Board for Agricultural Improvement of Madeira and Porto Santo
Original title: Junta de Melhoramentos da Agricultura das Ilhas da Madeira e Porto Santo
A board created in 1810 to promote agriculture in Madeira and Porto Santo, especially by leasing out common wastelands, and to remedy damage from the 1803 flood; it met first only in 1813 and was abolished in 1821.
This body was created by the royal letter (carta régia) of 20 July 1810. Dr Rodrigues de Azevedo states that its creation was inspired by the Instructions on agriculture which the corregedor (royal district magistrate) Dr Veloso de Oliveira (see that entry) left recorded at the Council of Calheta (‘small cove’). Its purpose was not only to protect and develop farming in general but also, in particular, to promote the cultivation of the common lands (baldios) by dividing them into leaseholds, thereby extending the area of arable land and making productive the many plots that lay waste and barren. This measure, which was reinforced by the royal decree (alvará régio) of 18 September 1811, was also intended to remedy some of the damage that the terrible flash flood (aluvião) of 1803 had caused to Madeiran agriculture.
Despite the well-founded hopes that the creation of the Junta raised in many people, and the pressing ills it had been called upon to combat, the Governor and Captain-General Luís Beltrão de Gouveia e Almeida did not convene the first meeting of this body until early December 1813, that is, three years after it had been created! We do not know how long it operated, and we believe that the services it rendered to Madeiran agriculture were nil. This Junta was abolished in 1821.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 04-
The great flood of 9 October 1803, considered Madeira's greatest calamity, devastated Funchal and other parts of the island, killing about 600 people and destroying the Calhau church, stream walls, bridges and chapels in Machico, Santa Cruz and elsewhere. It prompted Oudinot's mission and the city's spread outwards.
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A royal letter created the Junta de Melhoramentos da Agricultura for Madeira and Porto Santo, supplemented by a royal charter in September 1811.
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Governor Luís Beltrão de Gouveia e Almeida convened the first meeting of the Junta de Melhoramentos da Agricultura of Madeira and Porto Santo.
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The Junta de Melhoramentos da Agricultura of Madeira and Porto Santo was abolished.
Place
Places mentioned · 03
- Calheta
Its council held Veloso de Oliveira's agricultural instructions.
Calheta is a town and municipality in western Madeira, created by royal charter of 1 July 1502. It later became the seat of a countship granted to the captains of Funchal and was reorganised as a concelho in 1835.
- Porto Santo
Island included in the Junta's remit.
An island of the archipelago, settled alongside Madeira and forming one of the three captaincies. It has always constituted a single parish, dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, whose church was repeatedly sacked. The Elucidário records the Moorish pirate raid of 1617, its own Misericórdia and a rainwater channel built on this drought-prone island.
People
People mentioned · 03- Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo1825–1898
Madeiran scholar cited as saying the Junta was inspired by Veloso de Oliveira's agricultural instructions.
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Corregedor whose instructions on agriculture, left at the Calheta council, inspired the Junta's creation.
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Governor and captain-general of Madeira who only convened the Junta's first meeting in December 1813.