therewere also the so-called administrative grantswhich the Slave House was required to fulfill.Numerous offices in the royal administration car-ried the grant of a slave or slaves as part of the

emoluments of the post. 'For example the variousofficials of the Guinea, Mina, and India Housescould call upon the Slave House to furnish over adozen slaves per year to assist them in theiroperations. Surviving documents demonstrate the

procedure whereby the Slave House was re-

quired to turn slaves back to the Guinea judge,who then disposed of them according to the regu-lations of the respective official.

Occasionally the largess of the king outdistancedthe ability of the Slave House to pay for all thegrants involved. Such was the case when

Goncalo Lopez wrote privately to the king inJanuary, 1514, regarding his activities during thepreceding year. The accounts of the Slave Housewere then being tallied within the Casa dos Con-

67 Brasio, Monumenta 1(1952): p. 280.68 ATT, Gavetas, II, maqo 2, fol. 62.69These two particular grants, one to Mateus de

Fontes, royal chaplain, and the other to Joao de Badajoz,musician, were both issued on September 19, 1513. InJanuary, 1514, the king instructed the new almoxarife,Antonio do Porto, to pay these grants as soon as possiblebecause as yet no funds were available within the SlaveHouse. Cf. Brasio, Monumenta 1(1952): pp. 278-280.

12 JOHN L. VOGT




construction of new quarters for the Guinea andIndia Houses adjacent to the new ;royal palace.

But the functions mentioned above are insig-nificant when put beside the second major areaof concern for the Casa dos Escravos: the collec-

tion of the vintena. As noted in discussing theadministrative organization of the casa, thealmoxarife dos escravos during the Manuelineperiod was called upon customarily to serve asthe receiver of the royal duty of the twentieth. Itwas his task to collect this excise from all com-modities entering Lisbon from overseas. Forexample, during one three-year period of theheadship of Goncalo Lopez, from 1511 to 1513,the twentieth part received by the Slave Houseamounted to over five million reis, or almost one-fifth of the house's total revenues.80 Another

8,100,000 reis, about thirty per cent of the house'srevenues, were derived from the sale of 1,300slaves entering Lisbon during the same period.81Most of the remaining half of the income for theCasa dos Escravos came from the administrationof numerous royal contracts which the head ofthat body was obligated to administer. This sys-tem of royal leases formed the third major activityin addition to the slave trade and the duty of thetwentieth, of the Slave House.

From its inception the Casa dos Escravos hadbeen singled out to aid in administering the

various contracts and leases of the crown's Africanholdings, which the king wished to negotiate withor grant to private parties. These contracts be-longed not to the individual head or almoxarife,but to the Slave House itself. During the ad-ministration of Joao do Porto, the major contractinvolved the lease of the Slave Rivers by Berto-lomeo Marchione who, in return for his royalgrant, agreed to pay the almoxarife dos escravos1,100,000 reis per year.82 This figure comprisedabout forty per cent of the annual average revenueof the entire Slave House during this time, and

it relieved the almoxarife and the crown of con-80 Freire, AHP 2(1904): pp. 440-441. Technically

the impost of the 'intena belonged to the Order of Christby virtue of a grant of December 26, 1457, made byPrince Henry. However, the king, because of his positionas governor and perpetual administrator of this order,exercised his prerogative to collect and disburse thisduty along with regular royal customs excises. Cf.Jorge Faro, Duas expediq6es enviadas a Guine anterior-mente a 1474 e custeadas pela fazenda de D. Afonso V,Boletim cultural da Guine portuguesa 12(1957) : pp. 47-104, and esp. p. 79.

81 Freire, AHP 2(1904): pp. 440-441.82 Ibid. 3(1905): pp. 477-478.

siderable administrative burdens because it waspaid semi-annually in a lump sum.

