The brazilwood trade was the first major economic activity of colonial Brazil, but little research has examined the trade after the middle of the sixteenth century. This study describes the emergence of the trade and the subsequent changes that allowed it to overcome the commonly-cited reasons for its presumed decline within a century of its beginnings, namely coastal deforestation and a shrinking supply of indigenous labor. Examining the brazilwood trade on its own apart from comparisons with

more »

... ugar reveals an Atlantic commercial activity that thrived into the middle of the seventeenth century. Keywords Brazilwood, economic history of Brazil, colonial Brazil, royal monopoly, Atlantic history Resumo O comércio do pau-brasil foi a primeira atividade econômica do Brasil colonial mas pouca pesquisa tinha examinado o comércio depois o meio do século XVI. Este estudo descreve o surgimento do comércio e as mudanças subsequentes que o permitiu superar as razões citadas para seu presumido declínio em menos de um século do seu início, a saber desmatamento litoral e diminuição da oferta de mãode-obra indígena. Examinar o comércio do pau-brasil sozinho sem comparações a açúcar revela um comércio atlântico que prosperou até o meio do século XVII. Palavras-chave Pau-brasil, história econômica do brasil, Brasil colonial, monopólio real, História Atlântica 2 Formerly classified as Caesalpinia echinata, recent work on Brazilwood's taxonomic classification (Gagnon, et al. [2016] ) has shown that it belongs within its own genus in the legume family.