land, house and production. land distribution in the Capitaincy of Rio Grande in 1614

Land freely given to settlers, provided that they meet some requirements, was a process that marked colonial history of Brazil. A typical case, whose interest lies in the fact that it concerns the beginning of colonization, can be seen through the analysis of the “auto de repartição de terras” of the Captaincy of Rio Grande. The analysis of this important document, written in 1614, exactly 400 years ago, led to the understanding of this process in the former Captaincy, now State of Rio Grande do Norte, in its very beginning. The article, divided in three major parts - plus the introduction, the conclusion and a presentation of the document itself - analyzes rural land distribution (the land), urban land distribution (the house) - in the latter case for the only existing colonial urban settlement, Natal, allowing us to unveil, as much as possible, how was the town – and finally the production, that is, what the rural land so distributed yielded or could yield to settlers.