By the middle of Manuel I's reign, a number ofother contracts were added to that of the SlaveRivers designated to be administered by the Slave

House. They included,in addition to the one

mentioned above, the contracts for all trade fromthe region of Sierra Leone and from the Cantor,Senegal, and Gambia rivers; the malagueta peppercontract; and the rental contracts for the islandsof the Cape Verde archipelago, notably Santiago,Fogo, Maio, Sao Nicolao, and Santa Luzia.83Along with these leases, the Casa dos Escravoshandled the leasing of numerous royal customsexcises, the most important of which were thequarto, dizima, and vintena for Sao Tome andPrincipe. Individual contracts were let out for

varying periods, ranging usuallyfrom one to

three years, depending upon the region or dutybeing farmed out. In each case, however, specificregulations were observed by the officials of theSlave House to ensure that the crown obtainedthe best possible price for the lease. A fairillustration of the Casa's method of conductingleasing can be drawn from the farming out ofroyal rents of the vintena, quartos, and dizima forSao Tome and Principe in 1504. This particularlease was for a period of two years and was beingsought by the king's secretary, Antonio Carneiro,

and his financial associate Joaoda Fonseca. They

were armed with a royal contract for the lease,which they presented to the head of the Casa dosEscravos, Ruy Penteado, on Thursday, June 20,1504.84 It now became the task of the almoxarifein his capacity as feitor das Ilhas to implement theterms of the lease. The contract called for thefollowing: each year the renters were to pay300,000 reis to the Slave House in two equalpayments of 150,000 reis. In addition, they wereto assume the responsibility for the salaries of theroyal officials in the islands who were normally

charged with collectingthese crown revenues.

Finally, a payment of 14,000 reis per year wasto be made to the vicar of the island of Sio Tome.The latter stipend represented the payment whichthe crown normally made to this cleric from therevenues of the dizima.

Ruy Penteado received the royal lease, but

83The jurisdiction f the director of the Slave Housefcifor das Ilhas was confined o the islands near theWest African coast (Cape Verdes, Sao Tome, Principe,Ano Bom) and did not extend to either the Azores orMadeira.

84 Bratsio,Monumenta (1952): pp. 199-200.

14 JOHN L. VOGT




TABLE 1

Term- ofYearly revenue lease

(in reis) Contract Renter (yrs.)

1,212,000r.

1,043,666r.

538,666r.525,200r.454,500r.267,750r.

196,950r.151,500r.

70,130r.55,550r.

Rios de Guine

Santiago, Fogo, and Maio islandsSierra LeoneMalaguetaCantor and Gambiaquartos, vintena & dizimas of

Sao TomdSenegalquartos & vintena of Principevintena of Anno Bomhurzella of islands Sao Nicolao,

Santa Luzia, & Ilheos

before putting it onto the books of the Casa dosEscravos, official public notice of the intendedlease had to be made. The details of the leasewere given to the official crier for the city, whoacted as the announcers of such contracts, and foreight days following its presentation to Penteado,the notice stood before the doors of the SlaveHouse. Any person who wished could offer ahigher bid for the lease than that specified inCarneiro's original contract. At the end of thistime, no counterbid having been offered, the publiccrier returned the lease to Penteado, who in turnapproved it and submitted it to his scrivener. Thecontract was drawn up and recorded in the booksof the house and witnessed by all the parties in-volved.85 This particular contract was especiallylucrative, for all the rich slave trade passing be-tween the Congo and Benin on the one hand,and Sao Jorge da Mina on the other, went throughthe island of Sao Tome and was trapped by theofficials of these royal excises.86 Following theconclusion of the contract between Carneiro andthe Slave House, the almoxarife then had only tonotify the factor of Guinea of the terms of thelease so that the proper administrative steps couldbe observed with respect to goods shipped toPortugal and entered in the Guinea House underthis lease. Carneiro and Fonseca continued torenew their lease under similar favorable termsuntil 1510. In that year the contract was sub-divided into two separate leases, one for the royalduties on the island of Sao Tome and the othersolely for the island of Principe, which Carneirohad received as a holding from the crown.87

85 Ibid., pp. 201-202.86 ATT, Leis e regimentos de D. Manuel, fols. 83-88v.87 Freire. AHP 2(1904) : pp. 440-441.

Joao de Lila89

Antonio Rodriguez Mascar-enhas and Nicolao RodriguezJoao de Lila and Joao CrastoCalliro RodolhoMestre FelipeJoao da Fonseca

