Brazilwood Dye Trade

Timeline

1. 1501–1502East coast of Brazil · Atlantic coastAfter Cabral's 1500 claim of sovereignty, Gonçalves Coelho led a fleet back in 1501 and systematically surveyed the east coast. The fleet reported coastal forests rich in trees yielding a bright red dye whose quality could rival costly Asian samba dyes, and Lisbon promptly regarded the "Land of the True Cross" as a contractable dye-producing region.
2. 1502–1532Fernando de Noronha Island and coastal trading posts · Atlantic islandsIn 1502 Manuel I contracted the Brazil trade to a Lisbon merchant group led by Fernão de Lorono (Noronha), requiring annual voyages, coastal exploration, and construction of forts/trading posts, with payments increasing yearly. Indigenous people bartered to fell, section, and carry the logs, which were gathered at coastal posts and shipped to Lisbon to supply European wool-dyeing workshops. By about 1506 harvests of tens of thousands of dan are recorded.
3. 1532–1550Coast from Pernambuco to Bahia · Northeast coastAfter captaincies and settlements such as São Vicente appeared in the 1530s, sugar was first cultivated, but as late as 1550 brazilwood remained the most stable source of royal revenue under the crown monopoly. French ships from Normandy and elsewhere frequently smuggled redwood, and the Portuguese responded with patrols and garrisons. The log trade depended on indigenous labor and coastal forests, causing localized depletion of forest belts while fixing the dye name "Brazil" as a place name.