Founded in 1755 by the Marquês de Pombal as part of the Pombaline reforms to develop and control trade in the State of Grão-Pará e Maranhão, in colonial Brazil.50 Received a 20-year monopoly on the region's foreign trade, including the African slave trade, crucial for local plantations after the abolition of indigenous slavery.50 Employees were considered to be in the service of the Portuguese Crown, answering directly to Lisbon.50 The company exponentially increased the volume of trade between the region and Portugal, which was previously small.50 Merchant ships departed from Belém on triangular trade routes, transporting rice, cotton, cocoa, ginger, wood, medicinal plants, and African enslaved people between Brazil, Africa, and Portugal.50 Between 1755 and 1778, it transported 28,083 African enslaved people to Brazil.50 The monopoly generated resentment among local elites 50, and the company was the target of conspiracies.52 Corrupt agents of the company aggravated a deadly famine in Cape Verde (1773-4) by selling scarce food to passing ships for personal profit.50 It was extinguished in 1778 by order of Queen Maria I, after the fall of Pombal.50