O Processo de Arrematação de Obras Públicas e Religiosas nas Minas Gerais Setecentistas: um estudo sistematizado

Abstract

The contracting of public or religious works in the colonial period took place through a careful auction process. The laws that regulated construction in Portugal were adapted to the molds and customs of the colony. In this way, whenever there was demand for the construction of a church, a bridge, a fountain, a public building, or even for the making of a painting or the execution of a sculpture, there were laws, coming from the Kingdom, which stipulated how contractors should proceed, from the choice of craftsmen and materials to be used in the work, to the forms of payment, deadlines and inspections to be carried out. In this article, I seek to clarify how the process of auctioning public and religious works worked in the colonial period of Minas Gerais, I also try to show how the two main contractors of the period, which were the Religious Associations and the Senate of the Chamber, behaved at each stage of this process.