Cacheu and Cape Verde Company
The Cacheu and Cape Verde Company was a Portuguese chartered company created by Portugal and served the colonies of Cacheu and Cape Verde It was created under the economic reforms of Luís de Meneses, 3rd Count of Ericeira under King Peter II.
It succeeded the Company of Cacheu and Rivers and Commerce of Guinea in which its activities ended in 1682, with the same objectives: improve trade with manufactured fabrics, ivory and slaves between the coast of Guinea and Cape Verde and Brazil.
It was created by Alvará Régio on 3 January 1690. A short period of success which later faced slave trade competition with the Spanish Americas between 1696 and 1703. In the same year, the crown had ceased to renew the contract for exploration, as it piled up, which led to the abandonment to the Captaincy of Bissau in 1707 as Fort Bissau was destroyed.
The drop and cessation of the company's activities provoked an economic stagnation in two African territories would only come back to recover decades later with the transfer of its rights to the Grão Pará and Maranhão General Company based in the Portuguese colony in Brazil from 1757 to 1777. During the end of the Pombaline Era, the company became part of the Islands of Cape Verde, Bissau and Cacheu Chartered and Commerce Company which lasted until 1786, it existed until it became the African Coast Trading Company in 1886.
