The doctor José Pires de Carvalho e Albuquerque

a finished model of ascending social trajectory in the context of the Old Regime in colonial Bahia

Abstract

This paper present the trajectory of upward social mobility of a member of the political and economic elite of Bahia in the 18th century. We start from the premise that there was in the portuguese América the possibility of social reproduction typical of the reinol society. Based on an analytical key that fomented the Old Regime category in the tropics without, however, denying the existence of the asymmetric relationship between the colony and the metropolis, it was possible for individuals rooted in the colony to see themselves as members of the same imperial dimension, and seek to reproduce in America the distinctive symbols of social hierarchy present in the societies of the Old European Regime. To do so, we used as a case study the upward social trajectory of José Pires de Carvalho Albuquerque, a powerful member of the 18th century Bahian elite.