Tapping the forest

The timber trade constituted the material framework of early modern colonialism. In Brazil, the Portuguese found abundant timber resources in two extensive biomes: Amazonia and the Atlantic Forest. Since the latter was the core of colonization, its timber resources were of the highest importance. This chapter addresses the timber export economy of the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro in the late-colonial period, exploring both the royal and private sectors (with an emphasis on the former). These topics are discussed by analyzing various kinds of primary sources, including legislation, administrative correspondence, and travelogues. While Rio’s timber export economy was the largest in late-colonial Brazil, it is not known what the relative contribution of the two sectors involved was, partly because of the possibility that the Portuguese custom records did not include madeiras de lei , those species reserved for the Royal Navy. In Rio de Janeiro, these were tapinhoã, peroba, vinhático, and jacaranda. Officials tried their best to locate and secure these trees despite competition from private loggers. Although selective logging was not, in itself, the main factor in colonial deforestation, the targeting of a few noble species did have a significant impact on regional populations.