Das faisqueiras às galerias: explorações do ouro, leis e cotidiano nas Minas do século dezoito(1702-1763)

Abstract

The objective of this work is to study the technical, social and political-administrative aspects of the gold mining developed in Minas Gerais during the first half of the 18th century. The objective of this article is to obtain an integrated understanding of the nuclear activity that guided the formation process and consolidation of the colonial mining society. Therefore, the structure of the research is supported by three basic ideas: 1) the identification of the methods and techniques used by the miners in the auriferous extraction; 2) the identification of the elements that integrated the social and daily life of those who dedicated themselves to the mining activity; 3) the mineral legislation created to control and to manage the activity. The delimited scenario for this study corresponds to the regions where the auriferous mining were presented in a more dynamic form: the Judicial District of Vila Rica and Rio das Velhas. It was especially in these areas that the mining activity revealed its diversity of methods and techniques, since the exploration of faisqueiras (broken rocks of gold-diggers), in the stream beds of water courses, until the galleries, in the interior of the mounts. It was also in these regions that the Portuguese Crown intended to centralize its regulating procedures of the activity.Therefore, it is believed that both of the Judicial Districts assemble the necessary conditions for the proposed objective. It may be considered as representatives of the mining that was developed in Minas Gerais. In the same way, the specific period was centered in the first half of 18th century, of which the auriferous production reached its top. The chronological boundaries defined were the year of 1702 year - marked by the publication of the Mineral Regiment and the year of 1762, that has been considered as the mark of the auriferous production declining,since that in this date the quota of the 100 annual arrobas was completed for the last time.