A mineração, a pecuária e a agricultura como marcas do modo de vida em Goiás: um diálogo entre história e literatura

Abstract

Although Goiás historiography does not present much research on the development of mining in Goiás, it is possible to see in some authors that this subject has been well explored and that it is possible to develop an investigation aiming to show that mining in Goiás is extremely important for understanding how gold mines influenced socioeconomic formation of the cities in which they were present, but which were also reasons for entire cities went bankrupt when the gold ran out. The object of study in this investigation are the gold mines in Goiás, making the gold trade one of the main products traded in the State and a important tax-generating product for the country. Furthermore, the mines provided an increase in the flow of money in cities and an increase in commercial transactions, even though in these cities commerce revolved around exchange of gold for small goods, many merchants prospered in that time to the detriment of mining. This study is justified by the fact that gold mining in Goiás is extremely important for understanding how gold influenced the social and economic formation in Goiás, because through mining, there was including the growth of some cities and the implementation of local commerce, with the exchange of goods for gold. It is also necessary to highlight why mining did not represent, in terms of practical, the increase in the per capita income of the poorest city dwellers and the mining activities provided a characteristic mixing of the population of Goiás, since in addition to the presence of the Indians, the discovery of gold made possible a rapid migration to the banks of its rivers, initiating the emergence of citadels and settlements. Like gold's rapid rise, its decline was also quickly, as a consequence was the emergence of towns and cities formed by a population with a white minority and a majority of mestizos, mulattoes and slaves. The methodological path used to construct this research on the development of mining in Goiás and its influence on cities in Goiás required the bibliographical discussion of some authors such as Luís Palacin and Maria Augusta de Sant’Anna Moraes (1986); Eli Brasiliense (1987); Paulo Bertran (1978); Nars Chaul (1997) and Roger Chartier (1991) in addition to other texts published in books, magazines and the Internet.