>>19194334Cacao originated in the Amazon River basin.[5][6] In 1641, the Jesuit Cristóbal Acuña noted, referring to wood, cacao, tobacco, and sugar cane: "There are in this great river of the Amazons four things that, if well cultivated, will without a doubt be sufficient to enrich not only one but many kingdoms," and speaking specifically of cacao, he said that "processed, it becomes of so much benefit, that each cacao tree can yield, annually, eight reals of silver, free of any expenses. And one can see how little work is required to cultivate such plants on this river, because, without any artifice, nature alone fills them with abundant fruit."
In 1681, the Portuguese government exempted cacao exports from taxes, however, they only became dominant in the regional economy in the early 18th century. Cacao was the first activity of great economic importance in the Amazon, and its production remained high until it was supplanted by Bahia. But, at this time, it was essentially an extractive activity, harvesting cacao in the wild, rather than having an organized system of plantations.[7] In 1655, there is the first reference of the presence of cacao in southern Bahia.
In 1746, a French colonizer living in Pará, Luiz Frederico Warneau, sent seeds of the "Forastero" variety (from the Amelonado group) to a farmer from Bahia, Antônio Dias Ribeiro, who sowed them in the municipality of Canavieiras. In 1752, the first seeds were planted in Ilhéus and there they adapted to the hot and humid climate, similar to that of its natural habitat, relying on the shade offered by the taller trees of the Atlantic Forest to survive.[8]
Cacao was then envisioned as an alternative for creating export income at a time when sugarcane farming was in crisis, but there was still no technical know-how to foster production efficiently.[9] The beginning of commercial ced dynamis