Francisco MartinsAntonio CarneiroDuarte AfonsoCount of Portalegre

1

33232

2411

By 1509-1510, the influence of the Slave Houseand its head had grown far beyond the geographiclimits of administrative control laid down duringthe term of the first almoxarife dos escravos in the1480's and 1490's. Following the restructuringof the Guinea House in 1509, most of the remain-ing contracts administered through the GuineaHouse were relinquished to the Slave House forimmediate supervision. For its part the GuineaHouse now concentrated its primary energies on aclose control of the Mina gold trade which faroutstripped all the other royal leases in WestAfrica. The India House had become a separateadministrative unit in its own right and sharedsome of the overseas officials such as the Guineajudge with the other elements of overseasauthority.

The extent of the control which Goncalo Lopezexercised as head of the Slave House in the areaof royal leases during this period is shown in oneof the rare itemized listings of his carta dequitaqdo for the years 1511-1513.88 In all, tenmajor leases now came under the jurisdiction ofhis office. In geographic terms they ranged fromWest Africa just south of the royal factory atArguim to the Benin kingdom, and they includednumerous Atlantic island holdings of the crown.In table 1 they are listed in order of their yearlyrevenues to the Slave House for the period.

88 Freire, AHP 2(1904): pp. 440-441. Manuel NunesDias, 0 capitalismo mondrquico portugOes, 1415-1549(2 v., Coimbra, 1963-1964) 2: pp. 30-32, reproduces thefigures from this quittance; however, he does not breakthem down into annual averages which would show therelative value of the contracts to each other.

89Freire, AHP 2(1904): pp. 440-441. During 1511and part of 1512 this same contract had been in the handsof Francisco Martins.

VOL. 117, NO. 1, 1973] 15




Together, these contracts totaled over ten millionreis, or slightly more than the revenues derivedfrom all sales and duties on slaves imported intoPortugal over the same period of time. In addi-tion, there is conclusive evidence from a letter

written by the almoxarife in January, 1514, thatby that date the region of Arguim had been addedto the list of royal leases which passed into theaccount books of the Slave House.90 While theSlave House had already had considerable deal-ings with Arguim during the previous decades, thismost northerly West African post was hence-forth to be administered under lease.

By the latter years of Dom Manuel's reign, theera of rapid fiscal expansion for the Slave Housewas ending. Receipts began to level off. In1531, exactly a decade after Manuel's death, the

registry books of the house showed revenuesamounting to 24,650,000 reis per year.91 Whilethe value of some of the contracts had appreciatedconsiderably, no new leases had come under thesupervision of this body. So long as the volumeof trade at Sao Jorge da Mina held at around a

90 Dos arrendamentos dos tratos de Guine, Ilhas,Arguim, e vintenas, Freire, AHP 2(1904): p. 441.

91ATT, Corpo Cronologico, part 1, maco 47, doc. 115.

thousand marks of gold per year, most of theGuinea slave trade continued to be siphoned offinto these quarters.92 Thus the number of slavesentering Lisbon showed only minor year-to-yearfluctuations.

By Manuel's death in 1521, the business of theSlave House had been far outstripped in relativeeconomic importance by overseas revenues enter-ing the India and Mina Houses. Only a smallpart of the crown's total annual revenues fromenterprises in Africa and Asia now passed throughthe receivership of the Slave House.93 However,in terms of area administered, its jurisdiction wasexceeded only by the great expanse of EastAfrican and Asian holdings charged to the IndiaHouse. The Casa dos Escravos had supplied thePortuguese crown with the first organized struc-

ture with which it could systematically exploitthe

human traffic out of the African Negrolands, andit provided a successful administrative model forthe slave trade with the Americas which beganlater in the sixteenth century.

92 Cf. Vitorino Magalhaes-Godinho, L'economnie del'empire portugais . . . , pp. 228-243, where this authorpresents a summary of all known receipts of gold fromMina by the Royal Mint between 1517 and 1572.

93Ibid., p. 830.

16 JOHN L. VOGT

lisbon novo

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