However, these wars, and the related laborious discussions for borders, did not prevent the viceroyalty from walking. The search for gold had brought about the discovery of the sources of the Madeira and Paraguay rivers and widened the expansion into the interior and its civilization. Gold was no longer exported raw; but factories were set up in Minas, where the precious metal was melted and stamped. In 1729 Bernardo da Fonseca Lobo had discovered very rich diamond districts in the north of Minas. And Jaraguá became the center of this new source of income for the Crown which took the monopoly, adding it to those, which it already held, of salt, of brazil and tobacco. It is estimated that 5 million carats of diamonds were mined from 1730 to 1770. The gold rush did not harm agriculture and industries connected to the land, Brazil’s greatest wealth. Even the government showed interest in it, when it initiated a series of land ownership reforms, placing some limits on the granting of sesmarias., arranging for the devolution of uncultivated lands, imposing a tribute: a serious blow to those great owners who increased their land tenure not to cultivate it but out of vanity. The immigration of European settlers also began to be viewed with less hostile eyes. At the time of Spain, the laws against foreigners had been extremely harsh: that of Philip III (1605) forbade them, even under capital punishment, from possessing assets in Brazil, from doing business there, and even from settling there. At one point, the prohibition was extended to the Portuguese kingdoms themselves. But, in the mid-1700s, after the recognition of the new territories and the creation of the new captaincy, which otherwise would have remained abandoned and uncultivated, the opportunity arose to favor the introduction of European workforce; and it began in 1747, with 400 families from the Azores and Madeira. The new captains were Minas, detached from São Paulo; Rio Grande do Sul, whose colonization began in 1737; S. Catharina, Goyaz and Cuyabá or Matto Grosso. The new bishoprics of São Paulo, Marianna and Pará were also created. Central power remained in the hands of the governor general, who was the direct delegate of the king and had full authority over the other governors and major captains; but the judiciary remained quite independent. Governors and other officials of justice and finance were strictly forbidden to carry out trade in the colonies: observed at the beginning with great scruple, this wise disposition began to be systematically transgressed in the century. XVIII. Central power remained in the hands of the governor general, who was the direct delegate of the king and had full authority over the other governors and major captains; but the judiciary remained quite independent. Governors and other officials of justice and finance were strictly forbidden to carry out trade in the colonies: observed at the beginning with great scruple, this wise disposition began to be systematically transgressed in the century. XVIII. Central power remained in the hands of the governor general, who was the direct delegate of the king and had full authority over the other governors and major captains; but the judiciary remained quite independent. Governors and other officials of justice and finance were strictly forbidden to carry out trade in the colonies: observed at the beginning with great scruple, this wise disposition began to be systematically transgressed in the century. XVIII. observed at the beginning with great scruple, this wise disposition began to be systematically transgressed in the century. XVIII. observed at the beginning with great scruple, this wise disposition began to be systematically transgressed in the century. XVIII.
For the agricultural production of that time there is a valuable statistical source in the book Coltura e opulencia do Brazil (1711), of a mysterious father Antonil, who later turned out to be the Tuscan Jesuit GA Andreoni (v.). For the following years, the statistics are much easier, given the abundance of documents. At the time of Andreoni, there were 1,500 sugar refineries, producing over 1,300,000 arrobas, worth 6,000,000 and more cruzados. In production, Bahia had taken first place, while Pernambuco had fallen to second; the third was Rio de Janeiro, in constant progress. In Bahia itself and in Alagôas, the cultivation of tobacco flourished (royal monopoly). In almost all the harbor offices, where more where less, there were livestock farms; other profitable industries were the export of brazil wood, saltpetre mining and whale fishing. Pepper and cinnamon were used; in Maranhão, vanilla, cocoa and carnation were valued. The cultivation of coffee had begun in Pará, brought there from Guiana, and in 1749, it was estimated that there were 17,000 plants.
According to BARBLEJEWELRY, the cultural conditions of the colony were certainly better than in the rest of South America: there were still no universities, and the children of the country, to complete their studies, went to Portugal; but primary and middle education, in the hands of the Jesuits, gave good results and laid the foundations of a tradition, later never abandoned, of love for classical studies. In 1724, the first academy, known as the Esquecidos, was founded in Bahia(Forget); in 1747, that is half a century before Buenos Aires, a printing house was operating in Rio de Janeiro.
