This essay examines the creditors' property rights in the Ancient Regime under the perspective of Pernambuco and Paraíba Trade Company business practices in northern captaincies. It explores the trajectory of a foreign family, the Lumachi, who moved to Pernambuco in the 1760s, as well as the matrimony alliances of this family with members of the local elite. It is sustained that adequate approach of property rights issues needs to put the one who exerts theses rights in the political and economic context, in order to recompose creditors and debtors strategies, as well as evaluate how effective the legal rights are.
indebtedness; Pombaline policies; colonial elites.