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Abstract
This paper proposes that we can learn from past experience how specific contexts can explain specific public–private interfaces and the corporate governance rules ascribed to them, and so inform debate about modern ventures of this type. To this end, the paper explores the ‘public–private partnership’ of the Portuguese Companhia Geral de Comércio de Pernambuco e Paraíba (CGPP – General Company of Pernambuco and Paraíba) founded in 1759 by the Pombal government. Based on archival sources, and considering the social, economic and political context, the study helps to enhance understanding of how the Portuguese enlightened despotic regime developed and connected the empire through a corporatist interface with a private company.
Acknowledgements
This research was financed by national funds through FCT -- Foundation for Science and Technology by the Project PEst-OE/EGE/UI4021/2011.
Notes
1. The archives used in this article were:
Archives départementales de la Gironde, France (ADG);
Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino, Pernambuco (AHU);
British Library (BL);
National Library, Lisbon (NLL);
Portuguese National Archive Torre do Tombo (ANTT).
2. Since the term, ‘public–private partnership’ seems to date from the 1980s, it is only used in this paper when we refer to present-day public–private partnerships; or it is used within inverted commas to draw attention to possible anachronism. The terms ‘public–private interface’ or ‘public–private mixing’ are used when we refer to the analysis period. Wettenhall (‘Mixes’) also argues that the term public–private partnership should be avoided even today since it is nebulous and ill-defined.
3. In 1750, Sebastião José de Carvalho e Mello was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs and War. He is better known by the title he acquired in 1769, the Marquis of Pombal. Hereafter, we refer to him simply as Pombal. In 1756, Pombal became Chief Minister of Portugal.
4. Screpanti and Zamagni, An Outline of the History, 32.
5. Conseil d'Etat du Roi (1756), ‘Arrêt du Conseil d'Etat du Roi relatif à la Carte générale de la France, 1756’, C 2411, ADG.
6. Carreira, As companhias pombalinas de Grão-Parà.
7. Maxwell, Pombal: Paradox of the Enlightenment.
8. Schneider, O Marquês de Pombal, 209.
9. Pombal, Rellação dos gravames, paragraph 19.
10. Pombal, Carta ao Cardeal da Mota.
11. Arruda, ‘A circulação’; Serrão, História de Portugal.
12. Schwartz, ‘De ouro a algodão’, 93.
13. Boxer, O Império colonial Português.
14. Bellotto, ‘O estado Português’, 277.
15. Toms and Wilson, ‘Scale, Scope and Accountability’.
16. Wettenhall, ‘Public–Private Mixes’.
17. Wettenhall, ‘The Rhetoric and Reality’, 77, 87.
18. Wettenhall, ‘Public–Private Mixes’.
19. Wettenhall, ‘Mixes and Partnerships’.
20. Lufkin, ‘Business and the New Federalism’.
21. Wettenhall, ‘Mixes and Partnerships’.
22. NAO, The Failure of Metronet.
23. Cuttaree and Mandri-Perrott, Public–Private Partnerships, ix.
24. Dachs, ‘PPP Models’.
25. Dahdal, ‘The Dissolution’.
26. Stallard, ‘Private Sector Participation’.
27. Reeves, ‘Public–Private Partnerships’.
28. Cuttaree and Mandri-Perrott, Public–Private Partnerships.
29. Wettenhall, ‘The Rhetoric and Reality’; ‘The Public–Private Interface’; ‘ActewAGL’; Hodge, ‘Public Private Partnerships’; Hodge and Greve, ‘Public–Private Partnerships’; Hodge et al., International Handbook.
