Searching for Modernization-Instruments in the Development of Earth Sciences in Portugal (18th Century)

Abstract

In the 1700s the Portuguese government endorsed a mercantilist vision of the kingdom's wealth based in part on an industrialization process relying on mineral resources. The production cycles of gold and diamonds in colonial Brazil were declining and new methods and instruments were needed to revitalize the mining industry. A new enlightened citizen was required and a reform of institutions took place, namely the University of Coimbra. The Lisbon Academy of Sciences and the Ajuda Museum also favoured scientific studies. The quantification spirit of the time helped support the careful practices used in the analyses of minerals, ores and water. Preparing naturalists to travel in Portugal and her colonies was also a task of the institutions, supplemented by prolonged study periods in reputed European centres to get a better education in earth sciences. Books, instruments, mineralogical collections, models and machines were acquired. Several authors wrote about mineralogy, mining, docimasy and metallurgy, while referring to instruments. The circulation of knowledge and instruments came to be one of the important means for modernization, and determined the use of several instruments, such as the barometer and the balance, while the new programme of education was itself a powerful instrument.