Livestock
- Economy
Due to the role of Ribeira Grande as a very important commercial staging post in the 15th and 16th Centuries, cattle raising became an absolute necessity from the start. It stocked the innumerable ships that docked there with live animals or salted or dried meat,and supplied horses, which were exported to the African coast and to Portugal, as well as a tanning industry, which thrived and exported to Madeira and the metropolis.
While the unirrigated lands in Cape Verde brought great problems for agricultural production due to the lack of rains, livestock did not deter at such intractable difficulties. Once cattle had been established in the islands, even in the deserts, it looked for food wherever it was, and the goats in particular were particularly capable of reaching the most inaccessible grasses. Thus, goats and horses, cows and sheep, as well as donkeys were always present on the islands of the archipelago, supervised by slaves and salary workers employed by the owner. Meat, milk, leather and tallow are the subproducts of livestock that contributed to the Cape Verdean economy.
While cattle was reared intensively on the islands of Fogo and Santiago and accompanied by agriculture, on the islands of the north (Santo Antão, São Vicente, São Nicolau, Santa Luzia, ilhéus Raso and Má Sombra), the east (Sal, Boavista and Maio), and Brava, cattle rearing was extensive and in the hands of feitores (trading authority superintendents) who contracted salaried workers (hunters, skinners, and people to prepare leather, tallow and chacina (cured meat)) in the sezão (slaughter season), bringing large shipments of skins and tallow, as well as some chacina (cured meat), to Europe, Africa and even South America and the United States.
Due to the role of Ribeira Grande as a very important commercial staging post in the 15th and 16th Centuries, cattle raising became an absolute necessity from the start. It stocked the innumerable ships that docked there with live animals or salted or dried meat,and supplied horses, which were exported to the African coast and to Portugal, as well as a tanning industry, which thrived and exported to Madeira and the metropolis.
While the unirrigated lands in Cape Verde brought great problems for agricultural production due to the lack of rains, livestock did not deter at such intractable difficulties. Once cattle had been established in the islands, even in the deserts, it looked for food wherever it was, and the goats in particular were particularly capable of reaching the most inaccessible grasses. Thus, goats and horses, cows and sheep, as well as donkeys were always present on the islands of the archipelago, supervised by slaves and salary workers employed by the owner. Meat, milk, leather and tallow are the subproducts of livestock that contributed to the Cape Verdean economy.
While cattle was reared intensively on the islands of Fogo and Santiago and accompanied by agriculture, on the islands of the north (Santo Antão, São Vicente, São Nicolau, Santa Luzia, ilhéus Raso and Má Sombra), the east (Sal, Boavista and Maio), and Brava, cattle rearing was extensive and in the hands of feitores (trading authority superintendents) who contracted salaried workers (hunters, skinners, and people to prepare leather, tallow and chacina (cured meat)) in the sezão (slaughter season), bringing large shipments of skins and tallow, as well as some chacina (cured meat), to Europe, Africa and even South America and the United States.
