The Moradores-Armadores (Resident-ship fitters)
- Economy
This commercial class of shipbuilders, which became known in history as the moradores-armadores (resident-ship builders), was gradually swelled by sailors, estate holders, royal officials,“forros” (freed slaves), tenants, women - both widows and single ladies with inheritances - and “lançados” or tangomãos (entrepreneurs), to make up the first Cape Verdean bourgeoisie. They came to dominate the businesses of agriculture (maize, from Africa and America, legumes and sugar cane, from Europe and the Atlantic islands, coconut, from India, upland rice, fruits and cotton), industry and trading in land, given the links they all had with slave trading, as well as the regional cabotage business in the rivers of Guinea where they bought cloth and clothes produced in Casamansa, S. Domingues and Gambia to sell in the rivers to the south, where they bought sticks of ink (rio Nuno) and cola beans (Sierra Leone) to sell in the north. This bourgeoisie, forged in commerce with Guinea, would rapidly take effective power in Santiago through the Câmaras (chambers).
It should be noted that the slave trade, which developed in the 15th to 17th Centuries in Ribeira Grande, was basically aimed at external markets, firstly Portugal and Spain, then Brazil and the Caribbean, as well as the rest of the “Spanish Indes”, and that the city was primarily a staging post in this trade, to see the rapid intersection of slaves, some of whom were freed, and their descendents in the active economy, some of whom where even businessmen and functionaries in Cape Verde. Indeed, if initially there was a certain percentage of slaves that was established in Cape Verde for settlement and for work in agriculture, industry and commerce, bringing in of further slaves was marginal and quite sporadic. Those who had become established were quickly being integrated in a new society with its own characteristics, and they created a common language and culture jointly with the Europeans. Right from the start, the institutions were working towards a society with democratic characteristics, favoured by original experiences, a society of mixing.
This commercial class of shipbuilders, which became known in history as the moradores-armadores (resident-ship builders), was gradually swelled by sailors, estate holders, royal officials,“forros” (freed slaves), tenants, women - both widows and single ladies with inheritances - and “lançados” or tangomãos (entrepreneurs), to make up the first Cape Verdean bourgeoisie. They came to dominate the businesses of agriculture (maize, from Africa and America, legumes and sugar cane, from Europe and the Atlantic islands, coconut, from India, upland rice, fruits and cotton), industry and trading in land, given the links they all had with slave trading, as well as the regional cabotage business in the rivers of Guinea where they bought cloth and clothes produced in Casamansa, S. Domingues and Gambia to sell in the rivers to the south, where they bought sticks of ink (rio Nuno) and cola beans (Sierra Leone) to sell in the north. This bourgeoisie, forged in commerce with Guinea, would rapidly take effective power in Santiago through the Câmaras (chambers).
It should be noted that the slave trade, which developed in the 15th to 17th Centuries in Ribeira Grande, was basically aimed at external markets, firstly Portugal and Spain, then Brazil and the Caribbean, as well as the rest of the “Spanish Indes”, and that the city was primarily a staging post in this trade, to see the rapid intersection of slaves, some of whom were freed, and their descendents in the active economy, some of whom where even businessmen and functionaries in Cape Verde. Indeed, if initially there was a certain percentage of slaves that was established in Cape Verde for settlement and for work in agriculture, industry and commerce, bringing in of further slaves was marginal and quite sporadic. Those who had become established were quickly being integrated in a new society with its own characteristics, and they created a common language and culture jointly with the Europeans. Right from the start, the institutions were working towards a society with democratic characteristics, favoured by original experiences, a society of mixing.
