The city as an artifact: what Décimas Urbanas reveal about the decadence in the captaincy of Goiás

Abstract

In the 18th century, gold prospecting was the main factor for the increase of the population of Captaincy of Goiás. This activity occupied part of the highlands and created a network of mining hamlets and roads that connected the colony’s central region from the coastal ports to the western border. Throughout this century, the search for precious metal redesigned this wide territory, intersected by mountains, plateaus and plains, irrigated by rivers, covered with forests and savannas, homeland for several indigenous groups. As gold emerged from rivers and mountains, new settlements were formed. The precious metal, however, didn’t stay in those places – once extracted, it was immediately shipped, with no time to print its promising signs of wealth in urban centers. The fall in gold production, during the 19th century, lead to new economic configurations that supposedly affected the Captaincy with the specter of decadence. In this article, we wish to challenge some of the theme’s paradigms as we assess the traces of decadence in four urban centers of the Captaincy of Goiás: Vila Boa, Pilar, Meia Ponte and
Natividade. They were specifically chosen because they share the same origins in gold mining but also have gone different developments, which created their own characteristics and diversity, reflected in their materiality and social conformation. Through the analys and spatialization of the data extracted from the urban tax Décima Urbana, we may visualize some vestiges of the gold crisis and reveal important aspects related to the social topography of these places.