Gestion des ressources hydriques et activité minière au Minas Gerais (Brésil) des premières découvertes d'or alluvionnaire à 1736

Abstract

Using an historiography about the concept of water sharing, this paper proposes and analyzes a legal classification of the waters in Minas Gerais (Brazil) during the eighteenth century. Within the mining context, it mainly deals with the legal statutes of waters which were used by minors, that being: “common waters” and “auriferous waters”. The end of the seventeenth century until 1736 marks the period between the first discoveries of alluvial gold and the ultimate reform of auriferous waters sharing. The fundamental stages of water capitalization are stressed at the local scale with the auriferous lands sharing and the taxation systems. Within the recently conquered mining territory of Brazil, the Portuguese Crown had to face two major impediments: the rise of powerful minors and institutional disorder. On the one hand, the powerful minors had represented the water managers class, who had escaped from a centralized administrative control. On the other hand, the constant institutional disorder had caused an increase in wealth for the water masters as well as the misappropriation of gold. Moreover, the regulation of water sharing remained unclear and the breach of power by local authorities was rampant. Therefore, the home country was forced to enact mining legislation and reforms to the local politico-administrative framework, promoting specialized jurisdictions and introducing a multiplicity of peripheral powers. In this way, the issue of water management was spatial, due to the common law of water appropriation, and economic, in relation with the taxation of gold production. Consequently, this specific context of water policy led to important institutional changes within the “fair government” of the colony.