São Tomé e Principe - Portuguese Colony
Long after the more developed and industrialized states of Europe had decolonized, Portugal maintained its narrow centralized form of rule––from Mozambique to Angola in the south and from Guinea-Bissau in the west to the Atlantic archipelagos of Cape Verde and São Tomé and Príncipe. The Lisbon regime’s official justification was that Portugal’s five-hundred-year presence in Africa was part of a sacred national vocation. Portugal, in was claimed, was not a “colonial power” –– or even, in a sense, a “European” one; it was a “pluricontinental” entity defined by language, culture, and history. There was no empire, just “one state, single and indivisible” (um estado, uno e indivisível) parts of which were “overseas provinces” (províncias ultramarinas). This semi-mystical doctrine of “lusotropicalism” asserted that Portugal’s unique history and culture enabled it to transcend its continental limits to spread across the non-European world.
In the 1490s sugar plantations were established on the islands of São Tomé and Principé. The Portuguese settlers on these islands used slaves bought from the Kongo traders to work on these plantations. Very soon São Tomé became the largest producer of sugar for Europe. When Brazil became a Portuguese colony in the 1530s, the demand for slaves to work on the sugar plantations established there increased. São Tomé became an important holding station for slaves before they left on the trans-Atlantic voyage to South America.
Under the Portuguese the two islands formed one province under a Governor whose head-quarters was at the town of Anna de Chaves (sometimes simply called St. Thomas). Principe was under a Lieutenant-Governor (administrador). The Governor was assisted by a Council. The Courts of Justice were subordinate to the District Courts at Luanda.
The system of indentured labor or apprentice (servital) system, introduced for the cultivation of cocoa in place of slave labor, was most objectionable. It was most injurious to the countries where recruitment took place, viz. Angola, parts of the Congo State, and north-west Rhodesia. In theory the indentured laborers were ransomed captives of native chiefs, but though in San Thome itself, as a rule, the servitaes were well treated, the system grew into something indistinguishable from slavery, and had to be abandoned after much energetic criticism, from Great Britain in particular. Since 1911 matters improved. Recruitment under the old conditions stopped, and free labor was obtained from Mozambique for good wages. The repatriation of the older servitaes was gradual, but seemed, on the whole, to be proceeding steadily at the time of the Great War.
There were primary schools for both sexes in the chief town of each island. Special schools were also maintained on the principal cocoa estates, at the expense of their owners, for the servital children. Some of these were well equipped, and reached a creditable standard as primary schools.
In both islands the most notable feature is the pre dominance of large estates. Out of the total area of cultivated land, 76 percent belonged to individual owners of large estates, and 24 percent to companies essentially Portuguese. Nearly half of the island of Principe was owned by a single company, the Sociedade d' Agricultura Coloniail. The Conipanhia da Ilha do Principe had its largest estates upon San Thome, and produced nearly about 2,500 metric tons of cocoa. The biggest private estate, that of the Marquez de Valleflor, produced 3,500 metric tons. The owners of the larger private plantations lived in Lisbon and administered their property through agents in San Thome. The betterplaced cocoa plantations, during the years preceding the outbreak of the Great War, paid a dividend of 12-15 percent., the inferior ones only 5-6 percent.
Real estate in the islands was held on a tenure described by a Portuguese authority on colonial affairs as perhaps unique. The title-deeds of the properties lent themselves to anything. They usually only defined the frontages, making no mention of boundaries, or they may go so far as to indicate the front and back boundaries of the estate, the latter being described by the con ventional formula, "as far as the nearest neighbor". Thns two neighbours whose lands met or crossed, as frequently happened, found themselves in disagreement. Since the 1880s a cadastral survey of the island was made, but there was no attempt to carry out a revenue survey which, by compelling the registration of titles and plans, would enable the Governn1ent to assess the lands for taxation, as was the rule in Portugal and in other Portuguese colonies. This obligation had been evaded or postponed by the expedient of imposing a special surtax on exports in lieu of a land-rate upon rural properties. Meanwhile, many of the European proprietors whose estates were conterminous demarcated their joint boundaries, presumably to their own satisfaction.
The shallow seas surrounding the islands had an abundance of fish, many species being edible and of exccllcnt quality. But as the native of San Thome and Prii1cipc declined to catch more thnn required for his own consumption, the fishing industry was restricted to the small colony, numbering about 2,000 souls, known as the Angolares. The large demand for salt fish which existed in San Thome, as in every Portuguese colony, might be met locally, and the heavy cost of importing Newfoundland and Iceland salted cod be confined to those whose means justified the luxury. Turtles were abundant on the coast, and there was the beginning of a trade in tortoise-shell, which might easily be further developed. The sperm whale was frequently to be seen off the islands. Whaling in these waters before the Great War was the monopoly of a German company operating from the Angolan coast.
