Coutinho, Rodrigo Domingos Antonio de Sousa (1755–1812)

Rodrigo Domingos Antonio de Sousa Coutinho (b. 3 August 1755; d. 26 January 1812), first count of Linhares (1808) and a Portuguese diplomat. From a noble family of important court and state functionaries, Coutinho was the son of Francisco Inocêncio de Sousa Coutinho, a governor and captain-general of Angola (1764–1772) and ambassador to Madrid (1774–1780).

After studying at the Nobles' College in Lisbon and at Coimbra University, Coutinho visited France and subsequently served at Turin as minister plenipotentiary from 1779 to 1796. In 1790 he published a discussion of the effects of the mining of precious metals on industry that implied the need for technological innovation in Brazil's Minas Gerais mining industry. Recalled to Lisbon in 1796 to succeed the deceased Martinho de Melo E Castro as state secretary for the navy and colonies, Coutinho developed the concept of a joint Luso-Brazilian imperial economic and political unit, declaring in 1798 that Portugal's vast overseas domains, especially those in the Americas, were the basis of the crown's power and that without them continental Portugal would be reduced to a province of Spain.

After a term as president of the treasury (1801–1803), Coutinho left Lisbon in October 1807 with the regent João and the court and government when the capital was transferred to Rio de Janeiro to escape French armies invading Portugal. In Brazil he served as secretary of state for foreign affairs and war (1808–1812) and advised the regent on the negotiations leading to the three Anglo-Portuguese treaties of February 1810, which opened Brazilian ports to international trade and committed the Portuguese never to establish a tribunal of the Inquisition in the New World.

See alsoInquisition: Brazil .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Marquez Do Funchal, O conde de Linhares: Dom Rodrigo Domingos António de Sousa Coutinho (1908).

Maria Beatriz Nizza Da Silva, "O império Luso-Brasileiro, 1750–1820," in Nova história da expansão portuguesa, edited by Joel Serrão and Antônio Henrique de Oliveira Marques, vol. 8 (1986).

José Luís Cardoso, O pensamento econômico em Portugal nos finais do século XVIII, 1780–1808 (1989).

Additional Bibliography

Raposo, Luciano. "Das arcas coloniais ao Palácio de Queluz: Dilemas luso-brasileiros no governo da fazenda real nas memórias do Códice 807." Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro 163 (July-September 2002): 67-127.

Silva, Andrée Mansuy Diniz. Portrait d'un homme d'état, D Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho, comte de Linhares, 1755–1812: Les anées de formation, 1755–1796. Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian; Paris: Centre culturel Calouste Gulbenkian; Paris: Commission nationale pour les commémorations des découvertes portugaises, 2003.

Silva, Andrée Mansuy Diniz. Portrait d'un homme d'état, D Rodrigo de Souza Coutinho, comte de Linhares, 1755–1812: L'homme d'état, 1796–1812. Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian; Paris: Centre culturel Calouste Gulbenkian; Paris: Commission nationale pour les commémorations des découvertes portugaises, 2006.

                                             David Higgs