The writings of João Rodrigues de Brito (1807): a picture of the new ideas in the Ibero-American world

Abstract

In order to contribute to the reconstruction of the intellectual history of the formation of the Brazilian National State, this article analyzes the writings of João Rodrigues de Brito, produced in Bahia in 1807. Expression of "new ideas" that emerged in the intellectual scene of the Ibero-American universe in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, these writings reveal the realization that the problems and obstacles faced by the colonial economy originated in the excessive intervention of the Portuguese administrative apparatus, which indicates the existence of an important intellectual core responsible for the spread concepts that were the basis for political unrest of that period.