Ground rents, sesmarias, and conflicts in the rural world

agrarian and Jurisdictional disputes in the hinterlands of Ceará (1699-1739)

Abstract

This article examines agrarian and jurisdictional conflicts related to the attempted enforcement of the royal provision of January 20, 1699, which established the annual payment of ground rent (foro) on land grants (sesmarias) in the Northern Captaincies of Portuguese America, focusing on the hinterlands of the Captaincy of Ceará. Situated within the field of rural history, the study analyzes how land-use practices, territorial conquest services, and jurisdictional disputes shaped agrarian relations. Based on the analysis of a 1739 letter written by the captain-major of Ceará, D. Francisco Ximenes de Aragão, to King João V, the article argues that resistance to the collection of foro reflected political and legal strategies employed by local landholders in response to royal attempts at land control. It contends that the hinterlands functioned as spaces of normative negotiation and relative autonomy, where conflicts over land reveal the limits of colonial authority and the power dynamics that structured the rural world of Portuguese America.