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Dissertation Information for Jose Carlos Curto

NAME:
- Jose Carlos Curto

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- History

SCHOOL:
- University of California, Los Angeles (USA) (1996)

ADVISORS:
- Edward A. Alpers

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- Christopher Ehret
- Martin F. Shapiro

MPACT Status: Fully Complete

Title: Alcohol and slaves: The Luso-Brazilian alcohol commerce at Mpinda, Luanda, and Benguela during the Atlantic slave trade c. 1480-1830 and its impact on the societies of West Central Africa

Abstract: This dissertation, based on archival research and published documentation, examines the roles of foreign alcohol in West Central Africa during the legal Atlantic slave trade. From the 1480s onwards, an extremely close relationship developed between foreign intoxicants and captives: first, fortified Portuguese wine and, following 1650, Brazilian rum emerged as crucial trade goods for the acquisition of slaves. But the significance of Luso-Brazilian intoxicants goes far beyond this singular fact. They also served a number of other functions, some of which were related to slave trading and others not.

As the history of these roles is reconstructed, four major conclusions emerge. First, Brazilian rum imports accounted for 20% in value of the 1,626,500 captives legally exported from Luanda and Benguela during 1700-1830, while other alcohol imports, particularly grape wine, accounted for a further 7%. In West Central Africa, only textiles superseded Luso-Brazilian intoxicants in the acquisition of slaves. Second, this exchange was dominated by Brazilian colonial traders with rum drawn upon originally from sugar plantations behind Bahia and Recife and, following the late 1600s, increasingly from those in the interior of Rio de Janeiro. This created a serious breach in the pre-1650 monopoly enjoyed by Portuguese merchant capitalists in the West Central African legal slave export trade. Third, the exchange of Luso-Brazilian alcohol for West Central African captives involved high levels of profits, with significant earnings attainable for nearly all who engaged in this commerce, plus other returns not always manifest in balance sheet accounts. Finally, although the volume of Luso-Brazilian alcohol in circulation was not enough to turn West Central African social formations into heavy consumers of imported intoxicants, which were far more alcoholized than any of the drinks produced locally, it was sufficient for a minority of individuals tied to the South Atlantic slaving economy to become avid consumers of it and the masses to acquire a taste for foreign booze.

Focusing on the history of one item of exchange, this study thus not only advances scholarship on the Atlantic slave trade, but also throws light on the insinuation of foreign alcohol into West Central African societies.

MPACT Scores for Jose Carlos Curto

A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2009-01-12 11:22:31

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Students under Jose Carlos Curto

ADVISEES:
- None

COMMITTEESHIPS:
- None