30. Van Ham and Koppenjan, ‘Public–Private Partnership’, 598.
31. Hodge and Greve, ‘Public–Private Partnerships’.
32. Lindner, ‘Coming to Terms’.
33. Reside, Global Determinants.
34. Savas, Privatization.
35. Hodge and Greve, ‘Public–Private Partnerships’.
36. Wettenhall, ‘The Rhetoric and Reality’.
37. Wettenhall, ‘Public–Private Mixes’, 129.
38. Ibid.
39. Hodge and Greve, ‘Public–Private Partnerships’.
40. Wettenhall, ‘The Rhetoric and Reality’; ‘The Public–Private Interface’.
41. Wettenhall, ‘The Public–Private Interface’.
42. Hodge and Greve, ‘Public–Private Partnerships’, 545.
43. Marques, História de Portugal; Maxwell, Pombal; Serrão, O Marquês de Pombal.
44. Ratton, ‘Recordaçoens de Jacome Ratton’, 179–80.
45. Pedreira, Os homens de negócio, 159–60.
46. Maxwell, Pombal.
47. Pombal, Carta ao Cardeal da Mota.
48. Rodrigues & Craig, ‘English Mercantilist Influences’.
49. Rodrigues et al., ‘The Portuguese School of Commerce’,
50. Rodrigues et al., ‘Corporate Governance Regulations’.
51. AHU – Pernambuco: AHU_ACL_CU_015, box 84, Documents 6948 and 6965; box 83, Document 6913.
52. Rodrigues et al., ‘Corporate Governance Regulations’.
53. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro n°1 do Registo dos Decretos, Alvarás e Leis pertencentes à Junta da Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraíba’, sheet 6 and following pages.
54. Pombal, Ignácio Pedro Quintela, and Anselmo José da Cruz were also shareholders of the Grão Pará and Maranhão General Company (CGPM).
55. AHU – Pernambuco: AHU_ACL_CU_015, box 94, Document 7481.
56. See, for example, Dachs, ‘PPP Models’; Marin, ‘Public–Private Partnerships’.
57. Serrão and Marques, Nova história, 161.
58. The general statutes and the charter are available at the British Library (‘Instituição da Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraíba, 1795’, Lisboa: Na Off. De Antonio Rodrigues Galhardo, 1572/1006.) The specific statutes for the government of the company (Portuguese Government, ‘Estatutos particulares, ou Directorio economico, para o governo interior da Companhia Geral de Pernambuco, e Paraíba, ordenado por Sua Magestade, e confirmado pelo seu alvará de 7 de Janeiro de 1760’) can also be found at the British Library, 710.k.3.(8).
59. Marcos, As companhias pombalinas.
60. The symbol § represents the term, ‘paragraph’.
61. The monetary unit was a real (plural réis, and abbreviated to rs.). To indicate 1000 réis, a $ was written, followed by three zeros. Thus, 2000 réis was written as 2$000. A million réis was written using a colon (:). Thus, 5,000,000 réis was 5:000$000. One cruzado was worth 400 réis. Tables presented by Mata and Valério (História Económica), and considering the change of currency that occurred in 2000 plus the inflation rates, permit us to understand the relationship between réis in 1745 and their conversion into euros in 2000; approximately 25 réis in 1745 were the equivalent of €1 in 2000. One thousand réis were equivalent to approximately €39, and one million to €39,000.
62. Marcos, As companhias pombalinas.
63. The association of this company with CGPM and the Army is clear in §37: the mills to grind wheat and ovens could be shared by the three of them. In a certain way, the statutes were establishing the public interest of the three entities.
64. Managed directly by the Crown, the Zebro Valley complex consisted of 27 ovens to bake biscuits, wheat warehouses, ports and a tide mill – known as the King's mill, the largest mill of the region – as well as vast areas of pine forest surrounding it. It was created by King Afonso V, and was comparable to an existing one in Lisbon, Fornos da Porta da Cruz. Together they provided all the necessary biscuits for maritime enterprise and the expansion of discovery. With the earthquake of Lisbon in 1755, Vale de Zebro was practically destroyed and the whole complex was rebuilt, ( http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vale_de_Zebro).
65. Bovaird, ‘Public–Private Partnerships’.
66. Marcos, As companhias pombalinas.
67. Rodrigues et al., ‘Corporate Governance Regulations’.
68. Marcos, As companhias pombalinas.
69. Flinders, ‘The Politics of Public–Private Partnerships’.
70. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Copiador de Pernambuco’, no. 1, sheet 163.
