New documents from judicial archives
allow to understand better the organization
of travels from Normandy ports to Brazil.
Departures usually took place in autumn
or early winter, with returns taking place
during the summer. To reduce the risks and
escape the Portuguese fleets, ships travelled
in convoys, often from three to five ships
whose characteristics can be presented through
several construction contracts kept in notarial
registers. Those expeditions required large
capital raised by merchants from Rouen.
Among them, there are several families
of Spanish origin who could sometimes
associate with investors from Paris, Lyon, or
Champagne. The quantities of Brazilwood
brought back to Normandy were considerable.
Some of these goods were returned to Paris,
La Rochelle and Antwerp, Rouen being a first‑rate
international warehouse. Brazilwood was
used as a dye product but also in architecture,
notably at the Château de Fontainebleau
(François Ist favourite residence), as well as in
the manufacture of furniture or small luxury
items. These new sources finally show that
the Verrazzano brothers’ expeditions did not
open the road to Brazil to French merchants,
but that these exchanges began much earlier,
even if an acceleration of this traffic is likely
during the 1520s.
