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Maarten Janssen, 2014-

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1672. Carta de Baruch de Abraão da Costa, chantre, para Raquel Barbosa.

Author(s) Baruch de Abraão da Costa      
Addressee(s) Raquel Barbosa      
In English

Letter from Baruch de Abraão da Costa, chanter, to Raquel Barbosa.

The author asks for some favors and thanks the recipient the sending of some goods.

Given the suspicion that the Sephardic communities were trafficking goods and information to the detriment of the English Crown, several ships coming from or going to the Netherlands on their behalf were intercepted. In fact, the provisions in the Cromwell Navigation Acts prohibited the commercial contacts of the English colonies with the Netherlands, Spain, France and their overseas possessions. The proceedings that were initiated, under the guard at the Supreme Court of Admiralty, arose in the context of four moments of great tension between those two powers: the 2nd Anglo-Dutch War (1665-1667); the 3rd Anglo-Dutch War (1672-1674); the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763); and, finally, the 4th Anglo-Dutch War (1781-1784). The documentation found on board and preserved in the archive - private correspondence and cargo records - was taken as documentary evidence of the practice of cargo smuggling at sea. The letters described here are also demonstrative of the quality of the relationships within Sephardic families (Jews and converted), with the existence of strategically distributed social networks: on the one side, the settlers positioned below the Equator, more precisely in one area of the West Indies’ Seven Provinces (in the Caribbean), as part of the Dutch overseas territories; on the other, family and business partners, located in the main ports in the North Atlantic, important centers of financial and commercial activities. Incidentally, in some of these letters we may observe the occurrence of loanwords of English and Dutch origin belonging to the lexical-semantic field of trade relations. Examples of this are “ousove” and “azoes”, for the English “hoshead” or the Dutch “okshoofd”, an ancient measure of volume. In the present case, we have a set of letters that were transported on board the Dutch vessels Het witte Zeepaard, Bijenkorf, Fort Zeeland and Gekroonde Prins. They were coming from the port of Paramaribo and bound for an important and strategic port of the Company of the West Indies - Flushing, in North America - through the Caribbean.

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sra Rachel Barbosa serinão 6 de novbro Agosto 1672 a

A de VM de 6 de novbro Passado Reseby, E estimei as novas q me de sua saude

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E de Pasar Bẽ, inda q trabalho, senpre seja de bẽ e melhor E lhe
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Ds os Bens q Pode e deza saude, q em toda a parte nos conseda Pa
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melhor o servir como devemos; mto cuidado estamos as gue
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rras q p la , Reseosos de q nos alcansẽ, o q Pode nos livre de todo
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mal, E se p contente os q Padesemos, E nos mande de breve
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Boas novas de Paz como lhe pedimos; agardeso o Cuidado E len
[8]
bransa q VM teve no Regalo dos queijos q nos mandou, p ser a
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primra couza q desa Resebi de ninguẽ desde q p ca estamos, não
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deixarei de Reconheselo, E agardeser a boã Vontade avendo oCa
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zião em q Poder mostralo; tão breve a de VM q nos não
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novas nenhũas nẽ suas nẽ do q p la vai, estimarei no las mde
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em Reposta desta, E inda q quizera ser larguo neste Ermo não
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ai de que avizar; Inda q seja darlhe algũ trabalho lhe ei de
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pedir me faça Barrilote de gordura deRetida de 5018:
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suas espesias E sal Para q dure, avendo Paz, Para o q contribuirei
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de ca seo Valor, tendo novas de avelar Perdoando o enfado,
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q não serve de outro, ma Prima E toda a obrigação se lhe Reco
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mendão e eu faço o mesmo, a quẽ Ds goarde vesalom

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[21]
Barũch Da Costa

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