71. § XXXXI, specific statutes; ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro de Registo das ordens que expedir a Junta da Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraíba’, Book 402, sheets 15 and v.
72. § XXXXII specific statutes; ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro de termos de Posse dos Lugares da Junta da Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraíba’, Book 401, sheets 1 and following pages.
73. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro do registo das ordens que expedir a Junta da Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraíba’, Book 402, sheet 7.
74. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro 1° das Consultas, Representações e Informação’, Book 400, sheet 27.
75. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro do registo das ordens que expedir a Junta da Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraíba’, Book 402, sheet 8.
76. Ibid.
77. Ibid., sheet 33.
78. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro 1° das Consultas, Representações e Informação’, Book 400, sheets 56–8.
79. Ibid., sheets 47 and 48.
80. Ibid., Consulta de 20 de Novembro de 1761, sheets 15–15v.
81. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro das Meyas Accoes’, no. 1, sheet 22.
82. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Copiador do Porto’, no. 1, sheet 69.
83. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro 1° das Consultas, Representações e Informação’, Book 400, sheets 64–5.
84. Ibid., sheet 77.
85. See, for example, ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro 1° de registo de decreto, alvarás, leis’, Book 397, sheet 47.
86. Ibid., ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro 1° de registo de decreto, alvarás, leis’, Book 397, sheet 48.
87. see, for example, ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro do registo das ordens que expedir a Junta da Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraíba’, Book 402, sheet 23.
88. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro 1° de registo de decreto, alvarás, leis’, Book 397, sheet 56.
89. ANTT, ‘Livro 1° das Consultas, Representações e Informação’, Book 400, sheet 46.
90. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro 1° de registo de decreto, alvarás, leis’, Book 397, sheet 50.
91. ANTT, ‘Livro para registar cartas, alvarás, e patentes passadas aos oficiais da Junta da Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraíba’, Book 404, sheet 28.
92. Carey, Slavery Timeline.
93. Pearson and Richardson, ‘Social Capital’.
94. Due to bad travel conditions, many slaves died during the trip, resulting in losses to the company on these ventures.
95. Saraiva, Companhia Geral de Pernambuco e Paraíba.
96. Carreira, As companhias.
97. ANTT, ‘Livro 1° das Consultas, Representações e Informação’, Book 400, sheets 33–6.
98. Ribeiro, Colonização e monopólio.
99. Portuguese Government, ‘Portugal, Laws and Decrees 1763–1797’, Charter, 21 June 1766, Charter, 31 August 1768, DG, 1. BL.
100. Ratton, ‘Recordaçoens de Jacome Ratton’, 202.
101. Ibid.
102. Rodrigues and Craig, ‘English Mercantilist Influences’.
103. Ibid.
104. ANTT, CGPP, ‘Livro 1° das Consultas, Representações e Informação’, Book 400, sheets 159–60.
105. Ibid., sheet 177.
106. See his treatise, Rellação dos gravames, written in 1741.
107. See, for example, Bourdieu, ‘The Forms of Capital’; Ojala and Luoma-aho, ‘Stakeholder Relations’.
108. Pombal, Carta ao Cardeal da Mota.
109. Wettenhall, ‘Public–Private Mixes’.
110. Lindner, ‘Coming to Terms’.
111. Pombal, Rellação dos gravames.
112. Pombal (ibid.) discusses matters about which merchants needed instruction: for example, weights and measures (para. 51); double entry accounting (paras. 53–4); arithmetic (para. 56); and foreign currencies and prices, oriental ports, taxes and tariffs (para. 57). Pombal's ideas were instrumental in the development of the curriculum of the School of Commerce that he established in Lisbon in 1759 (Rodrigues and Craig, ‘English Mercantilists’).
113. Pedreira, Os homens de negócio.
114. Marcos, As companhias pombalinas; Rodrigues et al., ‘Corporate Governance Regulations’.
115. Jessop, ‘The Rise of Governance’.