The imports of Brazilwood in Normandy during the first half of the sixteenth century

Abstract

New documents from judicial archives allow to understand better the organization of travels from Normandy ports to Brazil. Departures usually took place in autumn or early winter, with returns taking place during the summer. To reduce the risks and escape the Portuguese fleets, ships travelled in convoys, often from three to five ships whose characteristics can be presented through several construction contracts kept in notarial registers. Those expeditions required large capital raised by merchants from Rouen. Among them, there are several families of Spanish origin who could sometimes associate with investors from Paris, Lyon, or Champagne. The quantities of Brazilwood brought back to Normandy were considerable. Some of these goods were returned to Paris, La Rochelle and Antwerp, Rouen being a first‑rate international warehouse. Brazilwood was used as a dye product but also in architecture, notably at the Château de Fontainebleau (François Ist favourite residence), as well as in the manufacture of furniture or small luxury items. These new sources finally show that
the Verrazzano brothers’ expeditions did not open the road to Brazil to French merchants, but that these exchanges began much earlier, even if an acceleration of this traffic is likely during the 1520s.