ABSTRACT
Pursuing greater economic returns from their colony, the Portuguese colonial administration sought to extend their control inland in the late nineteenth century, and to partially transform the subsistence economy. Schemes were introduced to develop cash crops for export and to create a local market for Portuguese goods produced within the closed mercantile colonial system (Taylor 1999: 10-12). These developments coincided with the administrative status of the territory transitioning from a dependency of Goa or Macau, to an autonomous district of Macau in 1896, and to a separate colony in 1908 (Durand 2006: 52). Reforms under Governor Celestinho da Silva between 1894 and 1908 saw the establishment of the state agricultural company, Society, Agriculture, Fatherland and Labour (Sociedade Agrícola, Pátria e Trabalho – SAPT), the development of coffee plantations in Ermera, and improved road infrastructure to facilitate the internal traffic of goods (Hill 2002: 8). Da Silva’s legacy also included a network of newer forts as resistance to new measures increased, with much of the west of Portuguese Timor in rebellion in 1895 (Durand 2006: 163). SAPT would go on to become one of the largest landholders on the island. These measures improved the ability of military forces to travel throughout the island, and raised the possibility – though by no means the reality – of a more integrated colonial economy. The da Silva era also fostered the companhias de moradores (troops of the second line), a practice that continued for the remainder of the colonial era. Despite these efforts, Governor da Silva’s view remained pessimistic. In a comment cited with approval by Governor Fontoura in 1942, he concluded that because the colony would never generate great commercial wealth for Lisbon, it was better to ‘adopt a system of colonisation tending to make the Timorese good Portuguese’ (da Fontoura 1942: 21).
