ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the Portuguese professional bureaucrats, not only as performers of specific political functions but also as dynamic participants in the complex relations that made up Brazilian colonial society. The magistrates who served in Brazil between 1609 and 1759 came from social groups of middle rank. Only in rare and exceptional cases did magistrates who had served earlier in Portuguese India discharge professional duties in Brazil. The influence of the Church pervaded society, and for many Brazilians the parish stood as the most immediate and recognizable institution of organization. Brazil contained various means for creating an extensive “social genealogy’’—the web of both kin and other primary relations. In their search for financial gain and status positions concomitant with their rank, the magisterial bureaucrats in Brazil also created a secondary layer of nonritualized relationships. Tax evasion, graft, faulting on debt payments, and especially misuse of authority were charges often brought against magisterial bureaucrats in Brazil.