All the estates imported goods for their own requirements, independently of the town merchants, whose trade was thus, for the most part, confined to the townsfolk and the native islanders. The shopkeeping of the islands was exclusively in Portuguese hands. Municipal markets existed for the sale of dairy and market-garden produce, but almost all the estates were self-supporting in this respect. A few Chinese, who came to the island as coolies and chose to remain there, were still making a living in this way, but there was little rom for expansion, though vegetables quite up to the European standard of quality were raised with ease.
The Centro Colonial de Lisboa was an association of persons directly or indirectly interested in the island trade and agriculture, which met monthly for the discussion of business and general policy, undertaking snch representations to Government as may be necessary. It publishef a useful Boletim of its transactions, with much matter, not to be found readily elsewhere, relating to the cocoa trade of the colony.
Foreign interests may almost be said not to exist, the only exceptions being found in Monte Rosa, an estate of 500 hectares under cocoa, owned by M. Celestin Palanque (French), and Amparo, a Belgian cocoa estate of 5,000 hectares, controlled by the Banque de Reports de Fonds Publics et de Depots, which bad its head office in Antwerp. In 1907 a German syndicate with a great backing of capital tried to secure a number of plantations in San Thome, and in 1912 an English syndicate tried to do the same in both islands. Both enterprises collapsed in face of the excessive purchase prices demanded by the Portuguese owners.
Germany had no doubt succeeded in making some headway before the Great War, partly through friendly Portuguese agencies and partly through German firms established in Lisbon. Of the latter thechief were O. Herold & Co., and Martin Weinstein & Co. Herold & Co. employed able Portuguese experts in tropical agriculture to visit the islands and push the sale of their products, which consisted of chemical manures and preparations for combating parasitic diseases of plants. Their pamphlet literature on these subjects was excellent and exhaustive. On the outbreak of the Great War this house was placed under a Portuguese administrator nominated by the Government, and the services of its expertswere released for national work. It was subsequently liquidated by direction of the Portuguese Government.
Weinstein & Co. proceeded differently. They established friendly relations with the leading planters on principle, even though they had nothing to make out of them directly. In the case of the smaller estate owners, or those temporarily embarrassed, they made a practice of buying crops in advance, and, if necessary, of lending money on liberal terms upon anticipated harvests, renewing these loans if desired, and thus keeping a large section of the community in permanent debt to them. Their gains were enormous, it being reported that in the years 1911 to 1913 they were making about £40,000 per annum. When Germany declared war upon Portugal in 1916, the house was placed under administration ; and th Weinsteins, uncle and nephew, left the country for Spain. They were understood to have acquired a large holding in at least one of the agricultural companies of the islands, but this interest was under the control of the Government administrator.
Gern1an houses, in whose hands was much of the pre-war trade, did not confine themselves to pushing the sale of German-made goods ; on the contrary, the German traveller, invariably fluent in Portuguese, and familiar with the tastes and weaknesses of his customers, would exhibit quite impartially what he styled 'the genuine British article' side by side with 'the cheap German imitation'. Those who preferred the former might have it - at the price it bore on the label ; those to whom the latter commended itself might take it similarly. As for himself and his house, they were indifferent so long as their clients were pleased ; their profit was the same either way.
This form of business appealed strongly to the local Portuguese, both for its humor from their point of view, and for its mark:ed contrast with British and American ways of trading. The British plan of sending circulars and catalogues only played into German hands, as those who received them instead of the visit of a friendly commercial traveller, simply brought them to the German representative with a request for explanation and as a means of describing th article they themselves wanted. Of course any order that was given on the basis of the English catalogue went to the German representative. As for American goods, a certain amount of machinery for the plantations found its way to the islands from time to time.
The islands suffered a serious handicap in the fact that so much of their surplus revenue, which might be usefully applied to local purposes, is appropriated to make good the deficits in other Portuguese colonies, such as Angola. If industry was to be further developed, the traditional contempt for work displayed by the natives of the islands must be overcome by education or other means of persuasion. The existing system of relying almost entirely on imported contract labor has many disadvantages, one of which was that it discourages many minor industries that elsewhere were classed as domestic. The time and energies of an imported hand were too valuable to be thus employed, when tried and tested sources of profit on a large scale claimed all attention.
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