The Rego Barros Family: a Century in the Ombudsman’s Office of the Royal Exchequer of Pernambuco, Brazil (1675-1770)

ABSTRACT In 1675, the Rego Barros family bought the property of the Ombudsman’s Office of the Royal Exchequer of Pernambuco, where they had been Customs judges for the preceding century. This article analyzes the socioeconomic impact that the purchase of this office property and its exercise had on the Rego Barros family. The office made the family responsible for supervising all the interests of the Royal Exchequer and provided a good - if sometimes illicit - source of income that enabled the family’s social ascension. The trajectory of the Rego Barros family was directly associated with the fiscal and tax administration of the Captaincy of Pernambuco, and should therefore not be analyzed separately. For that reason, this paper cross-checks information from various sources, especially those from the Overseas Historical Archive (AHU) and from the Historical Documents of the National Library of Rio de Janeiro (DH).