instructions to the Governor, the instructions arrived in time to free a shipload of planters who were already chained and on board a ship about to sail to Portugal. In 1715 the crown dispatched a new governor and residents of Pernambuco finally felt the troubles were ended, though many families of the colony's elites were ruined.” Pernambuco in the late eighteenth century Sebastião Carvalho José Carvalho e Melo, Marquis of Pombal, was the dominant figure in the history of the Portuguese empire in the late Eighteenth Century. "Portuguese historians contradict one another in their treatment of the powerful prime minister, some praising him as a savior and other damning him as a madman. Brazilian historians have treated him more consistently. They gratefully acknowledge the contributions he made...to the formation of their country." The period is logically divided into the period he was in power and the aftermath of his rule. The age of Pombal (1750–1777) While gold and diamond mining continues up to the current day in the last half of the Eighteenth Century the earliest discoveries, particularly those areas where gold and diamonds were most easily extracted gradually began producing less. Sugar, with its slave labor requirements, remained the best measure of the wealth and well-being of Brazil and particularly Pernambuco. Pombal instituted reforms, such as boards of inspection in 1751, and the planters complained to no avail. But the real problem in the Pernambucan (and Brazilian) sugar industry was a market problem. Too many countries produced sugar in their Caribbean colonies, driving down the price of sugar and inflating the price of slaves. The price of sugar on the market fell sharply between 1750 and 1755. In the mid-1750s a pombaline company was started and with the outbreak of the Seven Years' War in 1756 the price of sugar rose. Although Bahia had consistently outstripped Pernambuco in sugar production after the Dutch incursion, by 1762 it appears Pernambuco, at least temporarily, regained its preeminence in sugar production. Of course, after the war, the price fell once more. While events such as wars in Europe favorably affected Pernambuco, others, such as the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 seemingly had less effect on Pernambuco. The expulsion of the Jesuits (1759) Pombal's hatred of the Jesuits led to their subsequent expulsion but the impact on Pernambuco was less than in other areas with greater concentrations of indigenous peoples. In coastal Pernambuco,