Patrimônio e opulência da elite maranhense oitocentista/Yara Cristine Soares Santos

Abstract

The prosperity of Maranhão's agro-exporting economy continued in the early years of the 19th century and made Maranhão one of the most important economies in Portuguese America. This bonanza reflected in the social environment, and allowed for several transformations throughout this century, such as the development of the banking sector, the infrastructure of urban services and the improvement of navigation, which together with the performance of the domestic market, brought a heterogeneity in the economic movement of the nineteenth century. These transformations portrayed a concern of the Maranese elite with the modernization of the urban space of São Luís, which sought to bring social and cultural progress to the province, with new administrative positions and new habits increasing the consumption of European goods. Thus, this work seeks to understand the socioeconomic behavior of the Maranese elite in an unstable financial context, its strategies and its results. Through the analysis of quantitative and qualitative data of wills and post-mortem inventories together with the analysis of the Codes of Municipal Postures.