Brazil at the Dawn of the Eighteenth Century

Chapter IX: How Tobacco Is Cleared through the Customs House of Bahia

136 chapter ix y How Tobacco Is Cleared through the Customs House of Bahia The tobacco has now been treated and rolled and has paid its tax to God, which is one arroba for every twenty. (The income from this tax, from one year to another, yields 18,000 cruzados. This comes from Cachoeira of Bahia and its neighboring parishes, not counting what is grown in the other parts of the interior of Bahia, in Sergipe del Rei, Cotinguiba, Rio Real, Inhambupe, Montegordo, and Torre. Not counting the income from the tax on sugar and other small tithes, these other towns yield between 10,000 and 12,000 cruzados.) The tobacco travels by cart and boat to the city of Bahia, paying its way, until it is stored in its own customs house, from which 25,000 rolls or more are sent to Lisbon from one year to another. These are taxed by agreement with the city (Bahia) at seventy réis for each roll. The king takes one-third, and two-thirds are for the fort in the same city, which receives 5,000 cruzados. An additional sum of three réis per arroba is collected by the city in the same manner already stated, which yields 1,200 cruzados. Of this tobacco, 13,000 arrobas are allotted for trade on the Mina Coast of West Africa, which are organized into 5,000 small rolls of three arrobas each. These are also subject to the same tax by the city of seventy réis for each roll, totaling 1,000 cruzados.8 These 13,000 arrobas are subject to a royal tax of four vinténs per ar­ roba, paid to the treasury, totaling 3,000 cruzados. Three thousand arrobas are sent to Rio de Janeiro each year, and these pay nothing in Bahia but they will be subject to taxation in this same Rio de Janeiro, where they will yield 25,000 cruzados, give or take a little; this is what they collect. And taking into consideration everything said here regarding the clearing of tobacco through customs, tobacco taxes yield 65,200 cruzados. ...