ABSTRACT
Plantations in turn determined the use of the land in the form of large landed estates and large-scale production. According to widespread observations, the abundance and ease of access to fertile lands was one of the main conditions for the development of colonial slavery. The legal frameworks for land appropriation in colonial Brazil derived from Portuguese law at the time, which corresponded to a particular stage of the evolution of feudalism. The dynamics of slavery were not adequate for permanent bonds, but for full alienability of the land. The ownership of large landed estates on its own is insufficient to explain the economic system. The lower the price of the land, the higher the capitalization rate of the revenues obtained from its production. In capitalist countries, an increase in productivity raised the price of the land, while land was depreciated in Brazil during Couty’s time not because of its availability, but because of peculiar effects of the decline of slavery.
